Anyone with a remote interest in the fashions and style of the 1960s will know the name Ossie Clark. Even now over twenty years since his death, he is still held up as one of greats to emerge from the UK fashion world. He and his work were certainly central to London being considered the fashion capital of the world at the time. London was certainly swinging and Ossie was swinging harder than most.

Christened Raymond Oswald Clark, he was born in the middle of the Second World War in 1942 in Warrington, Lancashire.

From an early age, it was noted ‘Ossie’ as he became known, had a natural ability in designing and making clothes for his many nieces and nephews.  Gifted a collection of old Vogue magazines, by his art teacher, he would lose himself in them for hours. He was also a keen student of architecture, whose themes, proportion and scale for example, would appear in his later designs.

He attended the Manchester College of Art aged 16 and there he met Celia Birtwell and soon they were in love. He also ran into David Hockney during this time, becoming good friends and rumour has it, lovers.

Ossie graduated from Manchester in 1958, before moving onto the Royal College of Art on a scholarship, later gaining a first in 1965.  His degree show was a triumph, with huge interest in him and his creations from the fashion press and orders from high-end shops.

Celia had moved down to London to be with Ossie and they lived in Notting Hill. Soon her textile designs, with a feel of Art Deco in muted colours were being  used by Ossie in his designs. A dream partnership was born. Each one feeding off the other.

The clothes sold well in Quorum, an exclusive boutique situated in Chelsea, with Clark quickly becoming the in house designer. It was at this time, that he was first mentioned as the UK’s answer to Yves Saint Laurent.

Around this time, his addictive personality came to the fore.  It had begun with prescription drugs in his late teens, but by now he had moved on to the illegal, harder variety.

Meanwhile, the press was all over his flamboyant personality and his designs were keenly sought after by the rich and the famous. Clark pronounced himself a “master cutter. It’s all in my brain and fingers and there’s no one in the world to touch me. I can do everything myself.’ The evidence was there to be seen in his free flowing dresses.

He was influential in other ways too.  His 1967 fashion show for the company Radley, is credited for the look of the fashion shows, as we know them today. Full of innovations, he was the first British designer to feature black models.

Clark by this time was well known internationally and he was feted by the rock world, making clothes for the likes of Marianne Faithful and Mick Jagger, as well as The Beatles.  Later when Bianca married Mick, she wore an Ossie dresss

Ossie and Celia married in 1969 and had two sons, Albert and George. They famously became the couple in the Hockney painting Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy in 1970.

Despite the look on the surface of a contented family man, his drug use was beginning to impact on that, as well as his finances. He admitted he was useless with money and it is said he gave away as many garments as he sold.

They divorced in 1974 in truth, Ossie didn’t really recover from that personally and bankruptcy followed in the 80s.

He ended up in a council flat in Notting Hill and signing on from time to time, when the work dried up, although a few rich clients kept his head above water with private commissions from time to time.

By now, he was leading a predominately gay lifestyle and had turned his back on design work in favour of teaching. One of his pattern cutting students was designer Bella Freud.

Sadly, it was all to end tragically, when he was stabbed to death aged just 54 in 1997 by a former lover, Diego Cogolato

Though he never personally regained the glory days for his work while he was alive, it is acknowledged that his design influence can be found in the work of Dries Van Noten, Christian Lacroix and John Galliano among many others.

His heyday was between 1964 and 1976, and vintage pieces from those times remain highly collectable today.

They are a fitting legacy and testament to life and work of Ossie Clark

The Mumper of SE5