Ossie Clark

Across the pond the fashion pack may be eagerly anticipating the re-launch of disco-tastic label Halston, but here in London attention is firmly focused on the comeback of a thoroughly British brand – Ossie Clark. For those vintage fiends amongst you his name will be synonymous with the swinging sixties; if you’re lucky your mum may have some of his signature floaty frocks squirreled away in the attic, and almost certainly you will have snapped up part of the Topshop range by his long-time collaborator (and wife), Celia Birtwell. But if you’re still a bit vague on the details, let us give you a potted history.

First up, his real name is Raymond but he gets his nickname from the Lancashire village he grew up in, Oswaldtwistle. He studied fashion at the Regional College of Art in Manchester, which is where he met his future wife Celia, along with life long friend David Hockney – (Hockney’s portrait of the pair, along with their cat, 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy', is one of the most popular exhibits at the Tate Gallery.) His final collection at the Royal College of Art launched him onto the fashion scene with a bang, but it wasn’t until Celia started to design textiles for his collections, a suggestion made by his then business partner Alice Pollock, that his designs really took off. Before long his creations were a familiar sight everywhere from London's Kings Road to the hippest fashion parties, sported by the likes of Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, the Beatles and Liza Minelli. Although his success continued throughout the 1970s Ossie's fondness for a hedonistic lifestyle was his downfall and he eventually became bankrupt. He was tragically killed by his lover in 1996.

The re-launch of Ossie’s eponymous label, renamed Ossie Clark London for 2008, is being spearheaded by Mark Worth, the founder of fashion industry website WGSN. In his search for success he has pulled in a team of young British designers headed by rising star Avsh Alom Gur, who has previously worked for Donna Karan in New York. The collection promises to be modern and innovative yet instilled with the spirit of the 1960s, and with summer promising ethnic and floral trends in abundance, we predict that this could be the perfect time for the label to once more make it’s mark on the fashion scene.