Ossie Clark handbag that changed the world
How the great brand Ossie Clark handbag that changed the world
COMELY HANDBAG FACTORY
David Hockney’s famous 1971 painting Mr and Mrs clark and Percy depicts designer
Ossie Clark and his wife, the designer Celia Birtwell, in the artistic surroundings that have since become an integral part of his place in fashion history.
Studuying at London’s Royal College of Art, Clark was classmates with designer Zandra Rhodes as well as with Hockney. He ruled London’s bohemian fashion world from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s, reinventing the bias cut shapes of the 1930s with a contemporary rock “n” roll edge and adding groupie friendly pieces like cropped biker jackets and hot pants.
Birtwell, meanwhile designed the prints for his Ladies’ Handbags.
First sold from influential shop Quorum on London’s Kings’ Road, Clark’s clothes were worn b y the it kids who walked down it. Some were Clark’s friends, including the members of the Rolling Stones (he designed Mick Jagger’s tour outfits in 1972)
Jimi Hendrix, Marianne Faithful and model Pattie Boyd. Clark became famous for his outlandish shows, which Birtwell has since described as “happenings”.
Clark’s work has been rediscovered since his death (he was murdered by his lover in 1996), with two retrospective exhibitions. Stella McCartney is just one designer who has acknowledged his influence, saying that Clark’s strength lay in “the perfect mis between sexuality and femininity”. It is these qualities that give his work power even today.