I recently had the pleasure of being allowed onto
the hallowed top floor at the Gallery of Costume; a no-go zone for the general
public. I was given a peek behind the scenes by Miles Lambert, who has curated
the collection for some time now and really knows his Gucci from his Pucci, and
I was there to preview the upcoming exhibition for Creative Tourist. This is the second in a series of
retrospectives introduced last year (heads-up: the third will be Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco
Chanel's greatest rival, so can't wait for that!). My feature was published yesterday, and you can read it here or, indeed, in a slightly extended version, here
Fashion changes with the seasons, and the Gallery
of Costume in Platt Fields is no slouch when it comes to following that trend.
Hot on the heeled pumps of Christian Dior (you have until Sunday to catch Designer
In Focus - read my review of that show here) is a brand-new show, again
spanning a ten-year career; this time, of influential local-boy-done-good Ossie
Clark. So for spring, it’s out with the old and in with the new(ish), fast
forwarding from 1947-57 to 1967-77. And it’s all about bringing fashion back
home: the Warrington-born designer was evacuated to Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire
during the war (hence Ossie) then moved to Manchester in 1958 to study at the
College Of Art.
“We wanted to do something British this time,” the
gallery’s senior curator, Miles Lambert, tells me in his book-lined and glossy
magazine-strewn office. “We also wanted a show that would connect with what
ordinary, fashionable women bought – it will hopefully engage with women who
might have actually worn the outfits.”
Indeed, because, by the late 60s, Ossie Clark was a
designer whose clothes were within reach of upwardly mobile women thanks to him
launching one of the first-ever diffusion lines, producing more and selling for
less. From 1968, Ossie Clark for Radley ran in tandem with the exclusive label
Ossie Clark, which had been picked up by Alice Pollock for her Kensington
boutique Quorum after his Royal College of Art graduation collection was
featured in the August 1965 issue of Vogue. Miles shows me a photo of a
Quorum-era piece he has just acquired: a pale pink minidress with a sporty trim
(think Mary Quant on the tennis court), apparently designed for the American
market.
It was in 1966 when Clark started to collaborate
creatively with Bury-born textile designer Celia Birtwell (recently back in the
public eye with collections at the much-lauded Noughties-revamped TopShop as
well as John Lewis), whom he had met while he studied in Manchester and she in
Salford, and whom he married in 1969, the newlyweds famously captured by David
Hockney in the painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy (see Early
Reflections at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool for a retrospective of
his work, unfortunately missing the Ossie and Celia portrait after an extended
loan from the Tate a couple of years back).
Birtwell’s cutting-edge prints feature heavily in
the Gallery of Costume retrospective, mainly on Clark’s renowned flattering and
very feminine chiffon dresses and blouses, some complete with medieval princess
sleeves, but also on a beautiful brushed cotton Biba-esque number as well as a
fitted, quilted jacket. Clark was an expert with the scissors – famously
saying: “I’m a master cutter; it’s all in my brain and my fingers” – and his
precision can be best seen in a structured jacket owned by fashion journalist
Suzy Menkes, perhaps purchased after she’d seen his 1971 show, which she
described as “the most extraordinary moment in fashion history”.
Miles and I discuss fabrics: the jacket looks
to be a treated satin, but I’m informed it’s more likely polyester, as Clark
enjoyed using “modern” materials. Moss-crepe was another favourite with the
designer and seven of his trademark draped maxi-evening gowns take centre stage
in the first-floor dining room at Platt Hall: a “swirl of colour”, Miles
describes the installation, showing me a rainbow of single-shaded dresses,
including a bold mustard – another trademark, if the multiple yellow outfits
here are anything to go by.
Many of the 25 pieces are on show in Manchester for
the first time although they are all in the gallery’s permanent collection and
some have been seen before in the main era-by-era display (the 1960-70s case
has been redone as a result). British Fashion Genius continues in the changing
exhibitions gallery on the ground floor, with short films featuring Ossie Clark
designs being worn by Swinging 60s Chelsea girls, and magazines from the time,
such as a 1973 Cosmopolitan with the cover model in one of his trademark
brightly coloured plunge dresses. “It’s the only cover I could find,” Miles
sighs. “A blast of light and then it’s gone.”
Ossie Clark: A British Fashion Genius,
1967-77, Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Platt
Fields Park, Wilmslow Road, Manchester, M14 5LL, 1pm-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm
Sat-Sun. 30 January – 29 June 2014, free. (Photographs courtesy Kerry Taylor
Auctions, 2013 and Manchester City Galleries, 2013.)
