Fashionsnoops Fashion Blog

Fans of Swinging 60’s and 70’s London fashions rejoice! Yet another influential clothing line is readying for a re-launch in the near future. Marc Worth, the founder of WGSN is set to launch the new Ossie Clark label at London Fashion Week in February. The talents of the late and great Mr. Clark will be represented by Aysh Alom Gur, who previously worked with Donna Karan, Chloe and Roberto Cavalli. .

Renowned as ‘The King of King’s Road’ and immortalized in a David Hockney painting, Ossie Clark’s creations were adored by fans in their heyday and are still widely sought after in the vintage stores.. Expertly tailored silk pant suits, bias cut maxi length dresses, made from the bold and graphic prints of his wife Celia Birtwell. (More on her later). Back in the 70’s, as now, celebrities were huge fans of his work- he famously dressed Twiggy, Marianne Faithfull and designed Bianca Jagger’s white pant suit for her wedding to Mick. Further details of the new line have not been disclosed yet. It isn’t clear whether Avsh Alom Gur will be working from Ossie’s design archives, or if he will apply his own style to the collection.

Ossie Clark

This upcoming collection is the latest in the ongoing trend of resurrecting London brands from that exciting and innovative moment in the fashion history. The styles of Zandra Rhodes, Biba, Mary Quant and Celia Birtwell have again been available over the past few years. Why are so many of these lines being reintroduced? Obviously there is still a lot of interest in these lines. They represent a time in London history which was carefree, and music, art and fashion collided to create a new world of culture. Groundbreaking music and fashion was being created side by side.

Zandra Rhodes and Biba

As far as these lines still being relevant today, look to the fashion influence of such style icons as Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Naomi Campbell and Sadie Frost. All of them are huge fans of the brands from the 60’s and 70’s. Celebrity stylists on this side of the ocean have also contributed to the lasting interest in this fashion period. So many female celebrities are only too thrilled to be seen wearing a one of a kind vintage dress at a red carpet event. Coincidentally, uber- stylist to the stars, Rachel Zoe has been hired to oversee the future Halston clothing line.

Why are these lines being relaunched? Are they and will they be as successful and maintain the relevance that the original collections were? Clothing manufacturers are fully aware of the continued interest in the vintage pieces by these designers. Why not try and profit from that trend? Reintroduced collections by these designers have had a so- so reception.

Kate Moss

The new Biba line was started by an entrepreneur in 2006 and has had a less than spectacular response from fans of the original line.Even Barbara Hulanicki has been ‘baffled’ by the way that the label was being resurrected without her creative input. From a design point of view, the new collection has drifted away from the rock star hip quality of the past. A shame seeing as Bella Freud, a talented designer who learned patternmaking under Ossie Clarke, is the head designer. The Mary Quant line has not risen to the same level of popularity that it once had. However, her make up line continues to do very well and she continues to be busy as an executive at of the House of Fraser.

More successful examples of re-launches are those of Celia Birtwell and Zandra Rhodes.

Celia Birtwell, the former wife of Ossie Clarke has done a wonderfully ethereal line for Topshop featuring her trademark floral prints on flowing silk dresses and scarves. Zandra Rhodes has also done a line for Topshop of bright Keith Haring-like squiggle prints on dresses and swimsuits.

Celia Birtwell

Topshop is the first major retailer to show an interest in keeping these vintage labels relevant after all these years. Along with the Celia Birtwell and Zandra Rhodes’ lines, they also have an ‘archive’ section on their website. Here you can find enticing and relatively affordable original vintage items from historic labels such as Ossie Clarke, Biba, Radley, Dollyrockers, and Lee Bender for Bus Stop. One needs look no further than the dresses available from Kate Moss for Topshop to see the continued influence of British designers from the 1960’s and 70’s.

So how much longer is the style from this fashion era going to be in demand? There seems to be a slow but steady shift in demand for looks from the 1980’s designers. Vintage Herve Leger and Azzedine Alaia dresses are turning up on the red carpet more and more. Topshop is also selling vintage pieces by Lanvin, Comme Des Garcons, and Alaia. Always on spot with the new trend, they may be onto something! Maybe the next re-launch we hear about will be from Herve Leger or another 80’s designer.

Let’s hope that Avh Alom Gur can tap into Ossie Clark’s creative vision to design a line that will not stray too far from the original style. It would have been great to see Celia Birtwell on board with this project as her fabric designs were such a distinctive part of the style of his collections. However it was announced that Daniel Reynolds, the Textile Design Director for Avsh Alom Gur’s company Avshalomgur has been hired for that position.