Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-71, David Hockney"Muse of David Hockney and partner of Ossie Clark, Celia Birtwell is and was the most important textile designer of her generation. She has been described as the face that launched a thousand prints. In 1956 she met designer Ossie Clark and they later married.
From 1967 to 1973 Celia and Ossie were the toast of the fashion industry and dressed everyone from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Paloma Picasso, Talitha Getty, Pattie Boyd, Twiggy and Marianne Faithfull all the way to the British Aristocracy. It was during this time that Dave Gilmore drove a van for Ossie before he found fame in his band, Pink Floyd.
With the collapse of her marriage in 1973, Celia left the fashion industry to raise her children and teach at colleges across London, including Chelsea School of Art. She continued to be painted and drawn by David Hockney and it was with his help and support that, in 1984, she decided to start designing again."
(from celiabirtwell.com)*
Celia Birtwell is the queen of the Floral Print. And although the basis for her designs came from/are rooted in concepts she created forty years ago, they can't exactly be categorized with your stuffy Great Aunt's floral curtains or tacky wallpaper. Instead, her style evokes much more of a romantic, whimsical sensibility and a free-spirited hippie-chic aesthetic. The prints she designed that were turned into long flowing dresses and light airy pieces by husband Ossie Clark, and up through recent times in her line for Topshop, seem more apt for lounging around in beautiful places, walking through a leafy tree-lined street or park, and basking in the warm, gauzy glow of all that is vibrant and alive in the world.
Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's girlfriend at the time, in a paper dress by Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell
Celia's sketches:
Dress with the Mystic Daisy pattern
Blouses from the line for Topshop - Mystic Daisy and Little Rock patterns
Portraits of Celia by David Hockney:
Ossie & Celia
