‘ is about taking one out of reality, and this is what he achieved.’ These trajectories include a history of western designers appropriating ideas of counter culture or the Manolo Blahnik avant-garde for the fashion high street. (McRobbie, 1987). In my comparison of these design projects I ‘What Ossie and Alice summed up articulated the freedom of what was going on and they did attempt to trace the synthesis of ideas from trans-national themes and the influence of ‘vintage clothing’ drawings - as well as a, then, newly immerging vintage clothing industry. In close this through clothes.’ proximity to the stores and boutiques that sold fashion to the new and expanded youth market, were Fiona Ronaldson the factories and supply chains and networks of production and manufacturer that enabled designers to respond quickly to ideas and how they were unfolding and then respond quickly to CUTTING demand. Reflecting upon that now throws up interesting questions about urban planning and our Background heritage and how new designers are positioned within it –in view of the fact that large scale fashion manufacturing has all but gone from the UK and has been replaced by imported, global, elite retailing Ossie Clark has been sited as the ‘bridge’ between the angular 60s’ fashion, to the floaty, franchises. The coherence of the UK’s fashion identity in the 70s evolved from what has been romantic aesthetic of the early seventies, informed by elements as diverse as ‘the movies’ and the arts acknowledged as the unprecedented success of new patterns of consumption emerging, highlighting and crafts movement (Menkes, 1996). Taught in Fashion college through the ‘youthquake’ of the 60s, a vibrant and empowered youth market for the first time in Fashion’s history in Britain. To what extent Clark led the rest of the fashion world, in synthesizing the upsurge of romanticism with the influences did other cultural forms compliment and position fashion in London or rather how did fashion corral of Hollywood of a bygone era, to define the rest of that decade and the next one, in a series of iconic other cultural forms in the ”marking out of new territories” socially and culturally in re-spatializing garments. Widely copied, Clark created the female trouser-suit, the maxi and the peasant layered look FOR London? (Evans, 2009). How did designers in London, by the 1970s engage with and progress the first, at street-level; all important trends associated with labels such as Yve Saint Laurent label. design nexus of ‘Swinging London”. Tensions between the commercial practices of the fashion Suzy Menkes, the legendary fashion journalist has said of Ossie Clark: ‘Of all the clothes that have industry and forms that were intended as expressions of counter-culture were played out eventually passed through my hands, his have given me the most pleasure.’ (1996). within a commercial context, however radical, through synthesis in the filtering of aspects of ethnic The joining of his avant-garde aesthetic with a high-end, high street brand was inspirational clothing as symbols of travel and universality, and in their construction, and the freedoms they and innovative, the first collaboration of its kind. allowed: the iconographies of embellishment making them traditional and timeless simultaneously Because of this I have chosen to look closely at the key pieces from this iconic ‘brand’: a ‘brand’ and the wearing of them somehow a radical statement. Where these social boundaries were being people were buying into, to be a part of the bohemian ‘Chelsea set’. FREEDOM tested designers were positioned in the urban setting to respond. These ideas were picked up and The closest analogy now would perhaps be to Kate Moss’s collection for TopShop: but Clark designed dynamically illustrated in much the same way as in 60s fashion: images and editorials through the lens the clothes, cut the patterns, and gave them the all-important celebrity endorsement as well. of metropolitan themes: cinematic nostalgia and sophisticated ethnic and trans-national design. The clothes are sought after more than ever as ‘vintage’ pieces, because the cut was designed to Place and the urban experience was the enabler. Close networks of production and distribution were flatter and to be seductive, in an increasingly permissive society. The clothes still have the power to the reason it was possible and designers were the conduits for this to take place at that particular conjure up the atmosphere of that era, which is why they are in demand now. In view of this, we have Synthesis and Nostalgia time in the UK. The direct consequence of that was cultural exchange manifested in material culture, witnessed the impact of Clark’s influence in much of the 70s revival in fashion and culture and all the namely Fashion, marking out new territory in the decorative and applied arts with Fashion and street parallels apparent in festivals and the boho chic of ‘Cool Britannia’, for the last two decades. style as the main driver. The 70s revival, which has been evident in forms of for the last It was in the blending of ‘flower power’, the ethnic clothing (collected from his travels to North Africa) two decades is a ‘dialogue of freedoms’: a recognition that something strange, resilient and inspiring of the counter culture and in the romanticism of the early part of the seventies; all of these elements still flickers in the air. were brought together through fashion, and in the mixture, its ability to reflect and articulate the in 1970s Fashion freedoms and mood of that time. The work of Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock of Quoram and Celia Birtwell ‘articulated those freedoms’, bringing their interpretation of modern clothes to two distinct Results of my findings generations over a period of 40 years – an achievement unparalleled (certainly) in the history of British fashion. The garments did not disappoint. In gaining an overview and then being in a position to select the more ‘ethnic styles’ from Ossie Clark’s own label and the Radley collection, I found that I was able to This paper has the central aim of providing a new; critical look at the development of Fashion in the Funded research by The Society of Antiquaries of London on Ossie Clark trace the origins and influences that had informed his cut and design in the objects themselves. UK, in the aftermath of ‘Swinging London’ – the 1970s. (Given as a conference paper at the University of London) During closer examination, three methods of pattern-cutting emerged, used concurrently and with The overwhelming success of ‘6os fashion in Britain has dominated the history of post-war British Clark’s characteristic balance and skill: the flat-pattern method from his training at fashion college fashion. Its exposure, due to the international attention ‘Swinging London’ was afforded from a global Sally Grant, June 2011 and then, ethnic styles from the new influences coming into London at that period (Celia Birtwell refers level and the way in which it was mediated, has obscured the subsequent decade that followed: the to this specifically in several interviews). In addition to those two methods, the bias-cutting from the more eclectic seventies. Fashion and material culture on the streets and the changing patterns of vintage clothing he had been collecting throughout his time in London, that addressed the body as a consumption in the 1960s revolutionized the way London’s creative capital operated and how it was three-dimensional form (from Portobello market and researching at the V&A, looking at Vionnet and read and perceived as an international Fashion destination thereafter. It transformed and re-spatial- Bakst, and his influence from the Hollywood films he loved). In several of the dresses I had examined, ized the West end and gave rise to a powerful and confident post-war youth market for the first time. all three methods blended to create 70’s ethnic- style fashion : it was like witnessing a piece of cultural (Edwards, 2006). In direct contrast, by the end of the 1970s the Fashion industry in the UK had been history coming alive again. It was there in front of me – a combination of the three methods. played out against a background of recession and industrial unrest, in, it had been asserted, the mode of ‘the carnivalesque’. The notion that sixties fashion melted away into a hangover of seventies cyni- This experience has made it even clearer to me how important it is to stay close to the object in dress cism, with the distraction of ‘fancy-dress escapism’ needs to be re-visited. (Webb, 2009). Rather it was - history research, a feeling I hope, is echoed currently in debates within the world of design history a mythical playground of fashion where highly significant cultural exchanges occurred, because: To document all of these illuminating features, I meticulously traced all of the patterns out directly from the garments, in the time and space that I had been given, revisiting all of the nuances and quirks that ‘it is the fashion capitals that have the strongest cultural resources to elaborate and re-work the invent- became increasingly apparent in his work. The appearance of simplicity and ease was brought about ed traditions of their own design heritage.’ (Gilbert, 2006). through complex patterning, worked out on the stand and converted back into flat patterns for manufacture. The garments were then cut out in bulk and sent out all over London to be sewn together Fusing ideas of nostalgia of pre-war cinematic glamour with classical ethnic clothing and the craft by machinists, using the established chains of manufacture and supply already established in the sensibilities that come with them, after a decade of stark, space age modernism, 70s fashion British garment industry. The standard and techniques in the construction of the garments I examined and visual culture generated some of the most iconic and androgynous symbols of metropolitan life in comply with the methods used widely in production in the manufacture of high quality garments, to be the 20th century. Writing about it now the music journalist, Paul Morley calls it an ‘unexpected hint of sold in the ‘high end’ of the high Street. ‘Ready- to- wear’, as we know it today was really developed at ghostly revolutionary English spirit, a glimpse of psychic freedom in the midst of the everyday.’ (2010) this time in the British garment industry, by young designers. Still very much in circulation, forty years later these products are now re-issued as ‘vintage’ editions Understanding of the fabric is always a feature of the cut and an innate understanding of the three for the chain store boutiques that were born of the ‘70s era in fashion retailing and have been part of dimensional, making some of the flat patterning translation complex to say the least. Having the flat the revival of all things ‘70s. The Seventies London style is still a prevalent cultural force. pattern versions of the garments enables me to comprehend Clark’s complex 3D understanding in The images I am using to illustrate the points I am talking through are taken from published editorials overview. I have also evidenced the garments in purely construction terms – which is the reality of it in –and I make no apologies for that. The images were cutting edge in their time and are examples of the manufacturing terms. The ingredients of the success of Clark’s avant-garde ideas are his innate best work of the genre. A critique of Fashion photography in 70s fashion is another discussion. Suffice understanding of the three- dimensionality of clothing and its translation into flat-patterns for mass to say it harks back to the glamour and artifice of earlier eras in direct contrast to the dynamic - production and the ready-to-wear market. ernism of 1960s reportage-influenced photography. It is timely for a closer examination of the underlying and broader factors at play, in fashion where significant ideas have been developed, made concrete and disseminated in an urban setting at key Research methods moments. In general the project forms part of a wider evaluation of the economic and creative-stylistic legacy of the 1970s and the continued engagement of a vibrant youth market: its legacy of social 60’s Space Age Fashion Chiffon Celia Birtwell /Ossie Clark dress Photograph V&A archive by Sally Grant Nude design. Celi Birtwell /Ossie Clark In contemporary design history, there are similar debates occurring about the return in emphasis, networks of ethnic imports, street fashion and progressive club nights with specific urban sites offering Bath Fashion Museum back to object-based research. In the Journal of Design history, a greater part of the most recent opportunities to new talent and new businesses so essential to the city’s sense of constant re-inven- issue has been devoted to discussing this and what the design historian Clive Dilnot describes as, tion. What are the significant factors for this to take place? British art and design training, which had ‘the importance of placing socio-historical understanding at the centre of our attempts to understand been gathering pace in the post-war period, and the designers it heralded. Manufacturers, suppliers, design activity.’(2010). Lee-Maffei, in the same issue, concludes that, ‘The future of design history may retailers, a strong home-market, tourism and consumers in the city; depend on the successful alignment of object-based understanding –the hallmark of design history - all booming in the afterglow of ‘Swinging London’. This dynamic interchange expanded the fashion with analysis of social-historical contexts.’( 2010) Last year in a written report about archival research, industry rapidly and enabled the proliferation of fashion as a powerful urban communicator, generating Christopher Breward, Director of Research at the V&A wrote in the annual report, “The most distinctive material culture almost as ‘street art’ continuing to open up the urban landscape and determining the feature of museum-based research is that it is based on objects….The (recent) shift towards body’s’ position as an agent of social change. materiality has encouraged museum professionals and academic researchers to work together more This scenario expresses a direct connection with the physical experience of the city. closely than ever before, particularly in the UK. This has been beneficial to all concerned. UK based In comportment, body language, and sexual identity, 1970s materiality provides ways in which to re- museum curators have broadened the range of questions that they ask of their collections, and the engage with unspoken cultural values. Fashion as material culture is a particularly obvious, overlooked focus on objects has similarly transformed the methods and goals of scholarly research and learning example of this aspect of modernity, although it is at its very heart. (Wilson, 1996). in the British higher education sector.” (2009) In Breward’s research on ‘The ’, a major In contemporary urban and human geography, Fashion has emerged as a significant cultural form in exhibition staged at the V&A and an AHRC-funded research project culminating in the publication of its emphasis upon trading routes and the development of urban centres, networks and relationships several important books, the period of the late 60s and early 70s was explored in depth, high-lighting across sectors and the positioning of cultural forms against the urban terrain. The whole history of significant factors in the unrivalled success of the British Fashion industry at this time, using textiles and clothing is closely tied in with the development of urban centres but because of the way object-based research to evidence and locate the essence of “Swinging London”. the subjects have developed academically they have been separated. This recent development is an Displays of significant pieces of Fashion design were placed in geographical settings, locating the exciting one in terms of inter-disciplinarity and what each subject area can give to the other. objects in their surroundings; namely parts of ‘Swinging London’. Professor David Gilbert and Bronwyn Through archival, visual, object-based and oral history work, this research grouping is underpinned Edwards, (the Co-director of the project and the AHRC research fellow respectively) have identified theoretically by the disciplines of human geography, design history and cultural studies. Object-based the spatial proximity of the supply and manufacturing networks to the happening places such as the research has formed an innovative approach within the context of this research grouping. There are boutiques scene and clubs, as hugely significant in the innovation and ‘turnaround of ideas’ which of huge advantages to be gained by placing objects at the centre of a research project about the course are linked to the development of ‘youth fashion’ at this time, a hitherto untapped area in formation of metropolitan identities –while this approach has been viewed in the past as archaic by Fashion design. Display and the carnival atmosphere associated with 70s Fashion consumption were Fashion theorists, in recent years the idea that objects should be given priority, that they have the Marsha Hunt in printed satin, 1968 Photograph V&A archive by Sally Grant Photograph V&A archive by Sally Grant also new, and central to the development of the urban spaces of fashion. ability to determine the course of research- has become more and more accepted.(Appadurai 1986: 5). In relation to Clark, on graduating from the RCA he was able to connect with this new burgeoning Artefacts exert friction on the researcher. Personally for the past year I have carried out a funded scene and work within it as a new, emerging talent. His clothes were sold in Vanessa Denzers’ ‘ research project using object based archival work as he central topic: examining the collections of Woollards’ and then the legendary Quoram in the Kings Rd, where he also had a studio and worked Ossie Clark and his collaboration with Celia Birtwell (1968-1977) working with archives at the V&A and with a sample machinist Catherine Webb. This is where he developed his ability to create the most Bath Fashion Museum. Object-led research is fundamentally inter-disciplinary; fully accounting for the beautiful forms and turn them into ‘serious clothes’ as Celia Birtwell called them. (2007). positioning of a designed object and its place in the city requires contributions by design historians, Clothes, that forty years later, are more in demand than ever and are a tribute to every thing that is urban geographers, archivists and heritage academics. Objects in archives are not inert. They have a good about the best of British Fashion Design. This also points to a necessity for those spaces in live inheritance that requires constant re-interpretation and new models of communication if they are to which new talent can be showcased in key parts of the City, to continue to be made available and for speak effectively to contemporary audiences. (Appadurai, 1986: 5; Leontis, 1997: 189). industry and manufacturing to continue to be in close proximity. This whole approach to the research changes the emphasis on particular designers, although they can be shown in case studies and comparative studies within the research; I have focussed on two case studies from the research: the work of Ossie Clark from 1968 – 1977 and the recent Topshop collaboration with his long time design partner Celia Birtwell: Both of the designers are early examples of stylist/designers, heavily influenced by the’ vintage’ material culture available to them in London through areas and street markets like Portobello and Alfas in the Kings Rd. Their early interface with the British music industry and club land - collaborations with the The Rolling Stones and Roxy Music respectively- are another way into the analysis of the designer/stylist and the appropriation of historical-trans-national styling in 1970’s London.

‘Elvis dress’, V&A archive ‘Bus Stop’ Boutique front, West End, London 1971 Photo V&A archive by Sally Grant Illustration. Celia Birtwell, 1970 Photograph by Sally Grant i) Background iv) What did the analysis of the cut and construction of the garments reveal?

Ossie Clark has been sited as the ‘bridge’ between the angular 60s’ fashion, to the floaty, I had been made aware of the Janet Arnold books and her methods of the analysis of cut romantic aesthetic of the early seventies, informed by elements as diverse as ‘the movies’ and the arts and construction whilst studying dress history and Art and Design history and was fortunate enough to and crafts movement (Menkes, 1996). Taught in Fashion college through the ‘youthquake’ of the 60s, meet her at the Bath Study Archive, no. 4 the Circus, where she demonstrated her rigorous techniques Clark led the rest of the fashion world, in synthesizing the upsurge of romanticism with the influences of examination on some English dresses from the 1815 neoclassical style, that I was researching for of Hollywood of a bygone era, to define the rest of that decade and the next one, in a series of iconic my postgraduate project. I wanted to apply the same rigorous methods to the work of Ossie Clark garments. Widely copied, Clark created the female trouser-suit, the maxi and the peasant layered look and somehow begin to scale, and document, through object-based research, the story of his first, at street-level; all important trends associated with labels such as Yve Saint Laurent label. contribution to this crucial period in British, ‘western’ Fashion, and of the transition between the Suzy Menkes, the legendary fashion journalist has said of Ossie Clark: ‘Of all the clothes that have CUTTING ‘space-age’ modernism of 60s fashion silhouettes to the ‘floatier’ romanticism of the 1970s, (Menkes, passed through my hands, his have given me the most pleasure.’ (1996). 1996), so prevalent in fashion revivals in contemporary fashion. I wished to evidence this transition The joining of his avant-garde aesthetic with a high-end, high street brand was inspirational somehow, and link it to other cultural exchanges occurring in London in this period. and innovative, the first collaboration of its kind. Beginning with how it was made possible because of Clark’s training as a creative pattern cutter within Because of this I have chosen to look closely at the key pieces from this iconic ‘brand’: a ‘brand’ the context of an Art and Design education: and how the garments evidenced that change; people were buying into, to be a part of the bohemian ‘Chelsea set’. how the metaphorical blending was born out of the richness of cultural exchanges occurring in The closest analogy now would perhaps be to Kate Moss’s collection for TopShop: but Clark designed ‘Swinging London’ at this time, picked up on by the designers at the centre of this ‘youthquake’. the clothes, cut the patterns, and gave them the all-important celebrity endorsement as well. (Ashmore, 2007; Vreeland, 1968). But also significant were the networks of manufacture and supply The clothes are sought after more than ever as ‘vintage’ pieces, because the cut was designed to chains that were in close spatial proximity to where new forms of retailing of ‘youth fashion’ were flatter and to be seductive, in an increasingly permissive society. The clothes still have the power to FOR occurring, in London’s ‘West end’. conjure up the atmosphere of that era, which is why they are in demand now. In view of this, we have witnessed the impact of Clark’s influence in much of the 70s revival in fashion and culture and all the parallels apparent in festivals and the boho chic of ‘Cool Britannia’, for the last two decades. It was in the blending of ‘flower power’, the ethnic clothing (collected from his travels to North Africa) v) Results of my findings of the counter culture and in the romanticism of the early part of the seventies; all of these elements were brought together through fashion, and in the mixture, its ability to reflect and articulate the The garments did not disappoint. In gaining an overview and then being in a position to select the freedoms and mood of that time. The work of Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock of Quoram and Celia more ‘ethnic styles’ from Ossie Clark’s own label and the Radley collection, I found that I was able to Birtwell ‘articulated those freedoms’, bringing their interpretation of modern clothes to two distinct trace the origins and influences that had informed his cut and design in the objects themselves. generations over a period of 40 years – an achievement unparalleled (certainly) in the history FREEDOM During closer examination, three methods of pattern-cutting emerged, used concurrently and with of British fashion. Clark’s characteristic balance and skill: the flat-pattern method from his training at fashion college and then, ethnic styles from the new influences coming into London at that period (Celia Birtwell refers Synthesis and Nostalgia to this specifically in several interviews). In addition to those two methods, the bias-cutting from the ii) Research strategy over the last ten months vintage clothing he had been collecting throughout his time in London, that addressed the body as a Within the project I have aimed to: three-dimensional form (from Portobello market and researching at the V&A, looking at Vionnet and • Analyze closely the cut and construction methods of the British designer Ossie Clark of garments Bakst, and his influence from the Hollywood films he loved). In several of the dresses I had examined, held in National Collections and document the findings in 1970s Fashion all three methods blended to create 70’s ethnic- style fashion : it was like witnessing a piece of cultural • Contribute to the debate about object based research in the study of dress history coming alive again. It was there in front of me – a combination of the three methods. • Collect a new body of information about the history of fashion design in London between This experience has made it even clearer to me how important it is to stay close to the object in dress 1968 – 1977 by focussing on a particular (and iconic) collaboration between Ossie Clark and the high - history research, a feeling I hope, is echoed currently in debates within the world of design history street boutique store ‘Radleys’ To document all of these illuminating features, I meticulously traced all of the patterns out directly from the garments, in the time and space that I had been given, revisiting all of the nuances and quirks that • Contribute to a particular area of theory around the production of Fashion as material culture, as an ‘Fashion is about taking one out of reality, and this is what he achieved.’ urban experience became increasingly apparent in his work. The appearance of simplicity and ease was brought about • Gain a new understanding of how archives are accessed and how they operate in contemporary Manolo Blahnik through complex patterning, worked out on the stand and converted back into flat patterns for Museums. ‘What Ossie and Alice summed up articulated the freedom of what was going on and they did this through clothes.’ manufacture. The garments were then cut out in bulk and sent out all over London to be sewn together by machinists, using the established chains of manufacture and supply already established in the It was after a study day at the V&A that I started to deepen my interest in the cut and construction Fiona Ronaldson British garment industry. The standard and techniques in the construction of the garments I examined of the work of the designer Ossie Clark. After viewing the retrospective exhibition at the V&A (2004) comply with the methods used widely in production in the manufacture of high quality garments, to be I concluded: Was it not the pattern cutting skills that Clark had developed, that had such an impact on sold in the ‘high end’ of the high Street. ‘Ready- to- wear’, as we know it today was really developed at the design of his clothes? this time in the British garment industry, by young designers. When I applied for the research grant it was my intention to try to unlock some of the ‘secrets’ of Ossie Understanding of the fabric is always a feature of the cut and an innate understanding of the three Clark’s skills as a pattern-cutting ‘wizard’ (Vogue, 1968) because of my own interest in the cut and dimensional, making some of the flat patterning translation complex to say the least. Having the flat construction of garments Again and again, throughout my interest in Clarks work, I had heard and pattern versions of the garments enables me to comprehend Clark’s complex 3D understanding in read people referring anecdotally to his ability to cut as being central to his success but had not found overview. I have also evidenced the garments in purely construction terms – which is the reality of it in any further studies of this essential aspect of his work. In my assessment, it is the key to both the manufacturing terms. The ingredients of the success of Clark’s avant-garde ideas are his innate longevity and the posterity of his work. understanding of the three- dimensionality of clothing and its translation into flat-patterns for mass I am not aware of how gradual or incremental the changes in archive access have been, especially in production and the ready-to-wear market. the study of dress and textiles, but when I was first studying at postgraduate level, the periods allowed for research appeared to be more ‘fluid’. Alongside these realisations was the real task of establishing a trajectory for my research project, vi) Research methods which involved the close examination of garments and time spent analysing the cut and construction of each individual piece. This has involved the close reading of the published diaries The project has enabled me to carry out object-based research on examples of fashion from the of Clark and documentaries and articles that have been published to establish what the main points of oeuvre of the designer Ossie Clark from 1968 – 1977; I consider being of national significance. departure were to be. I needed to be in a position to select key pieces from Clark’s collections. Having worked in Fashion design education since 1997, I had become increasingly aware of a drift- This information became available to me in a number of ways. The different stages of Clark’s career as ing away from object-analysis, particularly in the contextual studies area of some programmes that I a designer are available in different museum collections. I was fortunate to discover that Bath Fashion worked on. I think the reason may be the expansion in the student numbers on the programmes, ad- Museum had a good broad collection of Ossie Clark of London, some pieces from his work for Quoram ditionally designed for 15 – 20 individuals. Screening scanned images in a lecture theatre is a more ap- and a detailed collection of all the major pieces for Radleys. This has enabled me to piece together the propriate way of presenting Fashion History to an audience of over 50 students. This rules out the pos- main points of reference and how they were utilised in his most commercial and successful designs for sibility of carrying out object analysis with small groups, as the activity would demand. In this research Radleys. Namely, the influences from the 30s and 40s and how they translated into the 70s retro look I have tried to show how crucial it is in the study of dress design to understand the context of how that was so much a part of the appeal, and their success in a mass market. something significant has been made or manufactured, and to pause on those nuances that speak to In examining the pieces in Bath, I was able to acquire an overview in terms of cut and use of fabric: the human experience and leave their mark on the objects themselves. In addition to this it has been the hang of fabric and the impression it gave in the overall image and look of the label. In the earlier important to position the designer, in this case Clark, as a conduit for prevailing influences, channelling pieces for ‘Ossie Clark of London’, Celia Birtwell’s fabrics were luxurious silks, chiffons beautifully them into fashion as material culture. Fashion has a particular role to play in the expression of cultural printed and cut into floaty, dreamlike dresses with medieval sleeves and gaping necklines – a stunning exchanges that occur in urban spaces because of the speed at which ideas can be absorbed contradiction and typical of Clark’s reliance and love of drama in his clothes. Both necessitated and and made into objects – objects that are worn and shown on the body in the urban setting. allowed for this, making it a perfect vehicle for Clark’s screen diva references. The ‘play’ and ‘fancy This creates a dialogue between place and object that is rare in its speed of translation, dress’ aspect of the era necessitated the ‘dressing- up’ box of vintage clothing, but they had other consumption and in the relevance of the message it communicates. The spatial proximity of chains important readings too. Historical dress and ethnic costume all added to the mix of ‘the of supply and manufacture at this key period in London fashion were central to the spontaneity and countercultural’, which was expressed in the fashion and apparel of the first half of the 1970s. response appropriate to the explosive, burgeoning and developing ‘youth market’ that was unfolding. His references to the screen goddesses are evident in the collections – in the cut and construction of This is a pertinent point in view of how those networks have now changed due to the ‘globalisation’ of them and how they were presented. Celia Birtwell has spoken repeatedly about how this was his Fashion manufacture. Boutique culture grew alongside it, providing a new space for young design manifesto – people should be able to dress like screen sirens in the everyday– why not? consumers to gather and spend their money on the things they cared about. He collected garments from this era, which had so informed his design trajectory in the height of his Recent research projects such as the ‘Swinging Sixties’ (V&A) and ‘Foale and Tuffin’ (Webb, 2009), design success (and so informed his creative vision in blitz torn Liverpool, seduced by its glamour and have created new insight into this unprecedented period of development in the British Fashion industry surrounded by five older sisters). The influences are evident in the way the details and the important and its contribution to the making of London as an international fashion destination and as a ‘global’ points of reference were fed into the designs. In his sketch book drawings it is evident how integrated world city (Gilbert, 2006). those structural references were. He was always looking for new shapes in cut and construction and experimented with them endlessly, feeding them in to a dazzling array of seductive silhouettes. In contemporary design history, there are similar debates occurring about the return in emphasis, This was his research. Evidenced in every single one of the garments that I examined is exquisite back to object-based research. In the Journal of Design history, a greater part of the most recent attention to detail, a sense of drama and an embodied understanding of the female form in its modern issue has been devoted to discussing this and what the design historian Clive Dilnot describes as, context; he understood the permissive times that were operating, particularly in the lives of the women ‘the importance of placing socio-historical understanding at the centre of our attempts to understand within his particular social sphere (Marianne Faithful, etc): for, however nostalgic his influences were, design activity.’(2010). Lee-Maffei, in the same issue, concludes that, ‘The future of design history may he was operating in the centre of ‘Swinging London” in the avant garde of the cultural elite. depend on the successful alignment of object-based understanding –the hallmark of design history - “I am as famous as egg fu Yung,” he said. And he was. with analysis of social-historical contexts.’( 2010) Last year in a written report about archival research, Christopher Breward, Director of Research at the V&A wrote in the annual report, “The most distinctive feature of museum-based research is that it is based on objects….The (recent) shift towards materiality has encouraged museum professionals and academic researchers to work together more iii) The necessity of having an overview of surveying collections: closely than ever before, particularly in the UK. This has been beneficial to all concerned. UK based museum curators have broadened the range of questions that they ask of their collections, and the When I received confirmation of the award, I contacted the three main museum archives focus on objects has similarly transformed the methods and goals of scholarly research and learning immediately to start to understand the protocols and procedures of each museum archive: in the British higher education sector.” (2009) In Breward’s research on ‘The Swinging sixties’, a major how to plan and book time and the type of access that would be available to me. exhibition staged at the V&A and an AHRC-funded research project culminating in the publication of I was rather alarmed to discover at the first point of contact with both the V&A and Bath Fashion several important books, the period of the late 60s and early 70s was explored in depth, high-lighting Museum that there was a waiting list of between three to six months and a very tight control /limit on significant factors in the unrivalled success of the British Fashion industry at this time, using the appointments available. This position had changed somewhat from when I had last worked in this object-based research to evidence and locate the essence of “Swinging London”. way with archives and study resources! With a careful process of discussion, however, built up over Displays of significant pieces of Fashion design were placed in geographical settings, locating the several conversations by phone and e-mail with the respective curators, I was able to negotiate objects in their surroundings; namely parts of ‘Swinging London’. Professor David Gilbert and Bronwyn adequate time in both main collections and build good relationships with the Keepers, so that they Edwards, (the Co-director of the project and the AHRC research fellow respectively) have identified could trust my handling and the close scrutiny that would be central to the research methods I was the spatial proximity of the supply and manufacturing networks to the happening places such as the proposing to use. boutiques scene and clubs, as hugely significant in the innovation and ‘turnaround of ideas’ which of Having to quickly ascertain the content, relevance and size of the respective collections, and having course are linked to the development of ‘youth fashion’ at this time, a hitherto untapped area in negotiated close access, I was able to plan the logistics of moving between the two main collections Fashion design. Display and the carnival atmosphere associated with 70s Fashion consumption were and visit other more peripheral collections throughout the period of research. Negotiating regular also new, and central to the development of the urban spaces of fashion. appointments and close proximity to the handling of objects at the V&A and Bath Fashion museum has In relation to Clark, on graduating from the RCA he was able to connect with this new burgeoning been at the core of my research strategy. I have been able to assess what collections there are in scene and work within it as a new, emerging talent. His clothes were sold in Vanessa Denzers’ ‘ British costume archives of this period and specifically of Ossie Clarke and his collaborators, Woollards’ and then the legendary Quoram in the Kings Rd, where he also had a studio and worked in particular Celia Birtwell. with a sample machinist Catherine Webb. This is where he developed his ability to create the most beautiful forms and turn them into ‘serious clothes’ as Celia Birtwell called them. (2007). Clothes, that forty years later, are more in demand than ever and are a tribute to every thing that is good about the best of British Fashion Design. This also points to a necessity for those spaces in which new talent can be showcased in key parts of the City, to continue to be made available and for industry and manufacturing to continue to be in close proximity.