Celia Birtwell

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Celia Birtwell , CBE (* 1941 in Bury ) is a British textile and fashion designer . Her designs are characterized by a romantic and feminine style that was influenced by ancient and modern artists such as Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse . She was best known for her textile designs, which embodied the zeitgeist in the 1960s and 1970s.

Life

Women's clothing from 1969, designed by Ossie Clark with the Botticelli fabric by Celia Birtwell

Celia Birthell was born in Bury, the eldest daughter of an engineer and a seamstress. She grew up in nearby Prestwich . After completing school, she began training as a textile designer at the Salford School of Art in 1956 .

In 1959, Birtwell met the fashion designer Ossie Clark in the Cona Coffee Bar in Manchester , whom she later met again in London. There an intensive professional and private relationship developed between the two of them. Birtwell and Clark took part in the “Quorum” boutique founded in 1964 by fashion designer Alice Pollock . As a result, Birtwell mainly designed textiles and Clark was responsible for the cut and shape of the garments. In 1966 they presented their first joint fashion collection for “Quorum”. The way in which their fashion show was presented was novel, accompanied by contemporary pop music and to which guests from the London music and artist scene in particular were invited. A prominent clientele developed accordingly, including the Rolling Stones and the Beatles , Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd , as well as Pattie Boyd , Marianne Faithfull , Bianca Jagger , Veruschka , Paloma Picasso , Talitha Getty and other well-known personalities. The "Quorum" boutique existed until 1970.

Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark married in 1969. Their son Albert, born in the same year, and their son George, born in 1972, come from the relationship. The marriage ended in divorce in 1974, not least because of Ossie Clark's excessive lifestyle and homosexual relationships.

The painter David Hockney has been a member of Celia Birtwell's circle of friends since 1968 , with whom she is in close contact. He has portrayed her several times, both in oil paintings and in drawings, photographs and photo collages. One of the best-known portraits is the double portrait of her husband "Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy" from 1971, which came into the collection of the Tate Gallery in London in the year of completion . She can also be seen in the film A Bigger Splash by Jack Hazan , in which Hockney's private and artistic life from 1970–1973 is described in a semi-documentary manner.

After their divorce, Birtwell continued to design fashion, initially for the Radley brand and from 1984 for her own shop on Westbourne Park Road in Bayswater . There she mainly offers home textiles based on her own designs. She had particular success with animal print motifs on voile and muslin fabrics . Her clients included well-known hotels such as Claridge's and The Lanesborough in London, The Grand Hotel in Leeds and the Dubai Hilton . She also worked for the French fashion house Cacharel , for the Topshop chain and the companies Express and Millets . In 2010, she published a 25-piece collection for the John Lewis clothing chain .

Together with the author Dominic Lutyens, Birtwell published her biography in 20111. Her textiles and designs can be found in a number of museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kate Finnigan: Celia Birtwell: "Ossie was deeply ambitious. Then he got ridiculous ..." , online article in the Telegraph newspaper, August 21, 2011
  2. ↑ Celia Birtwell's website
  3. ↑ Denise Evans: Celia has designs on meeting the Queen , Manchester Evening News online article , June 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ Entry on Celia Bortwell on www.fashionmodeldirectory.com
  5. ↑ Kate Finnigan: Celia Birtwell: "Ossie was deeply ambitious. Then he got ridiculous ..." , online article in the Telegraph newspaper, August 21, 2011
  6. ↑ Information on the collaboration between Celia Birtwell and the designer couple Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro at Cacharel
  7. ↑ Jessica Bumpus: Birtwell's Back , article in Vogue, March 25, 2010.
  8. ↑ collection of works by Celia Birtwell at the Victoria and Albert Museum
  9. ↑ Birthday Honors List 2011 published by the BBC
personal data
SURNAME Birtwell, Celia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, Celia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British fashion designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Bury