Dress and Coat, Ossie Clark (1942-96) and Celia Birtwell (1941-)

Dress and Coat, Ossie Clark (1942-96) and Celia Birtwell (1941-), 1970-1, Museum no. T.148&A-1983

Dress and Coat
Ossie Clark (1942-96) and Celia Birtwell (1941-)
1970-1
Printed rayon crepe with chiffon inserts
Museum no. T.148&A-1983
Worn and given by Mrs Pauline Vogelpoel

Here we see the perfect partnership of Celia Birtwell's joyful textile prints with Ossie Clark's unparalleled talent for cutting fluid, sensuous dresses. A husband-and-wife team, they worked together, with Ossie translating Celia's fantasy fashion drawings into three dimensions. Very soon, inherent tensions between creative freedom and the pressures of mass production led to the business's decline.

Dress, Foale & Tuffin

Dress, Foale & Tuffin, 1966.

Dress
Foale & Tuffin
1966
Linen
Lent by Marit Allen

Foale & Tuffin's simple shift dress with its clever 'D' shaped pocket perfectly captured the irreverent Pop aesthetic that was so dominant in the mid 1960s. In the June 1966 issue of Vogue a similar dress appeared in a mock 'cartoon-strip' fashion shoot, with a caption announcing that it could be bought at Countdown for 9 guineas (about a month's wages for a young office worker).

Jacket and Trousers, Granny Takes a Trip

Jacket and Trousers, Granny Takes a Trip, About 1969.

Jacket and Trousers
Granny Takes a Trip
About 1969
Cotton and viscose
Lent by Marit Allen

Granny Takes a Trip offered a very different version of fashion. It opened in the World's End in 1965 with John Pearse, Nigel Waymouth and Sheila Cohen as owners. Behind a series of surreal temporary shop fronts, they promoted an exclusive and mysterious 'look' based around concepts of nostalgia and psychedelia. Much of it appeared to come out of a dressing-up box.

Dress, Sylvia Ayton (1937-) and Zandra Rhodes (1940-)

Dress, Sylvia Ayton (1937-) and Zandra Rhodes (1940-), 1966.

Photograph by Ronald Traeger, 1966(detail) Vogue ©The Condé Nast Publications Ltd

Dress
Sylvia Ayton (1937-) and Zandra Rhodes (1940-)
1966
Organdie and linen
Retailed at Top Gear (9 guineas)
Lent by Sylvia Ayton MBE

Ayton and Rhodes opened the Fulham Road Clothes Shop in 1968, having previously designed for a number of boutiques run by friends. Their clothes were admired for the adventurous prints and flattering shapes. This dress combines a skillfully cut, angular neckline with a circle print inspired by the dresses that Paco Rabanne made from huge plastic sequins.

Dress, Janice Wainwright (1940-)

Dress, Janice Wainwright (1940-), 1968

Dress
Janice Wainwright (1940-) for Simon Massey
1968
Rayon with printed panels
Retailed at the Sidney Smith boutique
Lent by the Museum of Costume, Bath

Janice Wainwright had trained at the Royal College of Art under Janey Ironside, as did Ossie Clark, Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin. Like these other designers, she was interested in colour and draped cut. She also used some of Celia Birtwell's prints.

Jacket and Maxi-Skirt, Ossie Clark (1942-96)

Jacket and Maxi-Skirt, Ossie Clark (1942-96), About 1967.

Jacket and Maxi-Skirt
Ossie Clark (1942-96)
About 1967
Jacket: snakeskin and suede
Skirt: wool crepe
Lent by Celia Birtwell

In 1966, the chance discovery of rolls of unused snakeskin in a warehouse inspired Ossie Clark to develop a new look that sculpted rather than concealed the torso. He made the skins into fitted jackets, modeled on black leather 'Rocker' jackets, to be worn with culottes and skirts cut to a new longer length.

Jerkin, Mirandi

Jerkin, Mirandi, About 1968. Museum no. T.313-1979

Jerkin
Mirandi
About 1968
Jerkin: suede
Retailed at Hung On You
Museum no. T.313-1979
Given by David Mlinaric

The figure-hugging jerkin decorated with the outline of an eagle is in keeping with the late 1960s interest in 'ethnic' cultures. It was bought at Hung On You, an elite Chelsea boutique owned by Michael Rainey, who was married to the hippy socialite Jane Ormsby Gore, daughter of Lord Harlech.

Dress, Rose Bradford

Dress, Rose Bradford, About 1968. Museum no. T.463-1988

Dress
Rose Bradford for Quorum
About 1968
Synthetic fibre with Lurex
Museum no. T.463-1988
Given by Louise Barber

Quorum opened in 1964 with Alice Pollock as designer, to be joined a year later by Ossie Clark. In 1968, it was sold to a London wholesaler, Radley Fashions, who employed Rose Bradford to adapt Clark's designs for a wider market. This body-skimming shift is a rare example of a Rose Bradford label.

Man’s sweater, 1969. Museum No T.14-2000

Man’s sweater, 1969. Museum No T.14-2000

Man’s sweater
Mike Ross for RITVA knitwear [‘The Ritva Man’]
1969
Machine-knitted acrylic
Museum No T.14-2000
Given by Mike Ross

In 1969 Mike Ross designed a sweater called the ‘Homerun’, inspired by a traditional baseball under-garment. From this prototype, in two colours with a simple embroidered flower, there followed around 2500 original variations, with stripes, in unique colourways. Ross later produced two ‘Artist Collections’, a series of ‘wearable works of art’, with appliquéd designs by artist friends including David Hockney, Allen Jones, and Patrick Caulfield. Please note that this object is not displayed in the exhibition.