They dressed \u2013 and partied with \u2013 the innermost in-crowd. As a swirling new show celebrates their fashion creations, Birtwell recalls her happy days with Clark and her sorrow at the loss of David Hockney<\/p>\n
In the mythical age of bohemia, the psychedelic decade between Mary Quant\u2019s cheerful miniskirts and the first snarls of punk, Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark were London\u2019s most fashionable couple. Birtwell created the fabrics: daydreamy, botanical doodles that captured the idealism and looseness of the times in wisps of chiffon. Clark magicked these into sensual bias-cut dresses with a freewheeling grandeur that was part Hollywood glamour, part rock\u2019n\u2019roll anarchy.<\/p>\n
More than just designers, they were a whole vibe. They dressed \u2013 and partied with \u2013 the innermost of the in-crowd. Talitha Getty, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg hung out at Quorum, their Chelsea boutique. At a catwalk show in 1970, there were two Beatles, Cecil Beaton and Brigitte Bardot in the audience \u2013 and, after Clark began making stage clothes for Mick Jagger, he accompanied the Rolling Stones on tour. David Hockney\u2019s portrait of the couple in their pomp \u2013 Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, painted two years into their marriage, when Birtwell was pregnant with their second child \u2013 sealed their place in the mythology of the period.<\/p>\n
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