Celia
Birtwell is one of the UK’s most talented textile designers. Her gorgeous
prints were tailored and cut into romantic dresses in the 60s and 70s by Ossie Clark, her late
ex-husband, and worn by the likes of Marianne Faithfull, Bianca Jagger and
Pattie Boyd.
Not
only that, she also became the long-term muse of David Hockney, whose Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy portrait is
one of the Tate’s most famous paintings.
Now in her 70s,
she’s still turning out
stunning designs. When she created a fashion collection for Topshop six years
ago it rapidly became their most successful designer collaboration. The clothes flew
off the shelves in next to no time – in fact I remember Topshop staff having to
limit the number of Celia Birtwell designs eachcustomers could buy. Then she designed a range for outdoor clothing store Millets (I immediately snapped up some wellies and a sleeping bag).
So it’s great news that
Birtwell has now teamed up with Uniqlo. Her archive prints have been
transformed into an exclusive range of T-shirts, vests, shirts, tote bags,
scarves and much more and will be launched in Uniqlo stores from March 21.
Wow. I’m definitely going
to be in the queue…
