Celia Birtwell
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Definition
Celia Birtwell is a textile designer. She has had a very successful history in designing fashion fabrics, most recently her Top Shop range.
Stella’s Take on Celia Birtwell
Celia Birtwell was a real zeitgeist designer. Her fabrics are so ironically ‘early 70’s’ it is hard to separate the time in which they were conceived and consider them dispassionately. Her relationship with Ossie Clarke is one of the truly great duos in the fashion world. I particularly liked their work, together or apart, because it paid direct and sincere homage to the 1930’s. Celia put Art Deco style prints onto bias cut crepes and silks in a delicious melange. Her designs would simply not have gone onto cotton or linen – that was for someone else to do. Her job was to recreate the glamour and slinky style EVERYONE wanted to remember and celebrate. Celia Birtwell and Barbara Hulanicki were both importantly female – we all too often suffer the cruelly discomforting designs of men – except Ossie Clarke of course. I was never rich enough to buy early Clarke/Birtwell garments, on the Quorum label or any other. So I have made a point of collecting Ossie’s crepe dresses, I have eight or nine. I’ve never managed to find Celia’s original prints, so I was thrilled to find her working with Top Shop, and rushed down to Oxford Street to pick one up. Sadly, still a bit expensive for my purse!
Website Links
http://www.celiabirtwell.com/home.html
This is Celia Birtwell’s homepage
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1250_ossieclark/designs/celiabirtwell/
This V&A website link looks at Celia Birtwell sketches.
This is the Top Shop link to Celia Birtwell’s range.
Images
