LONDON — The vintage-inspired British model Joanie Clothes has tapped legendary textile designer Celia Birtwell to drizzle her bohemian magic over a group of printed clothes and blouses with a romantic, Nineteen Seventies really feel — and a sustainable slant.
Joanie Clothes, a direct-to-consumer B Corp model primarily based in Manchester, England, has labored a sequence of Birtwell prints into pussy bow blouses, caftans with bell sleeves and clothes with ruffle collars or little cape particulars.
The 14-piece assortment, Celia Birtwell x Joanie, has been made utilizing light-weight, responsibly sourced viscose and modal materials. Costs vary from 69 kilos to 129 kilos, and are being offered by the Joanie Clothes web site.
The Peachy Pie print costume, a part of the Celia Birtwell x Joanie collaboration.
Mark Gregson
Lucy Gledhill, Joanie Clothes’s founder and model director, mentioned she labored carefully on the gathering with Birtwell, whom she described as “the queen of ditsy florals.” Gledhill mentioned she has at all times beloved Birtwell’s “playful scales, complementary colours and idiosyncratic [print] names.”
Certainly, Birtwell has at all times had a approach with phrases. Her prints have names equivalent to Hen Music, Dilly Daydream, Cherry Pet Spot and Monkey Puzzle.
Gledhill mentioned that Birtwell “expertly smushes collectively” playful prints and clashing types, at all times tastefully. “It’s a pinch-me second to convey this assortment to life after years of ‘fan-girling’ over her prints.”
She added Birtwell’s heyday of the late ’60s and early ’70s “is my Kryptonite, and such a bountiful interval for artwork, music, tradition and in the end trend, that I simply can’t resist — it’s the golden age for me.”
The Queen of the Evening print costume, a part of the Celia Birtwell x Joanie collaboration.
Mark Gregson
Types within the new assortment embody the Little Rock, a chiffon costume with an Elvis Presley-inspired verify print designed by Birtwell within the early Nineteen Seventies. There may be additionally Mystic Daisy, a flared-sleeve caftan, and Sunfloral, a shirt made utilizing remnant cloth from the dual print Golden Slumbers costume.
If these names conjure pictures of hazy daylight, wildflower fields and free love — with Beatles music enjoying within the background — that’s no accident.
Birtwell first got here to fame within the late ’60s and early ’70s, creating the distinctive prints for her designer husband Ossie Clark, who was recognized for his fluid, slender clothes that exposed the décolleté and performed on transparency.
The couple, and their cat, who had been immortalized in David Hockney’s 1971 portray “Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy,” dressed the youth of the period, together with celebrities equivalent to Bianca and Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Elizabeth Taylor, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix and Marisa Berenson.
Pictures of Birtwell and Clark from these days at the moment function in a images present referred to as “Kasmin’s Digicam,” which runs till Aug. 16 at Lyndsey Ingram in London.
The present options greater than 100 pictures by the London gallerist and vendor John Kasmin of his bohemian associates touring, hanging round within the south of France, and consuming and smoking their approach by the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s.
The Bouquet pussy bow shirt, a part of the Celia Birtwell x Joanie assortment.
Mark Gregson
Birtwell’s creativity has not dimmed since these early days of her profession. After parting methods with Clark, she moved into house textiles, and later returned to trend through a sequence of collaborations, with Categorical within the U.S., and Subsequent, Uniqlo and Topshop within the U.Ok.
In a phone interview, Birtwell mentioned she’s at all times been “mad about trend. I’ve bought nice reminiscences of Ossie Clark, who I feel was the best possible of all. In a approach, I’ve saved a candle burning for him, and we’ve used a few of his shapes” within the Joanie assortment.
She mentioned her favourite prints from the Joanie assortment embody Little Rock, which has a lily on it, and Golden Slumbers, which options major brights equivalent to yellow, crimson and inexperienced. Birtwell mentioned she has already purchased Joanie garments for her daughters-in-law, her granddaughters and associates, however not for herself.
“They’re designed for younger individuals, though they do go well with all people,” Birtwell mentioned.
She now not designs textiles — for house or for trend — and depends on her ample print archive for the collaborations. Birtwell hasn’t stopped designing, although, and repeatedly paints playing cards for her many youngsters and grandchildren.
“I’ve at all times bought my paintbrushes out,” mentioned the designer, “and I at all times assume it’s good for me to work.”
In 2006, Birtwell’s 11-piece assortment for Topshop was a runaway hit. It featured among the similar hand-drawn florals that seem within the new Joanie assortment, equivalent to Mystic Daisy and Golden Slumbers.
Birtwell was additionally within the highlight just a few years in the past. The 2022 the exhibition, “Mr. & Mrs. Clark, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, Vogue and Prints 1965-74” was unveiled on the Museo del Tessuto in Prato, Italy, and later moved to Milan’s Fondazione Sozzani in 10 Corso Como below the patronage of Italy’s Digicam della Moda.
The Golden Slumbers print, one among Birtwell’s favorites, from the Celia Birtwell x Joanie assortment.
Mark Gregson
