About

Raymond Clark was born in 1942 into a working class family of 8 in Liverpool, in the North of England, and was nicknamed Ossie after Oswaldtwistle, the name of the town he was evacuated to during World War II. Ossie's mother, Anne Grace Clark, was in labor with Ossie for seven days during an air raid in World War II. Anne had been expecting a girl and so had no name picked out for her new baby. She let the midwife name him Raymond. Ossie was the youngest of six children ( Gladys, Kay, Beryl, Sammy and John ). Ossie and his brother John sang in the church choir at St Oswald's church in Winwick where Ossie won awards for his vocal talents.

Family and friends noted that from a very early age he was "brilliant at doing anything". Young Ossie would make clothes for his nieces and nephews. He practiced tailoring clothing on his dolls and designed swimsuits for the neighborhood girls when not yet ten years old. The Art teacher at Ossie's Secondary School recognised Ossie's creative flair and gave him a large collection of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines. Clark pored over these magazines and took in all the glamour and cutting edge fashion.

At the age of thirteen Ossie studied architecture in school. He later said that the experience was"invaluable" The class taught him the fundamentals of proportion, height and volume. He would later go on to use all of these to great effect in his fashion designs.

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The Look

He designed both daywear and eveningwear, often using sensuous fabrics such as satin, chiffon, crepe, and clinging jersey. Although, since he was so versatile and prolific, it is hard to characterize his style, he was probably best known for clinging crepe and jersey dresses with plunging necklines, figure-hugging waists, and swirling skirts, but he was equally capable of producing close-fitting crisp linen suits. Innovations in terms of cut included suits with elbow-length tight-fitting sleeves over full long-sleeved blouses. In the late 1960s, he used exotic materials such as snakeskin, feathers, and metallic prints.

Who Wears It

Mich Jagger, the Beatles, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Sharon Tate, Britt Ekland, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg , Twiggy, Marie Helvin, Cathy McGowan, and Goldie Hawn.

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