“I’m doing it for Ossie Clark,” says Celia Birtwell. “I don’t like looking back.” She’s breaking her own rule for the Fashion + Textile Museum’s retrospective of the double act responsible for keeping Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix in slinky tailoring during their rock’n’roll heyday. “You don’t hear much about him now, but nobody can draw, cut, sew and do the whole damn thing quite like Ossie. I have to shine the brightest light on him.” High praise from Clark’s former partner in life as well as work, who imagined romantic prints to bring Clark’s designs to life before they parted ways in 1974. “He was a party boy and I was a homebody,” says Birtwell, who went on to open an interiors shop in Notting Hill in 1984 (Clark died in 1996), and has since collaborated with Topshop, Uniqlo John Lewis, and now Burberry, on fashion and home textiles (“I hate the word ‘furnishings’”). “The cycle of life is quite extraordinary,” says the now 85-year-old Lancashire-born print powerhouse. “I’m continually fascinated by fashion.”
The secret to a solid creative practice:
You have to edit. Not everything you do is very good. Some people think it is. It’s not.
Your uniform when designing:
I can look a wreck or put myself together and look quite nice. I’m quite quiet and my clothes – Cos jumpers, Uniqlo shirts – are quiet. I have to be comfortable before anything else.
What makes a good home textile?
You can’t use a fashion print, it’s an entirely different creature that’s made for a body. Home fabrics are softer. I like Bennison because they are historic; I have a lovely French Nobilis wallpaper in my bedroom.
What last made you chuckle?
David [Hockney] used to say to me, “It’s very good to laugh.” He’d tell the same joke 100 times and we’d all laugh politely. I miss him a lot, I really thought he’d outlive me.
How did you and David spend a typical afternoon?
We travelled the world and saw wonderful things together. The last exhibition was at The National Gallery, but he was unwell and a bit grumpy by then. People’s faces tell you so much, don’t they?
How to make a house a home?
A bit of untidiness is rather agreeable and overhead lighting is horrible.
How can I lift my home on a budget?
Fresh flowers. Scented lilies smell lovely and really welcome the evening.
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What is always worth the investment?
A good bed and bedding. 800 thread count – or even higher! And white, from John Lewis, I suppose. Coloured sheets make me feel miserable.
What about the small details?
Nice china and glassware don’t have to be expensive – Ikea does all that stuff – but there must be a lightness to them. Nobody wants a horribly heavy bowl.
Your most beloved piece of furniture?
I have two 18th-century chairs covered in a monotone rose print I did many years ago. I’m no good at roses really, I’m much better at flat designs, so this fabric was a triumph.
The best place to buy antiques?
I live in a tiny cottage near Leominster, where they have these wonderful shops-within-a-shop selling pottery, glassware, all sorts. You could cry because a lot of them are closing.
Ossie Clark + Celia Birtwell is at the Fashion + Textile Museum, SE1, from 2 October to 11 April 2027