Ossie Clark children: Meet Albert Clark & George Clark

Ossie Clark, dressmaker extraordinary, was that rarest of breeds: a male fashion designer who understood, instinctively, the female anatomy. His cutting skills – legendary in fashion circles – were a consequence of his natural talent for translating the curves of a woman’s body into cloth. His clothes were floaty, romantic, and completely sexy, with plunging necklines, nipped-in waists, and a unique structure that was the result of freehand scissorwork.

Clark was unfazed by dressing any kind of figure – even women who were on the verge of giving birth. “Comfort,” he once said simply, “That is the most important thing”.

Born into a large working-class family in Oswaldwistle (hence the nickname), at secondary school he was encouraged by his schoolmaster to study American fashion glossies instead of academic textbooks, and eventually his rise, via the Royal College of Art, to become one of the most significant and talented fashion designers of modern times.

His meeting (at Salford School of Art) and subsequent marriage to the textile designer Celia Birtwell was a turning point in his life. Their extraordinary collaboration of exquisite cut and beautiful cloth became the complete antithesis of synthetic Sixties fashion. “Without doubt, he did his best work with Celia”, said the textile designer Bernard Neville, who taught Clark at the Royal College. “They simply sparked each other off.”

Always at the center of social activity, even as a student, Clark became friends with his fellow students David Hockney and Patrick Proctor.

Ossie Clark children: Meet Albert Clark & George Clark

He married Celia Birtwell in 1969, and together they had two sons, Albert and George. Clark had long hoped for a large family of his own, and his children were a great joy in his life.

Clark freely adopted the hedonistic lifestyle of the 1960s and 1970s: his drug use greatly impacted his emotional state and finances. Clark and Birtwell divorced in 1974.

This started a slow downward spiral for Ossie, who never recovered emotionally from the separation from Birtwell and his two children. With his family structure and work stability now gone, his creative output became strained.