|  | | Ossie Clark. Edited and Introduced by Lady Henrietta Rous.
London. Bloomsbury. 1998. First edition, first printing. Black cloth hardback, dust jacket. 402 pages. 32 hors texte colour plates and several b&w text illustrations. 245 x 160mm (9¾ x 6¼"). 1kg. 0747539014. English. Near fine; the slightest shelf wear to jacket.
'Ossie Clark was one of the most influential names in post-war British fashion, an emblem of the glamour and liberation of the sixties and seventies and the most sought-after clothes designer of the period. He created exquisite and outrageous clothes for the rock-stars, actors and elite of London and New York, many of whom became his friends - Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Twiggy, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Patrick Procktor, to name but a few - and at the peak of his career Clark himself enjoyed superstar status. The archetypal flawed genius, Clark lived a jet-set life for some ten years, but his lack of business acumen and his undisciplined talent were eventually his downfall. His marriage to the fabric designer Celia Birtwell, Hockney's muse, foundered and, though he never lost his ambition, he was unable to sustain his career and was declared bankrupt in 1983. Latterly he became a Buddhist and lived in a small council flat in Holland Park where he was murdered by his lover in 1996.
The diaries Clark kept are filled with beautiful sketches, uninhibited records of conversations, thoughts and ideas, wittily-acerbic details of everything he did and observations, many of them vituperative, of the famous people with whom he came into contact.' (from the blurb).
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