Clive Evans (fashion designer)

Last updated

Clive Evans
Born1933 [1]
London [2]
OccupationFashion designer
Notable creditMember of Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers [2]

Clive Evans, better known as Clive, was a London-born fashion designer of the 1960s who attracted a number of celebrity fans and was promoted internationally as a high fashion designer from Swinging London.

Contents

Operating initially as a couture designer – and at a time when fashion was undergoing a radical shift towards mass-market and ready-to-wear – he was described by The Times fashion editor Prudence Glynn in 1972 as: "the last flowering on the tree of British couture". [3]

Early life and career

Evans was born in London into a medical family, claiming six generations of doctors came before him. [2] [4] He chose not to follow family tradition and spent time in the navy, also training as a journalist and working as a porter. [4]

Having completed a course at Canterbury College of Art Evans began his fashion apprenticeship with Michael of Carlos Place before working at Lachasse and John Cavanagh – all were members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (IncSoc), giving him an impeccable grounding in the London couture scene. [2] While working at Lachasse, he won both first and second prize in a design competition organised by the International Wool Secretariat. [1] [2]

After a spell working with Berketex (then a wholesale house) as an assistant within its ready-to-wear department, he showed his first collection in 1963 in a borrowed space. [1] [2]

Eponymous label

By 1964, Evans was showing from his own salon just off Hanover Square and in August of that year he was elected as a member of IncSoc – bypassing the normal requirement to show at least four collections before being considered for membership. [2] After this small (for the time) collection of 24 pieces was shown, The Sydney Morning Herald described him as "the man of the moment" in British fashion, also noting that, like his first mentor Michael of Carlos Place, he was tuned into the Balenciaga style. The reviewer added: "His tailoring is superb. His line is pure and his cut intricate." [2] The Guardian 's reviewers added further praise: "Clive's clothes have confident assurance...A young man must, indeed, have confident assurance and not a little courage to start a couture house these days when the whole drift of fashion is towards casual clothes and ready-to-wear." [1]

The first full Clive collection was launched in January 1965. It was greeted warmly by the reviewer for The Times , who described it as setting "a mood of high sophistication" with its tunic suits, collarless coats with kimono sleeves and suits with culotte skirts. Eveningwear included sarong and sari-style dresses and an evening blouse made of chiffon and 30 yards of ribbon. The collection included shoes he'd designed and models wore straw turban hats made by Graham Smith with inbuilt slots to hold futuristic sunglasses made by Oliver Goldsmith. [5]

Clive clothes soon attracted high-profile clients such as Lee Radziwill and a string of actresses – notably Cyd Charisse, Diane Cilento, Susannah York and Barbara Rush. [6]

Ready to wear clothing

In 1967, Clive signed an agreement with Cope Allman International to produce a ready-to-wear line, 'Clive Set', for the international market. [6] [7] The first collection was launched with transatlantic fanfare – beginning with a showing in London at 9.30 am, then a second showing on the flight to New York, before a final event on RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York Harbour. [8]

Cope Allman's fashion division had decided to market Clive internationally because they saw him as representative of 'Swinging London' fashion – he was a keen supporter of the mini and unstructured shift dress, unlike many of his IncSoc contemporaries. The collection, which included casual summer suits, dresses with topcoats and jumpsuits, some topped with Graham Smith hats, was greeted positively by The Guardian reviewer, who said it was less bold than his couture designs but comprised "quiet clothes in well-chosen materials" and concluded it was likely to be well received on both sides of the Atlantic. [8] From 1968, Clive Set clothes were available in the designer's Hanover Square store, as well as in the Oxford Street department store Peter Robinson. [9]

Other commissions

By the late 1960s, Clive had diversified into producing film costumes alongside his work for couture and ready-to-wear clients. [8] Indeed, in 1966 it was reported in The Times that he had postponed his London fashion shows and was busy designing costumes for a spy film about a journalist starring Cyd Charisse and Elsa Martinelli. [10]

In 1969, he was chosen as the designer to launch a new leather substitute Porvair, created by British company Chloride Electrical Storage Company. While he was not known for his menswear designs, the dramatic garments he created led The Times journalist Antony King-Deacon to comment that he wished he would. Richard Smith of The Chelsea Cobbler and Glen Carr of Norvic created the faux leather shoes. [11]

In 1970, Clive was chosen as designer of the new BOAC air stewardess uniform, designing a terylene and cotton mini dress in pink or turquoise colourway with streamlined space-age styling. [12] He introduced trousers for the first time to the uniform, although these could not be worn in the cabin while serving passengers. [13] [14]

Demise of fashion label

A year later, Clive's fashion collection was sponsored by the faux fur manufacturer Borg and, alongside the staple shift dresses that were a signature item, contained a large number of garments demonstrating the fur's potential uses. These included an extraordinary full-length evening dress in graduated shades of terracotta faux fur. A reviewer from the Sydney Morning Herald – the newspaper which less than a decade earlier described him as the man of the moment – was unimpressed: "Clive is chic and clever, but unfortunately not original this season...With the couture scene as fraught as ever with financial problems, it's inevitable that Clive cannot be as couture as he was". [15]

The couture house of Clive closed in 1971 – the same year that Evans' first mentor Michael of Carlos Place shut his business – and Evans became a design consultant. A year later, he was working with the fashion house of Dorville and also producing clothes made of tweed from the Isle of Bute for a mail-order catalogue. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Saint Laurent (designer)</span> French fashion designer (1936–2008)

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, referred to as Yves Saint Laurent or YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century. In 1985, Caroline Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its 1960s ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniskirt</span> Short skirt that usually extends to mid-thigh

A miniskirt is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than 10 cm (4 in) below the buttocks; and a dress with such a hemline is called a minidress or a miniskirt dress. A micro-miniskirt or microskirt is a miniskirt with its hemline at the upper thigh, at or just below crotch or underwear level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert de Givenchy</span> French fashion designer

Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion and perfume house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn and clothing for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Hartnell</span> British fashion designer

Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell, KCVO was a leading British fashion designer, best known for his work for the ladies of the royal family. Hartnell gained the Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth in 1940, and Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Princess Beatrice also wore a dress designed for Queen Elizabeth by Hartnell for her wedding in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Balmain</span> French fashion designer (1914–1982)

Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain was a French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house Balmain. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dressmaking as "the architecture of movement."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Laroche</span> French fashion designer

Guy Laroche was a French fashion designer and founder of the eponymous company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of fashion design</span> Evolution of fashion world


History of fashion design refers specifically to the development of the purpose and intention behind garments, shoes ,accessories, and their design and construction. The modern industry, based around firms or fashion houses run by individual designers, started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who, beginning in 1858, was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments he created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sportswear (fashion)</span> Fashion category of relaxed day clothes, originally separates

Sportswear is an American fashion term originally used to describe separates, but which since the 1930s has come to be applied to day and evening fashions of varying degrees of formality that demonstrate a specific relaxed approach to their design, while remaining appropriate for a wide range of social occasions. The term is not necessarily synonymous with activewear, clothing designed specifically for participants in sporting pursuits. Although sports clothing was available from European haute couture houses and "sporty" garments were increasingly worn as everyday or informal wear, the early American sportswear designers were associated with ready-to-wear manufacturers. While most fashions in America in the early 20th century were directly copied from, or influenced heavily by Paris, American sportswear became a home-grown exception to this rule, and could be described as the American Look. Sportswear was designed to be easy to look after, with accessible fastenings that enabled a modern emancipated woman to dress herself without a maid's assistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cavanagh (designer)</span> Fashion designer (1914–2003)

John Cavanagh was an Irish couturier of the 1950s and 1960s. A member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (IncSoc), his style has been described as reflecting Parisian chic. He designed the wedding dresses for the Duchess of Kent in 1961 and for Princess Alexandra in 1963.

Hardy Amies London (Limited) is a UK-based fashion house specializing in modern luxury menswear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardy Amies</span> English fashion designer

Sir Edwin Hardy Amies KCVO was an English fashion designer, founder of the Hardy Amies label and a Royal Warrant holder as designer to Queen Elizabeth II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers</span>

The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers was a membership organisation founded in 1942 to promote the British fashion and textile industry and create luxury couture to sell abroad for the war effort. It aimed to build the relationship between government and fashion industry and represent the interests of London couturiers. The organisation continued after the war and sought to present itself as an alternative to the revived Paris couture industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digby Morton</span>

Henry Digby Morton (1906–1983) was an Irish fashion designer and among the leading names of British couture in the period from 1930-50. He was also among the pioneers of ready-to-wear fashions in the 1950s. Successful on both sides of the Atlantic, he redefined women's suits and tailoring, earned himself the moniker 'Daring Digby' for his US fashion venture and helped to establish the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, an early forerunner of the British Fashion Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Creed</span> British fashion designer

Charles Southey Creed was a British fashion designer. Born into the longstanding tailoring house of Henry Creed & Company in Paris, he launched his eponymous label in London in 1946. The first elected member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, he had success in both Britain and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattli</span>

Giuseppe Mattli (1907–1982), usually known as Mattli or Jo Mattli, was a Swiss-born and London-based fashion designer known for his couture designs and, later, his ready-to-wear clothing and couture patterns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angele Delanghe</span> Belgian fashion designer

Angele Delanghe, was a Belgian fashion designer based in London who ran an eponymous label from the late 1930s to the mid 1960s and also produced couture designs for the West End department store Fortnum & Mason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Donnellan (fashion designer)</span>

Michael Donnellan (1915–1985) – best known as Michael of Carlos Place and simply Michael – was an Irish-born fashion designer who headed the house of Lachasse from 1941, before running a successful eponymous couture house in London from 1953 to 1971. From the 1960s on, he combined the role of couturier with consultancy to mainstream fashion houses, most notably acting as a key consultant to Marks & Spencer.

Lachasse was a British couture firm operating from 1928 until 2006, making it one of the longest surviving high fashion houses in London.

Reed Crawford (1924-2006) was a British milliner of the 1950s and 1960s. He produced a series of high-fashion designs that matched the Swinging London mood of the 1960s, including helmet-style cloche hats and designs in unusual material combinations, such as plastic and fur. He became especially associated with couture, working with the designer John Cavanagh from 1959 and joining the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers as an associate member from 1961.

Alison Adburgham was an English journalist, author and social historian, best known for her work as fashion editor of The Guardian newspaper, a position she held for 20 years. Along with Prudence Glynn of The Times and Alison Settle of The Observer, she pioneered British fashion journalism in a broadsheet national newspaper; as a bylined columnist, influencing public perception of trends in clothing, the industry itself. She also wrote several books on social history.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hart, John; Adburgham, Alison (23 January 1965). "The Spring Fashion Collections". The Guardian.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 from our own correspondent (30 August 1964). "Immortals". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 Glynn, Prudence (18 January 1972). "The life and hard times of British couture". The Times. No. 58378. p. 6.
  4. 1 2 staff (25 January 1965). "Collection notebook: Summing up the London Fashion Shows". The Times. No. 56228. The Times Digital Media Library. p. 15.
  5. "Study in dress contrasts". The Times. No. 56227. 23 January 1965.
  6. 1 2 Pauley, Gay (12 October 1967). "Short skirts will stay says expert". The Dispatch (Lexington). Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  7. Adburgham, Alison (29 October 1968). "The Invaders from Wales". The Observer.
  8. 1 2 3 Adburgham, Alison (5 October 1967). "The Clive Set". The Guardian. p. 6.
  9. "Such a bore, says Clive". The Guardian. 5 September 1968.
  10. "London shows: are we too understated?". The Times. No. 56688. 20 July 1966. p. 13.
  11. Deacon-Smith, Antony (24 October 1969). "Men's Fashion". The Times. No. 57699. p. 15.
  12. "BOAC uniforms". British Airways. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  13. Walker, Harriet (April 2013). "Fashion: The chic history of British Airways' Uniforms". High Life. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  14. "BA presents vintage uniform catwalk show". Business Traveller. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  15. Bell, Lynne (16 July 1971). "A shifty way with autumn". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 September 2014.