The Polimoda magazines’ archive as an essential tool for the exhibition Mr & Mrs Clark: Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell Fashion & Prints 1965-1974 hosted by the Museo del Tessuto in Prato from September 16, 2022 until January, 2023.
A collaboration between the two institutions, Polimoda and Museo del Tessuto in Prato that is renewed each time. This time through the loan by Polimoda to the Museo del Tessuto of some issues of Vogue London, Vogue Italia and Vogue America. Together with the clothes and sketches, the magazines tell an era, that of Swinging London and their undisputed protagonists, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, of an unmistakable style, the flower power forerunner of trends, of inspirations from the 1920s and 1930s.
Through the magazines, fashion, costume, the fashion industry tell each other and communicate to sell a dress, an accessory, to convey a dream, to make people understand what clothes mean, or why they are made in a certain way and then they change...
Periodicals, in fact, are a primary source of information, they are witness of their time, of the now, and they tell about fashion through those expressive means that best suit them: not only the word, therefore, but also and above all illustration and photography.
The Polimoda Library is the reference place, the right one where you can investigate fashion and costume. It’s a window that opens onto a world that is only apparently ephemeral, but which actually concerns us all, concerns the history of the human being through the time and in the world. It is the place to be inspired, to let your mind run wild, to collect ideas and transform them into a dress, into a fashion collection...
So, what is more fascinating?
A collaboration between the two institutions, Polimoda and Museo del Tessuto in Prato that is renewed each time. This time through the loan by Polimoda to the Museo del Tessuto of some issues of Vogue London, Vogue Italia and Vogue America. Together with the clothes and sketches, the magazines tell an era, that of Swinging London and their undisputed protagonists, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, of an unmistakable style, the flower power forerunner of trends, of inspirations from the 1920s and 1930s.
Through the magazines, fashion, costume, the fashion industry tell each other and communicate to sell a dress, an accessory, to convey a dream, to make people understand what clothes mean, or why they are made in a certain way and then they change...
Periodicals, in fact, are a primary source of information, they are witness of their time, of the now, and they tell about fashion through those expressive means that best suit them: not only the word, therefore, but also and above all illustration and photography.
The Polimoda Library is the reference place, the right one where you can investigate fashion and costume. It’s a window that opens onto a world that is only apparently ephemeral, but which actually concerns us all, concerns the history of the human being through the time and in the world. It is the place to be inspired, to let your mind run wild, to collect ideas and transform them into a dress, into a fashion collection...
So, what is more fascinating?
Bibliography
Watt, Judith. Ossie Clark, 1965-74. London: V&A, 2003
Rous, Henrietta (edited by). The Ossie Clark diaries. London: Bloomsbury, 1998
Lutyens, Dominic. Celia Birtwell. London: Quadrille, 2011
Vogue London. London; Condé Nast, 1916-
Vogue Italia. Milano: Condé Nast, 1966-
Vogue. New York: The Fashion Company, 1892-
The Vogue Archive. Ann Arbor: Proquest (accessed October 10, 2022)
Museo del Tessuto di Prato (accessed October 10, 2022)
[Marcella Mazzetti]
Rous, Henrietta (edited by). The Ossie Clark diaries. London: Bloomsbury, 1998
Lutyens, Dominic. Celia Birtwell. London: Quadrille, 2011
Vogue London. London; Condé Nast, 1916-
Vogue Italia. Milano: Condé Nast, 1966-
Vogue. New York: The Fashion Company, 1892-
The Vogue Archive. Ann Arbor: Proquest (accessed October 10, 2022)
Museo del Tessuto di Prato (accessed October 10, 2022)
[Marcella Mazzetti]