Ossie Clark

LONDON, February 23, 2009
By Sarah Mower
The Ossie Clark oeuvre is so well known and cherished by vintage-loving girls (and has been so thoroughly referenced and re-referenced by others since he died) that it's been tough for the label to find its bearings since it was bought by the entrepreneur Marc Worth. For the first couple of seasons, house designer Avsh Alom Gur seemed to vacillate over whether he should do his own thing or dare to approximate Ossie-style raised-waist seventies moss-crepe dresses and bring back the distinctive things the designer did with sleeves and bias cut. For Fall, Gur finally seemed to get a grip and focus on the seventies familiars—the only policy that could possibly give a point to the line. He did his best job yet of working with archive templates, turning out fluted empire-line day dresses with trumpet or balloon sleeves in the kinds of petrol blues and maroons that were Ossie signatures and huge sellers in their day under the Radley label. Separates in the flattering form of flippy, paneled knee-length skirts and satin blouses also worked, and one swirly, tiered long chiffon dress came the nearest Gur has gotten to capturing some of the hippie-era magic Clark personified. The issue still is whether this line is best projected on a runway. It's a label that ought to quietly stay in its own seventies groove rather than try to be part of the seasonal trend discussion.

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