queue up for birtwellCelia Birtwell's hippie chic prints with names such as Lapis Lazuli and Mystic Daily (the print she wore in Hockney's famous portrait of Mr & Mrs Clark and Percy) are enjoying a revival among a new generation, thanks to the celebrated textile designer's collaboration with TopShop.
The sophisticated prints are as fresh and vibrant today as in the 1960s, when they were favoured by the Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithful and the Beatles. Birtwell's first TopShop collection in 2005 sold out quickly. New this season is a limited edition of party dresses called The Collectibles, each numbered, in 100 per cent silk and selling at €250. They will go on sale on September 19th. Elsewhere, her new season's collection for TopShop features fluttery long and short dresses and tops (above) in crepe, cotton and silk, all with her unmistakable whimsical signature.
sound advice"Your accessories should be more expensive than your basic suit, which in this way, can achieve some reflected glory from them." Such was the advice given to young chaps by Hardy Amies, the legendary dressmaker who died four years ago, having opened his fashion house in 1945. When it came to menswear, or indeed any kind of fashion, he spoke with invincible authority and there is nothing that the world of fashion likes more than a dictator. On pants, he said: "If you reach round and grasp a good handful of cloth just below the seat, then you are suffering and your trousers need taking in." On shoes: "In a well kept shoe cupboard, you should not be able to see the wood for the trees." On fat men: "Wear clothes that are too large and never those that are too small. You will then achieve one of the first rules of good dressing: you will look relaxed." All this and more in ABC of Men's Fashion, written by the good Hardy in 1964, but still holding its shape and its force (published by V & A, £9.99 in the UK).
