The Shrimpton Couture Dress of The Day - Ossie Clark

Today's featured dress is one of the many insanely fabulous vintage Ossie Clarks and Ossie Clark designed Radleys I currently have posted over at Shrimpton Couture. It is moss crepe so any smudges on the photos are the lighting, not flaws on the dress. It is in fabulous condition and is crazy ass sexy when worn!

This is that ultimate throw it on and be instantly fabulous. There is a quote somewhere that goes along the lines of "its impossible to not have a good time while wearing an Ossie Clark". It's easy to see why a girl would say that - how could you possible sit in a corner and pout in this dress?

It's cut scandalously low and wide on the front. Be prepared to wear double sided tape. Ironically though when worn it is cut so it actually hugs the chest pretty tight down the front -resulting in a lot less exposure then one would think.

In the back it is dramatically draped and slit to the waist. Its hard to see in this photo and again when worn it is cut so that this is almost hidden, but when you move just so you get this unexpected flash of bare skin. Crazy sexy!

Ossie's original decree for wearing his frocks was to wear them as naked as the day you where born and you can see why with this neckline!
The dress is very unusual in that it a very wearable, shorter length.

Original Ossie Clarks are not cheap - I have this one priced at $1500 over at Shrimpton Couture and if you just dies a little death over the price , well i hate to tell you this but I am actually cheap compared to some sites out there. If you just fell in love - snatch it up right now because everything on the site is 15% off but only till the end of the month. With the discount the dress is a respectable $1275. Not bad for a piece of history that is growing in value daily and a scandalously sexy and wearable dress to boot!

If for some odd reason you have not yet heard of Ossie Clark here's the low-down from the Vintage Fashion Guild (of whom Shrimpton Couture is a proud member)on what some will argue is one of the greatest designers of our times:

(1934-1996) Ossie Clark went to work at Alice Pollock's Quorum boutique in 1965, along with textile designer Celia Birtwell, whom he later married. Together, they created clothing that was one of the defining looks of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Birtwell's fabrics were romantic and printed on a variety of textiles, including chiffon, velvet, and rayon crepe. Clark took the textiles, often combining several in a single garment, and created beautiful dresses. They often had a scooped or deeply V-ed neckline, long flowing sleeves and ingeniously cut panels that gave the appearance of layering. He also did a line of snakeskin clothing that was wildly popular.

In 1969, Alfred Radley became a partner in Quorum, and Clark started designing not only for Qourum, but also for Radley. These Radley garments were not always designed entirely by Clark, as designers at Radley took his sketches and patterns and then designed other dresses using the design concepts. These clothes were much more affordable than Quorum designs, and so Clark's influence continued to grow.

By the end of the 1970s, Ossie Clark's career was pretty much over except for the occasional dress for a private client. He died in 1996.

For more info on the dress or to purchase - click here!