Penelope Tree is her real name. Only child of Ronald Tree, journalist, investor and British MP and Marietta Tree, US socialite and in later years American represent  at the United Nations . Penelope is also related to retailer Marshall Field, Rev. Endicott Peabody and half-sister of author Frances FitzGerald. With Penelope Tree a change began in the way we perceive beauty. Penelope didn’t look like anybody else, she was a moon-child.

Penelope Tree’s well-to-do background could have been the foundation of a happy childhood, but it wasn’t. In a rare interview she gave a couple of years ago, she talked about a very unhappy childhood, a mom who was to busy having affairs with other man and her father, whom she felt very close too, but she only saw at school holidays.

Teenager Penelope Tree

She was 13 when the legendary photographer Diane Arbus photographed Penelope for a feature inTown & Country magazine. When Ronald Tree saw the pictures, he forbade them to be used. Arbus portrait Penelope as a spoilt rich kid, absolutely desperate at her own native habitat. Only one picture ever published is Penelope in their home living room.

At 17, she went to Truman Capote’s famous Black & White Ball (in 1966) and was spotted by Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon and Diana Vreeland ,who all took credit for discovering Penelope. The next day Penelope was already commissioned by American Vogue to be photographed by Avedon, who was so taken by Penelope’s appearance he said; ‘Don’t touch her. She is perfect’.

Penelope had already begun to cultivate her own style, which sometimes triggered furious reactions in the street of New York, because of her barely-there minis and racoon-tail skirts. With the sudden change in her life she hoped to escape her background. Avedon and Beaton worked together to make Penelope a supermodel.

The start of her modeling career (pictures by Richard Avedon)

Vogue, Vogue,Vogue…

Not long after her modelling career took off, Penelope met photographer David Bailey, who was then married to Catherine Deneuve. Penelope went back to New York and didn’t see Bailey for almost a year, but there were sparks between them and she thought about him all the time. And then Bailey turned up in New York and Penelope fell madly in love, she was 18, Bailey (as she calls him) was 30. She thought he could save her from her parents and her upbringing.

For a year or so  the relationship worked out. They lived together, travelled the world and when they were in London, Bailey and his muse were the epicentre of the sixties society. Then Penelope started to get jealous and somehow obsessed and inevitably it became claustrophobic to Bailey. ‘What an idiot! I had this Jane Austen view that once you have found your man, that is it’, Penelope says about this period.

Penelope Tree and David Bailey

Penelope’s look at the time was described as part Pipi Langstokking, part Egyptian Jiminy Cricket. She played up her Martian-like appearance by shaving her eyebrows. There are fashion observers who now say that she was a pioneer – she changed the notion of beauty and brought her own sense of style, which was copied by others.

But most of all  she brought enigmatic luminosity to the pictures taken of her. While some photographers adored her, others refused to work with her, because they thought she was a freak…. John Lennon, in a famous quote, called Penelope: ‘Hot, Hot, Hot, Smart, Smart, Smart!’

Her favorite style: Bohemian

Penelope secretly suffered from anorexia. This started already at boarding school. She was so in control of her weight as far as knowing exactly not to go beyond a certain point, because she didn’t want to end up in hospital. Nowadays Penelope’s pictures sometimes appear on pro-anorexia websites and this horrifies her. In her twenties the anorexia turned to bulimia, something she didn’t get under control till her thirties.

Then everything started to go wrong. Her relationship with Bailey was in free fall and suddenly her face got swollen by severe late-onset acne. Her career ended as quickly as it had begun. ‘I went from being sought-after to being shunned because nobody could bear to talk about the way I looked.’ It got even worse, when Penelope got arrested for possession of cocaine during a drug bust. Scarred and looking rough the police refused to believe she was either a famous model or the daughter of wealthy parents who could easily afford bail. She was held in custody for the night. ‘In a way, I was stripped of my identity completely’, she said.

In 1974 Bailey ended their relationship and Penelope went to Los Angeles and later to Australia, where she met her first husband Ricky Fataar, a musician with the Beach Boys. They got a daughter, Paloma Tree Fataar and with Australian psychoanalyst Stuart McFarlane Penelope got a son, Micheal McFarlane. Through all the years she stayed friends with Bailey.

For the best part of the past 39 years Penelope has done her damnedest to stay out of the spotlights, but during the last years she has appeared again in some magazines and fashion ads like Burberry and Barneys Tree time spring 2012, photographed by Mario Sorrenti. Penelope is a student of Buddhism since the 1980s and works for a non-profit organization that supports education for vulnerable women and children in Cambodia and India, called Lotus Outreach and for the Khyentse Foundation, which promotes Buddhist scholarship. She is as true to herself as her photographs would have you believe!

Recent photographs of Penelope Tree 

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Ossie Clark is  the world’s most collectible post-war fashion designer.

This is my third post about a designer in London during the swinging 60ties, because a revolution infashion happened during those days. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones changed the sound of music and young people were ready for their own style in fashion, more appropriate for the new times. Mary Quant was the first to understand and created a look for the new generation and by doing so blasted an opening in the wall of tradition through which other young talents have poured, like Barbara Hulanicki, Jean Muir, Zandra Rhodes and the most flamboyant of all, Ossie Clark. 

Raymond ‘Ossie’ Clark practised tailoring clothes on his dolls when he was not yet ten years old. He attended the Regional College of Art in Manchester at sixteen. Here he got introduced to Celia Birtwell, with whom he became close friends and soon also lovers. Ossie also befriended David Hockney, who became a famous artist/painter. He graduated in 1958 and went on to the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London where Madge Garland, who had worked for British Vogue and as a leading fashion journalist and textile expert, had become the  first Professor of Fashion Design. Magde Garland had great influence on the young and upcoming designers.

Celia Birtwell followed Ossie to London and they lived together in his small flat. His final exam featured a dress with flashing lightbulbs, that was shown in every major news and fashion publication the next day. Ossie Clark got noticed. During the next year (1966) he met Alice Pollock, who owned the exclusive boutique ‘Quorum’ on Kings Road. Alice recognized Ossie’s talent and ordered a collection of dresses, he made in all white and cream chiffon. The collection sold well and for the next collection Alice Pollock commissioned Celia Birtwell to design prints and one of the most famous fashion collaborations was born: Ossie Clark designing clothes and Celia Birtwell designing prints for these clothes. The partnership would last for almost all of Ossie’s career in fashion. She was his muse and inspirer. Her designs would never have gotten so famous without his dresses and his dresses would not have been so outstanding without her designs.

Ossie Clark dresses in prints by Celia Birtwell

Their work became very sought after and the collections sold out in no time. From a top-shelf collection ‘Ossie Clark for Quorum’ became the main collection. In late 1966 Ossie discovered a warehouse, where he found several rolls of untouched python and watersnake skins which were stored for about twenty years. He was able to hide his enthusiasm and purchased the skins for a bargain. The first leather clothes were shown at the Quorum A/W collection 1967. The phyton and snake-skin jackets were a huge success.

Python & Watersnake skin jackets

In the late 1960s the fashion press named Ossie ‘The King of King’s Road’. His love for dance, Nijinsky in specific, inspired him to make his clothes not restricting the female form and allow free movement. This style of dressing became quite popular in the 70ties thanks in large part to the popularity of Ossie’s clothes. He and Alice Pollock were great in creating an image and drawing in the rich and famous, but were not successful in managing the business. In 1967 Quorum was deeply in dept and Alice, together with Ossie, agreed to sell the boutique to a large fashion house, Radley, owned by Alfred Radley.

Alfred Radley continued to support Ossie’s aspirations by developing the ‘Ossie Clark’ brand, which was popular with the rich & famous and also introduced the ‘Ossie Clark for Radley’ collection, which made his designs also available to high street clietele. Radley organized fashion shows at Chelsea Town Hall and the first full fashion show by Ossie in London’s Berkeley Square, which featured black models (Yves Saint Laurent introduced this in Paris).

Ossie Clark was not just popular in London, but also in New York and Paris, where Radley also organised fashion shows for him. But Ossie, who drank heavily and started taking hard drugs with Alice Pollock in the beginning of their collaboration, became more and more unpredictable. When Alfred Radley made an important appointment for Ossie and himself to meet large new buyers from Italy, Ossie didn’t show up and the buyers went home without doing business.

In 1969 Ossie had married Celia, who got  pregnant with their first son, Albert and later they had their son, George. Ossie adored his sons and would have loved to have more children, but the relationship got under a strain. Celia spent most her time raising the boys, while Ossie lived a life of sex (mostly with men), drugs & rock ‘n roll with his famous friends. For a while he went on making clothes for Mick Jagger (also some stage outfits), Keith Richards, The Beatles, Marianne Faithfull,  Tahlita Getty and other well-known people, but when Celia decided to divorce Ossie it went all downwards.

Some rich & famous wearing Ossie Clark

Ossie couldn’t cope with the loss of Celia and his sons and together with his alcohol and substance abuse, he derailed. In the mean time fashion changed and Punk became the new style. When his fortunes declined to bankruptcy, Ossie blamed it on the banks. Taxmen cashed in all his assets. He went bitter and set out the bankruptcy term. He now only worked on private orders from friends and got paid out in rent-free stayovers in weekend houses, free holidays or by paying of his outstanding bills.

In 1978, Ossie met his second long-term partner Nicholas Balaban, who worked as a barman in the famous Sombrero Club in Kensington (the place to spent the night). He encouraged Balaban to start his own fashion business in printed T-shirts, which became hugely successful. But Ossie kept on living an illegitimate lifestyle and Balahan ended the relationship 1983. The next year Ossie went back to work with Radley, produced some beautiful garments, but got sacked the same year. His designs were too complicated to produce commercially. After Balaban died and Ossie converted to Buddhism it was finally time to shake of the past.

In 1996 Ossie got stabbed to death in his flat in Kensington by his 28-year-old Italian on-and-of lover, Diego Cogolato. Cogolato was high and destabilised by a combination of Prozac and amphetamines and reenacted a vision he had the previous day, he was the messiah and Ossie the devil. (Cogolato was only sentenced to six years in prison) By the evening of August 7, family and close friends were informed and the next day newspapers around the world carried the news.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy  thepainting by David Hockney(1970) hangs in the Tate Britain gallery on Millbank and is one of the most visited paintings in Britain

Style Icon Kate Moss wore a vintage Ossie Clark dress at the rehearsal dinner before her wedding to Jamie Hince.

Celia Birtwell opened shop on Westbourne Park Road in London. The shop has been described as ‘London’s best kept secret’ and is now managed by her son George and his wife Bella. On the online shop you can find  fabrics and wallpaper with her famous prints, but also some beautiful vintage Ossie Clark dresses.    www.celiabirtwell.com

Vogue Italia published a story photographed by Steven Meisel in december 2009, which was inspired by the works of Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell.

To read more about this tumultuous time I can recommend two books: Celia Birtwell by Celia Birtwell and Dominic Lutyens &  The Ossie Clark Diaries,edited and introduced by Lady Henrietta Rous. To order at  www.amazon.com

                         Raymond ‘Ossie’ Clark     9 June. 1942  –  6 August, 1996