LONDON — Topshop has teamed up with Celia Birtwell to bring the textile designer’s signature feminine prints to a whole new generation.
Birtwell, ex-wife of the late British designer Ossie Clarke and a muse to David Hockney, is best known for creating the floral prints that adorned Clark’s dresses in the Seventies.
“The design team and I had been discussing how fantastic we thought Celia was,” said Jane Shepherdson, brand director of Topshop. “When her agent approached us about collaborating on a line, we leapt on it immediately.”
Birtwell and Topshop’s design team delved into the designer’s archives to produce an 11-piece collection of floaty blouses and dresses in silk, georgette and voile. The pieces all feature Birtwell’s delicate hand-drawn floral prints, whose shapes and names reference the designer’s heyday during the Seventies: Mystic Daisy, Monkey Puzzle and Golden Slumbers.
The colors also have a vintage feel, with combinations such as a raspberry-and-chocolate pattern on a button-down, handkerchief hem dress, and a mint green and pink daisy print on a wraparound silk blouse.
The collection launches today at Topshop’s Oxford Circus flagship here, and Shepherdson said there’s already a waiting list. Kate Moss has been photographed wearing a short cotton minidress from the line — an advance gift from the store.
“The response, so far, has been phenomenal, and we’ve booked really big quantities of the pieces,” said Shepherdson. Other designers who have collaborated with Topshop on capsule collections include Zandra Rhodes, Sophia Kokosalaki and Peter Jensen.
The collection retails from about $50 for a cotton halter top to $178 for a silk dress. Starting in mid-June, the line also will be sold at Topshop’s shop-in-shop at the New York boutique Opening Ceremony.
Birtwell, who now designs textiles for home interiors, will continue to work on the line for “two or three seasons,” Shepherdson said, who added that she would be keen to call on other names from the past for future collaborations.
“Fashion is very cyclical, and there’s always been a huge demand for retro,” said Shepherdson. “It’s nice to go back directly to the designer who was so in demand at that time, and ask them to create something new.”