Celia Birtwell Works Her Wild Flower Prints Into New Joanie Clothing Collaboration

LONDON — The vintage-inspired British brand Joanie Clothing has tapped legendary textile designer Celia Birtwell to drizzle her bohemian magic over a collection of printed dresses and blouses with a romantic, 1970s feel — and a sustainable slant.

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Joanie Clothing, a direct-to-consumer B Corp brand based in Manchester, England, has worked a series of Birtwell prints into pussy bow blouses, caftans with bell sleeves and dresses with ruffle collars or little cape details.

The 14-piece collection, Celia Birtwell x Joanie, has been made using lightweight, responsibly sourced viscose and modal fabrics. Prices range from 69 pounds to 129 pounds, and are being sold through the Joanie Clothing website.

Lucy Gledhill, Joanie Clothing’s founder and brand director, said she worked closely on the collection with Birtwell, whom she described as “the queen of ditsy florals.” Gledhill said she has always loved Birtwell’s “playful scales, complementary colors and idiosyncratic [print] names.”

Indeed, Birtwell has always had a way with words. Her prints have names such as Bird Song, Dilly Daydream, Cherry Pet Spot and Monkey Puzzle.

Gledhill said that Birtwell “expertly smushes together” playful prints and clashing styles, always tastefully. “It’s a pinch-me moment to bring this collection to life after years of ‘fan-girling’ over her prints.”

She added Birtwell’s heyday of the late ’60s and early ’70s “is my Kryptonite, and such a bountiful period for art, music, culture and ultimately fashion, that I just can’t resist — it’s the golden age for me.”

Styles in the new collection include the Little Rock, a chiffon dress with an Elvis Presley-inspired check print designed by Birtwell in the early 1970s. There is also Mystic Daisy, a flared-sleeve caftan, and Sunfloral, a blouse made using remnant fabric from the twin print Golden Slumbers dress.

If those names conjure images of hazy sunlight, wildflower fields and free love — with Beatles music playing in the background — that is no accident.

Birtwell first came to fame in the late ’60s and early ’70s, creating the distinctive prints for her designer husband Ossie Clark, who was known for his fluid, slender dresses that revealed the décolleté and played on transparency.

The couple, and their cat, who were immortalized in David Hockney’s 1971 painting “Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy,” dressed the youth of the era, including celebrities such as Bianca and Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Elizabeth Taylor, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix and Marisa Berenson.

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Images of Birtwell and Clark from those days currently feature in a photography show called “Kasmin’s Camera,” which runs until Aug. 16 at Lyndsey Ingram in London.

The show features more than 100 photographs by the London gallerist and dealer John Kasmin of his bohemian friends traveling, hanging around in the south of France, and drinking and smoking their way through the 1960s and ’70s.

Birtwell’s creativity has not dimmed since those early days of her career. After parting ways with Clark, she moved into home textiles, and later returned to fashion via a series of collaborations, with Express in the U.S., and Next, Uniqlo and Topshop in the U.K.

In a telephone interview, Birtwell said she’s always been “mad about fashion. I’ve got great memories of Ossie Clark, who I think was the absolute best of all. In a way, I’ve kept a candle burning for him, and we’ve used some of his shapes” in the Joanie collection.

She said her favorite prints from the Joanie collection include Little Rock, which has a lily on it, and Golden Slumbers, which features primary brights such as yellow, red and green. Birtwell said she has already bought Joanie clothes for her daughters-in-law, her granddaughters and friends, but not for herself.

“They’re designed for young people, although they do suit everybody,” Birtwell said.

She no longer designs textiles — for home or for fashion — and relies on her ample print archive for the collaborations. Birtwell hasn’t stopped designing, though, and regularly paints cards for her many children and grandchildren.

“I’ve always got my paintbrushes out,” said the designer, “and I always think it’s good for me to work.”

In 2006, Birtwell’s 11-piece collection for Topshop was a runaway hit. It featured some of the same hand-drawn florals that appear in the new Joanie collection, such as Mystic Daisy and Golden Slumbers.

Birtwell was also in the spotlight a few years ago. The 2022 the exhibition, “Mr. & Mrs. Clark, Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, Fashion and Prints 1965-74” was unveiled at the Museo del Tessuto in Prato, Italy, and later moved to Milan’s Fondazione Sozzani in 10 Corso Como under the patronage of Italy’s Camera della Moda.

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