Celia Birtwell

Celia Birtwell, CBE (born 1941), is a British textile designer and fashion designer, known for her distinctive bold, romantic and feminine designs, which is influenced by Picasso, Matisse and from the classical world. She was well known for her prints which epitomised the 1960s/70s. After a period away from the limelight, she has returned to fashion.

Early life

The eldest daughter of a culture-loving engineer and a seamstress, Birtwell was born in Bury and raised in Prestwich, both then in Lancashire. From the age of 13 she studied textile design at the Royal Technical College, Salford. In an interview for BBC television's Inside Out North West in January 2014, Birtwell remembered attending parties and life classes with nude models on the top floor of the Technical College (pictured) and often seeing artist L.S. Lowry, a former student who often visited the college and the adjacent Salford Library. In 1959 she met the fashion designer Ossie Clark in the Cona Coffee Bar in Manchester, and they married in 1969 after being reintroduced when they both studied in London.