   thumb|right|ossie clark raymond "ossie" clark (9 june 1942 â 6 august 1996) was an english fashion designer who was a major figure in the swinging sixties scene in london and the fashion industry in that era. clark is now renowned for his vintage designs by present-day designers. clark is compared to the 1960s fashion great biba and influenced many other designers, including yves saint laurent, anna sui and tom ford. manolo blahnik has said of ossie clark's work: "he created an incredible magic with the body and achieved what fashion should do â produce desire." ossie clark and ossie clark for radley clothes are highly sought after, and are worn by well known models like kate moss and naomi campbell. ==early days and education== born in warrington, cheshire, england in 1942, raymond clark's parents, anne and samuel clark, moved to oswaldtwistle during the war, hence his nickname, "ossie". ossie's mother, anne grace clark, was in labour with ossie for seven days during an air raid in world war ii. anne had been expecting a girl and so had no name picked out for her new baby. she let the midwife name him raymond. ossie was the youngest of six children ( gladys, kay, beryl, sammy and john ). ossie and his brother john sang in the church choir at st oswald's church in winwick where ossie won awards for his vocal talents. family and friends noted that from a very early age he was "brilliant at doing anything". young ossie would make clothes for his nieces and nephews. he practised tailoring clothing on his dolls and designed swimsuits for the neighbourhood girls when not yet ten years old. the art teacher at ossie's secondary school recognised ossie's creative flair and gave him a large collection of vogue and harper's bazaar magazines. clark pored over these magazines and absorbed the glamour and cutting edge fashion. at the age of thirteen ossie studied architecture in school. he later said that the experience was "invaluable". the class taught him the fundamentals of proportion, height and volume. he would later go on to use all of these to great effect in his fashion designs. soon after leaving beamont secondary technical school, clark attended the regional college of art in manchester, now manchester metropolitan university at age sixteen. ossie had to get up very early in the morning to make the long trip from home to college each day. anne clark would give ossie prescribed pills to keep him awake and alert. this would be the start of a lifelong addiction to both prescribed and illegal drugs. while attending college in manchester, clark was introduced to celia birtwell by a close friend and classmate named mo mcdermott. the pair started ou
1942_births 1996_crimes 1996_deaths Alumni_of_Manchester_Metropolitan_University Alumni_of_the_Royal_College_of_Art Bisexual_men British_fashion_designers Deaths_by_stabbing_in_the_United_Kingdom English_fashion_designers English_murder_victims LGBT_fashion_designers LGBT_people_from_England Murdered_designers People_from_Oswaldtwistle People_from_Warrington People_murdered_in_England