Mr & Mrs Clark | Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell is the exhibition in collaboration between the Prato Textile Museum and the Sozzani Foundation in Milan, opening from 16 September until 8 January 2023.

The exhibition and the catalog - Mr & Mrs Clark | Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell - pay homage to two figures full of ideas for the new generations, and with a bridge between Prato and Milan , they represent a concrete sign of collaboration between institutions that work to promote the culture of fashion through exhibition projects and publications.

Stylized geometries, floral bouquets and art-inspired patterns (from medieval tapestries to Ballet Russes to all the cubist avant-gardes, pointillisme), Ossie Clark's language defined Swinging London with her long and colorful flowing dresses.

With an unmistakable style - the flower power - a forerunner of trends, Ossie was defined "King of Kings Road" for his 30s and 40s-inspired dresses with a slender cut that revealed the décolleté between sensual movements and plays of transparencies. A short but very intense career that left a mark in London in the period between the miniskirt of Mary Quant and the subversive punk movement of Malcolm MacLaren and Vivienne Westwood, from 1965 to 1974. Clark and his wife Celia Birtwell (Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, from the famous painting by David Hockney at Tate Britain, 1970-71), came to define the bohemian district of West London, which was home to the new generation of brilliant and revolutionary young people.

Celia designed the prints on light crêpes, silks and chiffon and Ossie transformed them into dresses that immediately conquered the international jet-set and the pop scene. From Brigitte Bardot to Liz Taylor or Verushka, everyone was fascinated by their fashion. Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Bianca Jagger and Marisa Berenson are just some of the characters Ossie Clark has dressed up. When Hockney painted Ossie and Celia in their Notting Hill home, he portrayed a snapshot of modern life, with a perfect representation of the world of Clark and Birtwell whose designs embodied a bold new way of life. Ossie was also the first designer to rethink the idea of "occasion": for him evening dresses could be worn during the day and vice versa, while with his transparent chiffon he invented the nude look.