Bill Gibb sprang into and out of the fashion scene in 1970’s London with all the verve and flair of the clothes he designed. Unlike many high fashion designers, Bill came out of a remote farming community to pursue a career in couture. Right out of art school, he opened a design business, and within a year had wowed the design community with his unique blend of haute couture and street wear. Enterprising, inventive, and ingenious, his meteoric rise to fame could well serve as an inspiration to young designers.
Bill’s clothes flow, billow, and are smashingly colored. His revival of sweeping skirts and the blend of knitted fabrics and leathers led to the ultimate hippie look. He blended high fantasy and romanticism with bold fabrics and tartan in his designs for a look that distilled a very British sense of fashion. His dress of the year in 1970 featured bell sleeves, a floor length skirt, and his signature blends of checks, tartan, floral, and knitted patterns. The world’s first supermodel, Twiggy, wore his dresses and was a close personal friend.
Another one of his throwback designs, in 1975, was the flowing, hooded cape. His romantic style appealed to a London caught up in the panic of an oil crisis, where the modern harshness and punk styles were burgeoning into fashion. Bill Gibb presented a softer, almost historic appeal with his dresses and capes and knitwear. He exhibited across Europe, in the Louvre and the Vitoria and Albert museum among others. But his artistic side was no match for the demands of a business world.
In 1976, his business was forced into liquidation and he was unable to recover from the demands and restrictions placed upon him during that process. His fashions slipped out of the market, and although he briefly revived in the mid 1980’s, that revival was cut tragically short by his early death, at age forty-four. Few others had such an impact during such a brief career, and although his name may not be well known, his designs are recognizable as being iconic of the equally short hippie era.
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[...] Bill Gibb – Bill Gibb sprang into and out of the fashion scene in 1970’s London with all the verve and flair of the clothes he designed. Unlike many high fashion designers, Bill came out of a remote farming community to pursue a career in couture. Right out of… [...]
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