As the Swinging Sixties got under way Ossie Clark was designing dresses for Twiggy and Brigitte Bardot at Quorum, a boutique in Chelsea that was run by Alice Pollock. However, although they had the fashion world at their feet, they were broke. In 1968 they turned for help to Alfred Radley, a British dress manufacturer who owned a series of mills and design studios that supplied the high street with affordable fashion and exported abroad.
With a keen instinct for recognising design talent — honed when he was a teenager in his sister’s dressmaking factory — Radley snapped up a controlling share in Quorum. His financial backing helped to cement Clark’s status as the King of the Kings Road and designer of outlandish couture for