1980s and Later
Going into the 1980s, fashion — British fashion in particular — turned towards the new punk rock craze. Clothing from Vivienne Westwood's shop on the King's Road became the most popular look and one of Malcolm McLaren’s 'Scum' T-shirt text went so far as to include Ossie Clark under the heading 'Hates'. Ossie Clark's romantic flowing gowns were no longer in fashion. His fortunes declined to bankruptcy and Clark largely stopped working commercially. Famously devoid of business acumen Ossie blamed his downfall on banks and the taxman's ruthless insistence on cashing in all his assets. His bitterness at this and a short-sighted determination to sit out the bankruptcy term, along with deep depression, meant he worked only on private commissions which were paid for by barter. A loyal band of famous clients and friends would order a dress and pay for it by loaning a holiday house in the Caribbean or paying for his sewing machine to be repaired.
In 1984 Ossie was persuaded by a friend to go back to work with Radley. He produced some beautiful garments with shoulder details based on sea shells but according to his diaries was then sacked by Radley that same year. A note written by Ossie to the DHSS (pg147) says "I did not leave my position as a dress designer with Firwool of my own accord, as stated overleaf. It was put to me that as my designs weren't selling they couldn't continue to invest in me and I was given two weeks notice on the 19th October 1984. I wasn't offered a choice of continuing to work or not – I was fired." This version of events is backed up by a friend the artist Guy Burch who recalls that Clark told him Radley had found the complicated shell patterns impossible to make commercially.
Although the 1980s were chaotic and nomadic there were brighter sides to his life charted in his published diaries. In January 1978 he had met his second long term partner Nicholas Balaban who was working as a barman at the Sombrero Club in Kensington. With Ossie's encouragement Balaban applied to the Byam Shaw art school and went on to start his own highly successful fashion business producing printed T-shirts for high street boutiques and multiples. Although most published accounts choose not to pay much attention to Clark's gay relationships his sexuality was predominantly homosexual. Unfortunately Clarke's continued erratic behaviour eventually led to the relationship's collapse in 1983/84. His depression deepened even more as he obsessed over Balaban, trying unsuccessfully to rekindle the relationship. Only with Balaban's death from AIDS in 1994 and a conversion to Buddhism did he finally begin to rebuild a career and shake off the past. In the early 1990s he trained the designer Bella Freud to pattern-cut and an extremely promising new beginning was the use of Clark's mastery of pattern cutting chiffon and delicate fabrics by the Ghost label. Clark found their computerised pattern cutter a revelation, able to turn initial ideas into formers almost instantaneously.
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