Clive Evans (fashion designer)

Clive Evans
Born	1933 London
Other names	Clive, Clive of London
Occupation	Fashion designer
Notable credit(s)	Member of Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers

Clive Evans, better known as Clive, was a London-born fashion designer of the 1960s who attracted a number of celebrity fans and was promoted internationally as a high fashion designer from Swinging London.

Operating initially as a couture designer – and at a time when fashion was undergoing a radical shift towards mass-market and ready-to-wear – he was described by The Times fashion editor Prudence Glynn in 1972 as: "the last flowering on the tree of British couture".

Evans was born in London into a medical family, claiming six generations of doctors came before him. He chose not to follow family tradition and spent time in the navy, also training as a journalist and working as a porter.

Having completed a course at Canterbury College of Art Evans began his fashion apprenticeship with Michael of Carlos Place before working at Lachasse and John Cavanagh – all were members of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (IncSoc), giving him an impeccable grounding in the London couture scene. While working at Lachasse, he won both first and second prize in a design competition organised by the International Wool Secretariat.

After a spell working with Berketex (then a wholesale house) as an assistant within its ready-to-wear department, he showed his first collection in 1963 in a borrowed space.

By 1964, Evans was showing from his own salon just off Hanover Square and in August of that year he was elected as a member of IncSoc – bypassing the normal requirement to show at least four collections before being considered for membership. After this small (for the time) collection of 24 pieces was shown,The Sydney Morning Herald described him as: "the man of the moment" in British fashion also noting that, like his first mentor Michael of Carlos Place, he was tuned into the Balenciaga style. The reviewer added: "His tailoring is superb. His line is pure and his cut intricate."The Guardian's reviewers added further praise: "Clive's clothes have confident assurance...A young man must, indeed, have confident assurance and not a little courage to start a couture house these days when the whole drift of fashion is towards casual clothes and ready-to-wear."

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