How Ossie Clark rose from Orford to the catwalks of Paris

But his Warrington influence never left him.

This week in Looking Back we reflect on the extraordinary life of Ossie Clark.

In 1949 seven-year-old Raymond Clark and his family moved to No. 5 Sandy Lane West in Orford. His new classmates at St Margaret’s School promptly christened him ‘Ossie’ because of his broad Oswaldtwistle accent.

Janice Hayes, in her book A to Z of Warrington, takes up his story: "The post-war Warrington of his childhood seemed a typically drab Northern town.

"Yet the presence of the Yanks from Burtonwood brought a glimpse of transatlantic culture – ‘American cars with fins and suicide blondes’, as Ossie later recalled.

"In the 1950s teenager Ossie watched the local Teddy Boys ‘lounging in pink day-glow socks’ at the Rodney Street Boys’ Club and plotted his escape. Not for him the ‘proper jobs’ awaiting an eleven-plus failure and he found an ally in his art tutor, Roy Thomas, at Beamont Technical School.

Ossie Clark in 1972.

"Saturday morning classes at Warrington School of Art helped him secure a place at Art College in Manchester at the age of sixteen, the first stage to a career in the glamorous world of fashion, which beckoned him away from Warrington."

He became a key figure in the London fashion scene of the swinging sixties. working at the Chelsea boutique Quorum.

Among his most famous works was a jumpsuit created for Mick Jagger.

His designs were combined with the prints of wife and business partner Celia Birtwell.

Janice added: "Although Ossie retained close ties with his Warrington roots and family, he relished the limelight and the excesses that high life and celebrity status could offer in London, Paris and New York.

"His clothes were paraded by top models Bianca Jagger, Patti Boyd Jerry Hall and Marie Helvin and photographed by David Bailey.

"Clark considered himself an artist and socialised with Andy Warhol, Picasso, Salvador Dali and his lifelong friend from college days David Hockney.

"After the end of his marriage and business partnership with Celia in 1974 his erratic lifestyle saw his fashion output wane.

"The punk era of the 1980s and lack of business acumen led to bankruptcy before a partial revival cut short by his premature death in 1996."