Antony Price
Encyclopedia
Antony Price is a London fashion designer who is best known for glamorous evening wear and suits, and for the seventies icon of the cap sleeve t-shirt
(trading under the Plaza label for the premium price of £6, this was quickly 'ripped off' by numerous other manufacturers). Price has collaborated with a number of musical performers, including David Bowie
, Steve Strange
, and Duran Duran
, but is best known for his close working relationship with Bryan Ferry
and Roxy Music
, whose respective 'looks' were defined by Price's designs.
Antony Price’s pulpish vision is of woman as a femme fatale of the most sophisticated, predatory and artificial, part harridan part mannequin. This came to the fore in the images created for Roxy Music – he has been credited as the chief illusionist of what he dubbed “the Roxy Machine” and the female archetypes he created in the Roxy cover girls reflect an aesthetic which was to emerge in his later work for women.
The manner in which Price dressed – or in many cases, undressed – the Roxy girls served to define the band’s trademark pop retro-futurism. From the first cover, his obsession with a certain brand of 1950’s glamour, half Hayworth half Vargas, linked the band intrinsically to rock history, while the interpretation of these nostalgic sources projected into the future - arguably transforming Roxy Music into as much an aesthetic as musical experiment. Bryan Ferry
has spoken of himself as functioning as a pop artefact, and dressed in Price’s acid suiting, tightly-waisted and square-shouldered, he was transformed into an archetype – Barbie doll meets action man.
While working for Stirling Cooper in 1967, Price designed the clothes for The Rolling Stones
' 1969 American Tour
. He was the stylist for Roxy Music
's first eight albums, as well as the classic album cover for Lou Reed
's Transformer
. The back photo is not, as many suspect, Lou posing with an erection, but a model with a cucumber down his trousers, wearing a pair of famous Antony Price 'Arse' pants, created by running horseshoe seam across the outline of the haunches. When customers complained of the baggy crotches of trousers in her 'Pirate' collection, Vivienne Westwood
retorted 'Well go to Antony Price then!' His self-declared trademark design is a spiral zipped dress in ciré satin, created for the label Plaza
in the late seventies. This was worn in a Harpers and Queen feature in 1979 by Amanda Lear
, who was also the Price-dressed covergirl for Roxy Music
's 1973 album For Your Pleasure
.
Price worked under the labels Stirling Cooper, Che Guevara and Plaza
in London before launching his own label in 1979. Stirling Cooper was situated in London's Wigmore Street, with a famous oriental interior designed by Price and Jane Whiteside, and Plaza on the King's Road. Price had his own-name shops in South Molton Street and on the King's Road, and also operated a shop called 'Ebony' in the 1980s.
In 1983 Price staged a 'Fashion Spectacular' at London's Hippodrome, combining fashion and music, and allowing the public to purchase tickets. He was helped by relatively unknown Lisa Ferrari. This show was an innovative way of bringing fashion to the fore. In 1985, continuing to live up to his own declaration that 'I'm not a fashion designer... I'm in the theatrical business,' Antony Price created a spectacular outfit for Fashion Aid, and conceived a show-stopping presentation of model, client and long-standing friend Jerry Hall
emerging from a black velvet box. The outfit, consisting of a bolero and dress with lampshade peplum in metallic and red French silk lace over lamé. Price has said of this outfit 'it wasn't the chicest or most subtle garment, but when Jerry moved under the lights she looked like a Siamese fighting fish in a vast blue tank.'
Antony Price received the 'Glamour' award from the British Fashion Council
in 1990, and was profiled in British Vogue
the same year. In 1998, Antony Price collaborated with milliner Philip Treacy
on clothing for his show at London Fashion Week, and continued to collaborate on subsequent Treacy shows in London and Paris. In 2000, Antony Price created evening gowns constructed of carpet to feature in the advertising campaigns of British carpet manufacturer Brintons
, a commission previously undertaken by Vivienne Westwood
. In 2000 he also created clothing for Glenalmond Tweed, along with 25 other British designers including Vivienne Westwood
, Alexander McQueen
and Margaret Howell
.
Today Antony Price continues to work from his home in the English countryside, creating made-to-measure clothing for an elite clientele, including the Duchess of Cornwall
. He was nominated for the British Fashion Council's 'Red Carpet Designer' award at the 2006 British Fashion Awards, and a small range of his clothes sell in London boutique A La Mode.
Antony Price was featured in the influential fashion magazines POP and BUTT
in Spring 2005. In December 2006 Price was photographed by David Bailey for British Vogue
alongside Christopher Kane
, whose hyper-feminine bandage-wrap dresses can be regarded as a natural successor to Price's bombshell looks. Price has worked with The Hon Daphne Guinness in developing a range of key shirt and tailoring designs for her eponymous clothing line which is currently sold in London's Dover Street Market
.
, author of The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion
- on Priceless, a men's wear range for Topman
.
Priceless was launched to the British media at a dinner and party attended by Bryan Ferry, Pam Hogg
, Nicky Haslam, Peter York and others at Mayfair nightclub Tramp
in July 2008.
The first collection was sold online and in Topman's Oxford Street store in the UK in the autumn and winter of 2008.
The second collection is available from May 14 online and at Topman UK stores, as well as the company's first US outlet, at Broome & Broadway in New York.
The third collection, Autumn/Winter 2009 was launched on Friday 20 September both online and in London's Oxford Street store.
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
(trading under the Plaza label for the premium price of £6, this was quickly 'ripped off' by numerous other manufacturers). Price has collaborated with a number of musical performers, including David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Steve Strange
Steve Strange
Steve Strange , is a Welsh pop singer, best known as the lead singer and frontman of the 1980s pop group Visage...
, and Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
, but is best known for his close working relationship with Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
and Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, whose respective 'looks' were defined by Price's designs.
Antony Price’s pulpish vision is of woman as a femme fatale of the most sophisticated, predatory and artificial, part harridan part mannequin. This came to the fore in the images created for Roxy Music – he has been credited as the chief illusionist of what he dubbed “the Roxy Machine” and the female archetypes he created in the Roxy cover girls reflect an aesthetic which was to emerge in his later work for women.
The manner in which Price dressed – or in many cases, undressed – the Roxy girls served to define the band’s trademark pop retro-futurism. From the first cover, his obsession with a certain brand of 1950’s glamour, half Hayworth half Vargas, linked the band intrinsically to rock history, while the interpretation of these nostalgic sources projected into the future - arguably transforming Roxy Music into as much an aesthetic as musical experiment. Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
has spoken of himself as functioning as a pop artefact, and dressed in Price’s acid suiting, tightly-waisted and square-shouldered, he was transformed into an archetype – Barbie doll meets action man.
While working for Stirling Cooper in 1967, Price designed the clothes for The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
' 1969 American Tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969
The Rolling Stones' 1969 Tour of the United States took place in November 1969. Rock critic Robert Christgau called it "history's first mythic rock and roll tour", while rock critic Dave Marsh would write that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an...
. He was the stylist for Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
's first eight albums, as well as the classic album cover for Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
's Transformer
Transformer (album)
Transformer is the second studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in November 1972.-Background:Unlike its predecessor, Lou Reed, eight songs of which were written during his Velvet Underground days, Transformer contains mainly new material...
. The back photo is not, as many suspect, Lou posing with an erection, but a model with a cucumber down his trousers, wearing a pair of famous Antony Price 'Arse' pants, created by running horseshoe seam across the outline of the haunches. When customers complained of the baggy crotches of trousers in her 'Pirate' collection, Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
retorted 'Well go to Antony Price then!' His self-declared trademark design is a spiral zipped dress in ciré satin, created for the label Plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
in the late seventies. This was worn in a Harpers and Queen feature in 1979 by Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....
, who was also the Price-dressed covergirl for Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
's 1973 album For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure is a 1973 album by the British glam and art rock group Roxy Music, released by Island Records . The band's second album, it was also their last to feature synthesiser and sound specialist Brian Eno, who would later gain acclaim as a solo artist and producer.-Production:The group...
.
Price worked under the labels Stirling Cooper, Che Guevara and Plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
in London before launching his own label in 1979. Stirling Cooper was situated in London's Wigmore Street, with a famous oriental interior designed by Price and Jane Whiteside, and Plaza on the King's Road. Price had his own-name shops in South Molton Street and on the King's Road, and also operated a shop called 'Ebony' in the 1980s.
In 1983 Price staged a 'Fashion Spectacular' at London's Hippodrome, combining fashion and music, and allowing the public to purchase tickets. He was helped by relatively unknown Lisa Ferrari. This show was an innovative way of bringing fashion to the fore. In 1985, continuing to live up to his own declaration that 'I'm not a fashion designer... I'm in the theatrical business,' Antony Price created a spectacular outfit for Fashion Aid, and conceived a show-stopping presentation of model, client and long-standing friend Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall
Jerry Faye Hall is an American model and actress, also known for her long-term relationship with Mick Jagger, with whom she had four children.-Early life:...
emerging from a black velvet box. The outfit, consisting of a bolero and dress with lampshade peplum in metallic and red French silk lace over lamé. Price has said of this outfit 'it wasn't the chicest or most subtle garment, but when Jerry moved under the lights she looked like a Siamese fighting fish in a vast blue tank.'
Antony Price received the 'Glamour' award from the British Fashion Council
British Fashion Council
The British Fashion Council is a non-profit trade group for British fashion designers founded in 1983.Based in London and currently chaired by Harold Tillman, who took over from friend Sir Stuart Rose, its main goal is to promote British fashion design across the world.-Main activities:The main...
in 1990, and was profiled in British Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
the same year. In 1998, Antony Price collaborated with milliner Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy
Philip Treacy OBE is an Irish milliner.Born in Ahascragh,in the West of Ireland, he lived with his parents, seven brothers and sister across the road from the village church...
on clothing for his show at London Fashion Week, and continued to collaborate on subsequent Treacy shows in London and Paris. In 2000, Antony Price created evening gowns constructed of carpet to feature in the advertising campaigns of British carpet manufacturer Brintons
Brintons
Brintons is a British manufacturer of carpets. It was founded in 1783 by William Brinton at Hill Pool in Chaddesley, Kidderminster to manufacture spun yarns....
, a commission previously undertaken by Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
. In 2000 he also created clothing for Glenalmond Tweed, along with 25 other British designers including Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
and Margaret Howell
Margaret Howell
Margaret Howell is a contemporary British clothes designer who has worked successfully in both men’s and women’s wear....
.
Today Antony Price continues to work from his home in the English countryside, creating made-to-measure clothing for an elite clientele, including the Duchess of Cornwall
Duchess of Cornwall
The Duchess of Cornwall is the title held by the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Duke of Cornwall is a non-hereditary peerage held by the British Sovereign's eldest son and heir....
. He was nominated for the British Fashion Council's 'Red Carpet Designer' award at the 2006 British Fashion Awards, and a small range of his clothes sell in London boutique A La Mode.
Antony Price was featured in the influential fashion magazines POP and BUTT
Butt
Butt may refer to:* Butt , a unit of wine* Butt , a target for practicing archery* Butt , a joint between planks of wood on a ship* Butt * Bhat , Kashmiri surname sometimes spelled "Butt"* Butt...
in Spring 2005. In December 2006 Price was photographed by David Bailey for British Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
alongside Christopher Kane
Christopher Kane
-Biography:Kane was born as the youngest of five children in Newarthill, near Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, to an engineer and draughtsman and housewife mother....
, whose hyper-feminine bandage-wrap dresses can be regarded as a natural successor to Price's bombshell looks. Price has worked with The Hon Daphne Guinness in developing a range of key shirt and tailoring designs for her eponymous clothing line which is currently sold in London's Dover Street Market
Dover Street Market
Dover Street Market is a multilevel fashion retail store created by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons. It is located in Dover Street Mayfair, London.Dover Street Market Tokyo opened in 2006 and is a smaller version of the London store....
.
The Look Presents Priceless
In 2008 Price has collaborated with The Look Presents - run by Max Karie of Soho boutique Shop At Maison Bertaux and Paul GormanPaul Gorman
Paul Gorman is an English writer.-Career:From 1978, Gorman worked on weekly news for trade publications. In 1983, Gorman won the Periodical Publishers Association award for campaigning journalism for a series of investigative food industry articles and in 1990 was appointed west coast bureau chief...
, author of The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion
The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion
Published in May 2006 by Adelita, The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion is Paul Gorman's definitive account of the inter-connected developments of style and popular music from Elvis Presley to the present day....
- on Priceless, a men's wear range for Topman
Topman
TOPMAN is the stand-alone fashion business counterpart of Topshop that caters exclusively to men’s clothing. A part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, British Home Stores and Dorothy Perkins, Topman has a chain of high-street men's clothing stores located...
.
Priceless was launched to the British media at a dinner and party attended by Bryan Ferry, Pam Hogg
Pam Hogg
-Early career:Hogg had a meteoric rise to fame after her studies of Fine Art and Printed Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, where she won the Newbury Medal of Distinction, the Frank Warner Memorial Medal, the Leverhulme Scholarship and the Royal Society of Arts Bursary, which subsequently took...
, Nicky Haslam, Peter York and others at Mayfair nightclub Tramp
Tramp
A tramp is a long term homeless person who travels from place to place as a vagrant, traditionally walking or hiking all year round. In British English meanwhile a tramp simply refers to a homeless person, usually not a travelling one....
in July 2008.
The first collection was sold online and in Topman's Oxford Street store in the UK in the autumn and winter of 2008.
The second collection is available from May 14 online and at Topman UK stores, as well as the company's first US outlet, at Broome & Broadway in New York.
The third collection, Autumn/Winter 2009 was launched on Friday 20 September both online and in London's Oxford Street store.