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Thea Porter – Blouse and Skirt Set
$950List Price
About the Item
Blouse - (unlined) has 4 buttons down the front, elastic wrists and a pointed collar.
Skirt – long flowing skirt with panels. Side zip and silk lining.
ABOUT THEA PORTER
In the fleeting period when British fashion became a fine art, Thea Porter had her moment. From the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies, before London designers knew the meaning of the word "commercialism", Porter reigned supreme. Her exquisite Oriental dresses, kaftans and harem trousers, often overlaid with ethnic embroidery, appliqué and sequins - invariably made from iridescent silks sourced from remote souks - were not merely fashion fixes, but food for the soul. (quote from her obituary in THE INDEPENDENT)
Thea Porter was born in Syria of an English father and a French mother; both worked as Presbyterian missionaries in the Middle East. In 1953, she moved to Beirut, where she lived with her diplomat husband and trained as an artist with a man who was a contemporary of Delaunay. Porter returned to London in the beginning of the swinging sixties and in '66 she opened a shop in Soho, first selling Oriental carpets and exotic fabrics and then adding clothing. Her unconventional upbringing influenced her collections and her presentation. Her ethnic -inspired collections were shown in a Middle Eastern environment and designs sought after by the affluent Bohemians and the very rich and famous including Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch, Joan Collins, Charlotte Rampling, Babe Paley and also the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Franco Zeffirelli.
Quotes from the New York Times obituary by Guy Trebay July 27, 2000
"Well before globalization became a fashion cliche, Ms. Porter was deploying the concept in her own canny rendition of it. Beginning in 1967, from a series of shops located in unlikely quarters of London and Paris, and later at I. Magnin in San Francisco and Giorgio of Beverly Hills, she made and sold clothes whose inspiration was drawn from her far-ranging travels and a childhood spent as the half-French, half-English daughter of a missionary posted to the Middle East.
Ms. Porter dressed Elizabeth Taylor for the souk, put the socialite Dalitha Getty in caftans and created Symbolist-inspired costumes for a perpetual party centered on the Rolling Stones and their newly made friends from the British aristocracy.
Her specialty was in finding exceptional fabrics -- Swiss chiffons, Indian handprints, 1930's French voiles uncovered in warehouses -- and deploying them voluminously for a clientele undaunted by the extravagance of both her silhouettes and her fees."
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Length: 57 in (144.78 cm)Marked Size: 10 (UK)Bust: 32 in (81.28 cm)Hip: 32 in (81.28 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Material Notes:100% cotton
- Condition:Excellent Condition.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: Inventory 161561stDibs: U090522910
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