Designer Vintage Clothing Profile - Quorum

Alice Pollock, a young, self taught designer with a boutique in Kensington, approached him as a business partner. When Ossie discovered that he and Alice shared the same birth date (9th June 1942) he considered their partnership predestined and Alice his astrological twin. So following a very brief period at Woollands 21 Ossie joined Alice Pollock at Quorum.

Quorum was one of the great London boutiques of the 1960s. It was founded by Alice Pollock in 1964. She was joined by husband and wife Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell in late 1965. The clothes at Quorum were designed by Pollock and Clark, and they were often made from fabrics designed by Birtwell.

Quorum became a regular shopping venue for the 60's elite. Ossie recalled in his diaries that Brian Jones and Keith Richards wore Celia Birtwell print satin shirts and skin-tight jewel-coloured trousers made from pre-war corset satin that Alice Pollock had found. Customers included Marianne Faithful and Anita Pallenberg, both of whom were girlfriends of the Rolling Stones, and Patti Boyd (George Harrison's girlfriend and later wife of Eric Clapton) who also modeled for the Quorum shows.

Because of an ever increasing debt, controlling interest in Quorum was sold to Radley in 1969, but Pollock, Clark and Birtwell remained as designers into the 70s.