Sue Clowes

Sue Clowes (born 31 October 1957) is an English textile and fashion designer known for the collection that launched Boy George and Culture Club in 1981.

Childhood and early life
Sue Clowes (Susan Ellen Patricia Clowes) was born on 31 October 1957 in Islington, London, England to William Reginald Clowes and Ellen Atkins.

Education
Clowes attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts to study textile design and screen printing.

Textiles and fashion
In 1979, Clowes began her career selling her printed clothing on a stall at Camden Lock Market. Jon Baker helped her expand when he bought everything she had on her stall to stock his shop Axiom in The Great Gear Market, King's Road. She opened a shop in Kensington Market and began manufacturing clothes and accessories.

Throughout Clowes's career, music and musicians have influenced her work: Culture Club approached her to design a collection for the group to sell in the shop The Foundry in Ganton Street where George O'Dowd (later widely known as Boy George) worked as a window dresser. Clowes created a cultural cocktail of offbeat imagery with religious undertones. Her idea portrayed in the Culture Club look was that wherever you are in the world, whatever your culture or religion "we are all part of one club called the human race".

The Flesh and Steel collection of winter 1983 of printed silver crosses was worn by Jonny Slut of Specimen. Susanne Bartsch, an event producer provided early exposure for British designers with a series of shows in New York and then Tokyo. Clowes took part alongside other 1980s designers, including Leigh Bowery. Kylie Minogue wore a Sue Clowes vintage t-shirt for the Anti Tour.

Collections
Clowes moved into sync with the fashion industry's cycles and produced seven collections with print designs from 1982 until 1986.

AW83 Flesh and Steel. Took part in New London in New York a Susanne Bartsch fashion runway show at The Roxy (New York) [Front Runners US Magazine January 1984. By Elizabeth Pearson Griffiths] The collection was worn by S.P.K industrial band.

SS84 Flesh and Steel. A sportswear collection to celebrate the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles. [The Daily Telegraph, May 2 1984. Avril Groom. Clowes's sportswear collection was launched at a Susanne Bartsch fashion show at New York City's The Limelight in November 1983.

AW84 In the Arms of Morpheus. A post-Olympian pyjama collection reported on in Blitz (magazine). [Blitz Magazine, October No.25 by Iain R. Webb.

SS85 Daisy, Daisy. Susanne Bartsch produced ‘London Goes to Tokyo’, sponsored by Shiseido. alongside other British 1980s designers including milliner Stephen Jones and performance artist Leigh Bowery

AW85 Gold Daisy Velvet and Red Devil. [Newsweek. London Goes Wild. April, 1985 Eloise Salholz]. Invited to show the collection alongside collections from Tommy Nutter, Jean Muir and Hardy Amies in a charity event in the presence of  Princess Anne

SS86 Chameleons. Stefano Tonchi invited Clowes to take part in the Pitti Trend catwalk show Florence

Clowes was commissioned between 1985 and 1987 to design private collections with textile prints for Isetan Tokyo department store, a pyjama collection for Samuel Courtauld, and two design collections for the velvet brand Girmes GmbH/Niedieck (now Redaelli Velluti)

Research and development
Clowes moved to Italy in 1987, and became involved in wearable technology or "smart clothing". Clowes worked in an academic team called Grado Zero Espace, with Italian engineers and scientists, to pioneer clothing that incorporated technology. These garments won awards from Time and Popular Science. She also worked on the project of shape-memory alloy named Nitinol to obtain the first woven fabric. Clowes worked on the team that researched and developed a jacket padded with Aerogel. The jacket called Absolute Zero was taken on an Antarctic expedition. For Corpo Nove, Clowes researched Stinging Nettle fibres which were woven to produce jeans. She gave a conference at the Eden Project and at the European Textile Network Conference on "New Technologies and Materials".

Journalism
Clowes wrote articles for an Italian magazine called N9VE and interviewed Aliona Doletskaya (editor of the Russian Vogue), Sir James Dyson (vacuum cleaner magnate), Steve Pyke (MBE photographer), Dr. Pierre Brisson (head of European Space Agency Technology Transfer), and Sir Timothy Smit (creator of the Eden Project, Cornwall, England) among others.

Recent work
Clowes re-launched the Sue Clowes brand in 2012 with her daughter Marta Melani and collaborated on an edition of five pairs of sneakers for Italian cult shoe company Fornarina Srl. The sneakers along with their winter Night Sky Junkie collection was modelled by dancers on skates during Milan Menswear Fashion Week, 2014 at the Milan Alphabet nightclub. 

In July 2013 the Victoria and Albert Museum showcased looks from young designers of London Fashion in the 80s in an exhibition called Club to Catwalk. The museum requisitioned two of Clowes’outfits which are permanently held in their archives. The exhibition ran from July 2013 until February 2014. 

In 2019 Clowes collaborated with London-based John Moore Reimagined and four of her designs were printed onto shirts. Reported in the Financial Times in February 2019. 

April 2023 Clowes collaborated with Supreme New York American clothing and skateboarding lifestyle brand to create a collection featuring Sue Clowes's original artwork from the early 1980s. The SS23 collection consists of a Jacket, Shirt, Ringer Tee, Chino Pant and cap. 

December 12th, 2023. Kerry Taylor the world's leading auction house specialising in vintage fashion, sold ensembles from Sue Clowes's personal 1980s collections in the “Passion for Fashion” auction. The Clowes outfits were exhibited alongside Elizabeth Taylor’s Christian Dior couture ‘Oscars' dress; a selection of original 1930s costumes designed by Erté, and garments by Chanel and Vivienne Westwood. One ensemble from Clowes’s 1984 Flesh & Steel collection, worn by Jonny Slut of the 1980s goth glamour group, Specimen sold for £10,000, a world record for Clowes. The outfit was acquired by ‘Museo de la Moda’, Santiago, Chile. The museum acquired many pieces in the auction to expand on a Sue Clowes collection they already had in their archives. January 2024. Clowes designed and screen printed a collection of images for Italian Fashion company Simon Cracker A/W 2024. The garments were shown at a Fashion Show at ARCA, Milan on January 14th 2024. Simon Cracker (stylists Simone Botte and Filippo Biraghi) called their collection ‘La Nanna’ to capture the moment before sleep. Clowes printed surreal collages on upcycled denim jackets and jeans that harmonized with the sleep theme. The show was reported in Corriere Della Sera The Independent Newspaper Sunday 14 January 2024 20:22