Kiki Byrne

Kiki Byrne

Kiki Byrne in the 1960s
Born 18 April 1937
Norway
Died 3 April 2013 (aged 75)
Education Harrow College of Art
Occupation Fashion designer
Labels Kiki Byrne

Kiki Byrne (18 April 1937 – 3 April 2013) was a Norwegian-born, London-based fashion designer who is mainly remembered as Mary Quant's rival on the King's Road in the late 1950s and 1960s.[1]

Early life

Born Olaug Juliane Grinaker, but known as Kiki throughout her life, she was the eldest of three sisters growing up on a farm in Norway during the German occupation.[1] In her mid-teens she moved to London, where she studied at Harrow College of Art.[1] After this, she met her first husband Nicky Byrne, who also acted as her business manager.[1] Kiki worked for Mary Quant at her boutique Bazaar before leaving to set up her own boutique, named Glass and Black, in Sloane Street, in collaboration with her husband.[1][2]

Fashion

Following its initial success, the Byrnes moved Glass and Black to new premises on the King's Road near Kiki's former employer's shop.[1] Byrne and Quant were remembered as the "first people to make clothes for young people".[3] Their designs offered a young alternative to the mature styles then being produced by high fashion designers.[4] Byrne told The Sydney Morning Herald in 1958 that "only Midlands businessmen's wives can afford Michael and Hartnell".[5] Also in 1958, Byrne collaborated with the photographer Tony Armstrong on a ski-wear collection that was featured in Vogue.[1]

Byrne was known for very simple, youthful little black dresses and unfussy suits made with good quality fabrics in neutral tones such as beige, which appealed to the likes of Susannah York, Grace Coddington, and Christine Keeler,[1] and also to glamorous actresses and models such as Kay Kendall and Barbara Goalen.[5] She also made a white trapeze-line dress for Lady Antonia Fraser to wear to Royal Ascot in 1958, enabling her to be photographed while concealing her pregnancy.[5] Although Byrne described her clothes as "exclusive clothes – at reasonable prices",[5] Barbara Hulanicki, who went on to launch the original Biba boutique, remembered that one of Byrne's simple black dresses cost 20 guineas, which she thought quite expensive.[2] She further recalled in her 1983 autobiography the difficulty in finding the kind of nice, simple, youthful garments she and her friends wanted to wear, and that discovering Byrne was so exciting because the clothes were exactly what they wanted, commenting, "Kiki Byrne never got the recognition she deserved".[6]

Byrne's designs, along with those of Foale & Tuffin, Sonia Rykiel, Quant, and Biba, were worn by the famously trendy Cathy McGowan on her influential music show Ready Steady Go!.[7]

Following the closure of Glass and Black in the mid-1960s, when it was bought out by Jaeger, Kiki designed for other labels including Frank Usher.[1]

Costume design

Alongside the fashion work, Byrne had success as a film costume designer. She created the golden bikini worn by Margaret Nolan in the title sequence of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, which was art-directed by her then boyfriend, Robert Brownjohn.[1] Other films which she costumed included Fathom, Perfect Friday,[1] and, with Gina Fratini, Stop the World – I Want to Get Off.[8]

Later life and death

Following the breakdown of her first marriage, Byrne was in a long-term relationship with Brownjohn which ended shortly before his sudden death in 1970.[1] In 1971, she married the journalist Stephen Milne.[1]

Kiki Byrne died on 3 April 2013. She was survived by her second husband and two daughters.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 "Obituary: Kiki Byrne: Fashion designer whose Kings Road boutique was a magnet for trendy young women in the Sixties". The Times. 4 May 2013.(subscription required)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 O'Byrne, Robert (2009). Style City: How London became a fashion capital. London: Frances Lincoln. p. 14. ISBN 9780711228955.
  3. ↑ Denza, Vanessa. "Interview with Vanessa Denza MBE". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  4. ↑ Waddell, Gavin (2004). How Fashion Works: Couture, ready-to-wear, and mass production (Online-Ausg. ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science. p. 130. ISBN 9781118814994.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Success Story For 21-year-old Designer". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 December 1958. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Hulanicki, Barbara (1983). From A to Biba (1. publ. ed.). London: Hutchinson. p. 57. ISBN 009152430X.
  7. ↑ Steele, Valerie (2000). Fifty Years of Fashion : New Look to Now (2. pr. ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780300087383.
  8. ↑ Krafsur, Richard P. (1997). The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States. (1. California ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 1032. ISBN 9780520209701.