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John Bates, 87, fashion designer
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Michael Rhodes
Jun 25, 2022, 5:46:08 PM6/25/22
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The most memorable collection of clothing designed by John Bates, who has died aged 87, had just 35 garments plus a few inspired accessories, all of which could be put together into unrepetitive combinations. It was designed very impromptu in 1965 for an imaginary wearer – Emma Peel, heroine of the television series The Avengers, played by Diana Rigg – and deserves all its many entries in style histories for its high concept, and for marking a major change in fashion.
Bates’s great commission nearly did not happen. The wardrobe of the previous Avengers lead actor, Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, had been created for the earlier series by Frederick Starke, an establishment designer of womenswear. Blackman’s clothes mixed an old-movie glamour with Paris Left Bank beat fashion, including long boots; for fights, she was clad in heavy black leather.
Bates did not like the restrictions of film work – so many versions of the same garment for the stunts – and after the Avengers venture returned to his Jean Varon dress label, with a later supplementary label for tailoring. He was successful through the 60s and 70s at dramatic, single-idea outfits for special occasions (wedding dresses for Cilla Black, and for Allen, white gabardine trimmed in silver vinyl) and for film and stage performances (Dusty Springfield, Cleo Laine, Julie Christie, Elaine Stritch, Maggie Smith), plus Princess Margaret on holiday. His all-concealing, all-forgiving, ground-sweeping 70s gowns could create character – even as worn with the wrong attitude and accessories by Penelope Keith’s nouveau Margo Leadbetter in the television comedy The Good Life.
Bates moved into couture in 1974, appreciating the freedom it gave him to work with skilled crafters in fine materials, but the business went bankrupt in the early 80s. His last enterprise, the Designer Club, was for large sizes, before he retired in 1990 to Llansaint, Carmarthenshire, to paint, occasionally creating a dress for a favoured client. The Museum of Costume (now the Fashion Museum) in Bath held a retrospective of his work in 2006.
He is survived by his partner, John Siggins.
John Bates, fashion designer, born 11 January 1935; died 5 June 2022
[Guardian]
Bates’s great commission nearly did not happen. The wardrobe of the previous Avengers lead actor, Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, had been created for the earlier series by Frederick Starke, an establishment designer of womenswear. Blackman’s clothes mixed an old-movie glamour with Paris Left Bank beat fashion, including long boots; for fights, she was clad in heavy black leather.
Bates did not like the restrictions of film work – so many versions of the same garment for the stunts – and after the Avengers venture returned to his Jean Varon dress label, with a later supplementary label for tailoring. He was successful through the 60s and 70s at dramatic, single-idea outfits for special occasions (wedding dresses for Cilla Black, and for Allen, white gabardine trimmed in silver vinyl) and for film and stage performances (Dusty Springfield, Cleo Laine, Julie Christie, Elaine Stritch, Maggie Smith), plus Princess Margaret on holiday. His all-concealing, all-forgiving, ground-sweeping 70s gowns could create character – even as worn with the wrong attitude and accessories by Penelope Keith’s nouveau Margo Leadbetter in the television comedy The Good Life.
Bates moved into couture in 1974, appreciating the freedom it gave him to work with skilled crafters in fine materials, but the business went bankrupt in the early 80s. His last enterprise, the Designer Club, was for large sizes, before he retired in 1990 to Llansaint, Carmarthenshire, to paint, occasionally creating a dress for a favoured client. The Museum of Costume (now the Fashion Museum) in Bath held a retrospective of his work in 2006.
He is survived by his partner, John Siggins.
John Bates, fashion designer, born 11 January 1935; died 5 June 2022
[Guardian]
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