Alfred Radley (28 June 1924 – 14 February 2019) was a British clothing manufacturer best known for founding Radley Fashions and his association with the Quorum Boutique and fashion designer,

Ossie Clark Raymond "Ossie" Clark (9 June 1942 – 6 August 1996) was a British fashion designer who was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era. Clark is now renowned for his vintage designs by present- ...

Biography

Alfred Radley was born in 1924 in the East End of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the youngest of seven children. His father died when he was eighteen months old, and he was brought up partly at the Norwood orphanage. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he volunteered for the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

and served in all theatres of war from the Atlantic Convoys to the Pacific. In June 1944, D day +1, he served on a ship landing troops on the beaches in Normandy and was on the first Allied ship to dock in France (Cherbourg). Towards the end of the war, he served on taking returning Russian prisoners to Odessa and bringing back Jewish survivors (among them

Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was a German businessman who later became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland. He was the father of Anne and Margot Frank and husband of Edith Frank, and was the sole member o ...

, the father of

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

) from the death camps to Marseille. He also was on one to the first ships to enter Japan following the dropping of the atom bombs when he visited Hiroshima. After the war, he started his own company selling dresses and by the early 1960s was part of the Swinging London movement, specialising in party dresses. By 1965 Radley was one of the most important fashion houses in London, with its own fabric mills as well as factories producing gloves and handbags for many high street stores including

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

. In 1968 Radley acquired Quorum with its famous designers

, Alice Pollock and

Celia Birtwell Celia Birtwell, CBE (born 1941), is a British textile designer and fashion designer, known for her distinctive bold, romantic and feminine designs, which are influenced by Picasso and Matisse, and the classical world. She was well known for her ...

. While Ossie Clark flourished under the Quorum label, Radley promoted the careers of many designers including: Betty Jackson, Sheilagh Brown,

Sheridan Barnett Sheridan Barnett (born 1951) is a British former fashion designer who worked with London boutique Quorum and launched the brand Barnett and Brown with Sheilagh Brown during the late 1970s. He went on to combine own-brand design with freelance w ...

Wendy Dagworthy Wendy Dagworthy OBE (born 4 March 1950) is an English former fashion designer and now design academic. During her career she has led fashion design teaching at both the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins, mentoring notable fashion d ...

, Rosemary Bradford and Terence Nolder (who in 1980 won the British Eveningwear Designer Award and The British Designer of the Year Award in 1981) For this, he has been given the epithet "the patron saint of British Fashion"

Sir Philip Green Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company the Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. As of Ma ...

. Radley remained in contact with Ossie Clark throughout the rest of his life. Although Radley retired in the late 1980s, he has retained a passionate interest in fashion and in particular Ossie Clark and has worked tirelessly to keep his work and memory alive. In 2002, he convinced the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

to stage a major exhibition in celebration of Ossie Clark's work which was mounted in July 2003 for ten months. Radley provided many of the garments that were on display from his personal collection and the centrepiece was his daughter Diane's wedding dress. Radley died at the age of 94 on 14 February 2019.Obituary: Alfred Radley
/ref>

References

External links

Radley at the Vintage Fashion Guild Label Resource.

Topshop Archives

Victoria & Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radley, Alfred 1924 births 2019 deaths Businesspeople from London 20th-century English businesspeople Royal Navy personnel of World War II