My uncle, Jim O’Connor, who has died of most cancers aged 80, was an influential designer whose extremely modern method made him a key determine on the London vogue scene within the late Sixties and early 70s. Utilizing a pop-influenced method and vivid major colors, Jim sought all the time to make his designs thrilling and accessible to all.
As a hard-working scholar filled with power and pleasure, Jim was disinclined to look to France and high fashion for inspiration throughout his time on the Royal School of Artwork. His lecturers expressed concern about his prospects, however his 1968 commencement present brought on a stir and was featured in Vogue. One other Vogue function in 1969 famous that “Jim O’Connor is a vivid designer with out a break: no producer, no boutique, no cash. What he has is a recent, direct, new method of seeing issues and the issues he makes are enjoyable.”
In 1970 Jim began working on the clothes boutique and label began by Tommy Roberts, Mr Freedom, the place he finalised a venture he had began engaged on some years earlier than – brightly colored winged boots, as worn by Elton John. At Mr Freedom, Jim met Pamla Motown, a fellow designer, and so they grew to become a contract workforce beginning with a group of knitwear for Jeff Banks. The gathering featured within the Sunday Occasions in January 1972 however was by no means produced.
Jim and Pam married in 1976. Discovering it tough to get designs into manufacturing, they moved to New York, the place they achieved some success, together with a four-time sell-out punk assortment for Macy’s division retailer in 1977. Shifting to Los Angeles in 1978, they began their very own boutique, Poseur, the place they might management design, manufacturing and retail. In 1981 it moved to the Melrose Avenue district of West Hollywood and have become a vastly influential punk and mod retailer that Jim continued to run after his divorce from Pam.
Michael Jackson purchased one in all Jim’s bondage jackets from Poseur and, with out in search of Jim’s permission, reproduced it in leather-based and wore it on the entrance cowl of his Unhealthy album in 1987. There was an try by Jackson to say that he had designed the jacket himself however Jim was shortly in a position to present Jackson’s bank card receipt and his unique design to show that this was not the case.
By 1989 Jim discovered that Poseur was constraining reasonably than inspiring him, and he determined to shut the enterprise and transfer to Japan, the place he spent two years working as an English instructor. Returning to Los Angeles in 1991, he labored in quite a lot of design-related roles till he grew to become a instructor on the Style Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. He returned to the UK in 2023 to be nearer to his household.
Jim was born in Battersea, London, the youngest of three kids of Larry, a commerce union rep and Violet, a dinner woman and submitting clerk. Each mother and father have been Communist occasion members and Jim was an lively member of the Younger Communist League and the Marketing campaign for Nuclear Disarmament all through his youth. He attended Sir Walter St John’s grammar faculty for boys (generally known as “Sinjuns”) and after three years learning sculpture at St Martin’s College of Artwork, he was supplied his place on the RCA.
A few of Jim’s designs function within the V&A vogue assortment and might be seen on-line.
He’s survived by his brother, Bob, two nieces and three nephews.
