Sue Clowes

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 (mole) Baker helped her expand when he bought everything she had on her stall to stock his shop Axiom in The Great Gear Market, The Kings Road. She opened a shop in Kensington Market and began manufacturing clothes and accessories. Throughout Clowes's career, music and musicians have radically 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 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 '83 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 then Tokyo. Clowes took part alongside other 80’s designers including Leigh Bowery. In May 2010 Boy George was portrayed on film by Douglas Booth in the BBC2 drama documentary "Worried About the Boy". The actors wore original vintage pieces in the film by Sue Clowes. In April 2012 Kylie Minogue wore one of Sue Clowes vintage t-shirts for the AntiTour.

Research and Development

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 Magazine and Popular Science. 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. 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 Russian Vogue), Sir James Dyson (Vacuum cleaner magnate), Steve Pyke (M.B.E photographer), Dr. Pierre Brisson (head of European Space Agency Technology Transfer), and Sir Timothy Smit (creator of The Eden Project, Cornwall UK) among others.

Recent Work

Clowes is an External Examiner for University of Wales Examination Board Commission Assessments of students attending a BA programme in “Fashion, Design and Costume” at Accademia Italiana Moda in Florence and Rome. Re-launched the Sue Clowes brand in 2012 together with her daughter Marta Melani. The original Sue Clowes outfits from the Culture Club years will be on show in the V&A Museum "Club to Catwalk" exhibition from July 2013 until February 2014.