The King and Queen of Vintage

Kate Moss helicopters in from London to see them; Madonna’s stylist is a frequent visitor; fashion designers from luxury houses and high-street brands peruse their collection for inspiration; Rachel Weisz just bought one of their original Ossie Clark dresses; and yet, for a couple so highly sought-after and revered by the fashion industry, Mark and Cleo Butterfield are a million miles from our stereotypical notion of fashion players, with a pleasing streak of anti-consumerism to boot.

“We’re just mad collectors,” says Mark, as we chat over tea and biscuits at the couple’s thatched cottage in the West Country. Enthusiasts, then, rather than fashionistas. “We can’t go anywhere without seeking out a vintage shop – it’s an obsession.” A passion project it may be, but there’s no doubt the Butterfields’ love for all things retro has led to one of the most significant fashion archives in Europe – from delicate Twenties satin honeymoon trousseaux and Thirties tweed suits to Biba gems and a unique collection of pieces by Swinging Sixties designer Ossie Clark. In short, the couple’s addiction to buying vintage clothing has made them custodians of some of the rarest garments to emerge from the 20th century.

“It was the V&A that really put us into the big league,” says Cleo, talking about the Ossie Clark exhibition at the museum in 1993 which showed some key pieces from their collection.

“We had a lot of his stuff – just because we love it. The cut is amazing, so clever and flattering – and we were selling it on a stall at Hammersmith Vintage Fashion Fair.” Mark and Cleo had already got to know Clark’s friend, the milliner Brian Harris, who convinced the couple to lend to the show. It was there that they first met Celia Birtwell, the designer’s muse and partner, and a significant designer in her own right, with whom they remain on good terms. And then, when the retrospective was over, a flood of Ossie Clark sellers came knocking at the Butterfields’ door. “It was incredible what came out of the woodwork,” says Cleo. “We bought some fabulous pieces.”

The couple now open up their archive to the fashion world in exchange for a fee, lend to photo shoots for the likes of Vogue, and provide inspiration and garments to film-makers’ costume departments – particularly for productions with a 1920s or ’30s slant, as those are Cleo’s favourite decades. The Butterfields are also involved in one-off projects – from lecturing at the Royal Albert Hall to collaborating on a collection of commemorative stamps for the Royal Mail and curating an exhibition of iconic fashion pieces that they personally showed to the Queen as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Right now, they’re busy gathering items for the upcoming vintage runway shows at Goodwood Revival. Options include a 1969 Ossie Clark “Lamborghini Suit”, like the one Twiggy was photographed in, stepping out of a Rolls-Royce, in 1970. It’s hard to imagine anything more fitting for Goodwood, though the final choice is still to be made.

The story of the couple’s collection begins during Cleo’s teenage years. With a passion for old films and a lack of enthusiasm for the futuristic fashion of the time, she first began buying retro pieces – to wear herself – in 1966, and was soon selling vintage clothes to fund her shopping habit. “I’d wear chiffon dresses and walk around London barefoot,” she recalls. “I guess it was anti-consumer.” A thriving shop in Portobello and then a stand at Antiquarius on the King’s Road helped support her through her degree at the London School of Economics, before she started working in costume for film. Mark, meanwhile, had no interest in vintage fashion and made his living as a social worker when the couple met in 1996 – at a French country-dancing class. He did, however, have a passion for all things rock ’n’ roll, and once the couple were living together it wasn’t long before he caught the vintage treasure-seeking bug.

He pulls out a crushed-velvet, emerald-green suit from one of the many boxes brought out of storage for the photo shoot. “It’s by [Savile Row tailor] Tommy Nutter,” he explains. “It belonged to Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, right at the time they were making Saturday Night Fever. Like any bespoke suit, it’s got his name sewn into it, and the date it was made.” There’s also a jacket worn by Madonna in Evita, a 4th century scrap of fabric (which they bought because they couldn’t believe how old it was), shearling jackets, ball gowns, and a 1960s psychedelic-print shirt in synthetic fabric that the couple admit is “particularly horrible”.

“This is like wearing your curtains,” Mark continues, producing a patterned 1960s jacket from another box. Originally sold at the Beatles’ famous Apple Boutique in Baker Street, George Harrison wore one like it – possibly even this very jacket. “It’s one of the most expensive things I’ve ever bought,” says Mark. “I found an American woman selling it online. She wanted an enormous amount of money for it. I negotiated down to £3,000 in the end, but can you believe she found it for $10 in a thrift store?”

America, they explain, is where they get their best finds now. On a recent trip to LA, they stepped off a plane and went straight to an enormous vintage fair, almost leaving empty-handed – before catching sight of the metal on a Sixties Pierre Cardin dress glinting in the sunlight at the back of the stall. eBay is another good resource, and buyers now seek the Butterfields out independently as well. But all too often these days, they find that British vintage shops hold nothing for them.

“Sometimes I can just stand in a shop doorway and I’ll say, ‘No, there’s nothing here,’” says Cleo. “I see stuff that I think is 1960s and then I realise, ‘Oh, it’s just Topshop,’” adds Mark, “but then I guess we’re partly to blame for that.” Indeed, everyone from Topshop to leading fashion houses sends designers to the Butterfields for inspiration. It’s hard, they explain, to know what to show people. What one person finds interesting, another finds irrelevant, and while it’s nigh on impossible to second-guess the mind of a creative, there’s simply too much stock for one person to work through the rails alone.

Of the hundreds of emails the Butterfields receive offering rare pieces for sale, Mark can’t resist following each one up, “just in case”. Chatting to people in shops and at markets, they say, is also key, and it helps that they have the knowledge between them to identify pieces that others often miss. One of their Ossie Clark shirts, for example, bears an Alice Pollock label, but the Butterfields have been chatting to his machinists for years and know that this was an era when a workshop might produce clothes for multiple clients and could accidentally sew the wrong label into a garment.

With so much in stock, they focus solely on rare items in perfect condition. “Our advice to any buyer would be: buy the most expensive you can afford, and buy something because you like it. Don’t ever think of it as an investment. To make money out of anything, it has to be in fashion, and that can take forever – the Ossie Clark dresses, for example, were at a premium five years ago, but now they’ve gone off the boil a bit.” Their personal favourite items (that they wear) are an original 1920s Mariano Fortuny dress, which Cleo bought in its box with a note that reads, “To my very spoilt daughter Nancy,” and a shrunken Comme des Garçons jacket from 2001. Cleo has a weakness for all things kitsch and trashy – particularly acid-wash denim – and they both love Jean Paul Gaultier – “just because he’s a laugh”.

Clearly, it’s a delight to them that the thing that they love doing is now a lucrative business, though each day brings a mountain of clothes to be washed, steamed, painstakingly restored and packed up. And as Cleo’s grown-up children have never shown an interest in vintage fashion, the future of the collection is uncertain. “Maybe one of the grandchildren will be interested one day,” says Cleo, “or some of it might go to Topshop.” One thing is certain, however: the couple have no plans to slow down their collecting. “Could I stop this? No, never,” says Cleo. “I’ve never even imagined it.”

The Emporium at Goodwood Revival (Sept 8-10) will host specially curated fashion shows every day, including Pure Vintage showcasing Mark and Cleo’s collection