December 17, 2025 |
Legendary designer Antony Price has died aged 80, less than a month after his triumphant London catwalk return in collaboration with 16Arlington, an event which reminded everyone present and many beyond, that he was one of British fashion’s greats.
Price was a criminally overlooked talent, whose impact on fashion, taste and popular culture far outweighed his name recognition. A master of technical cuts and catwalk showmanship, he was the architect behind the Roxy Music and Duran Duran aesthetics of the ‘70s and ‘80s. He crafted the image of Roxy Music across eight albums, dressing the band and its Roxy Girls: Amanda Lear, Jerry Hall and Kari-Ann Muller, who came to define the hyper-sexy glamour of the time.
The slick, broad-shouldered suits he made for Bryan Ferry (who in awe of his technical skill, called him “a master craftsman”) and the sculpted cocktail gowns informed by old Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth, Vegas show girls, Vargas pin-ups and high shine sex shop chic, predicted the look of the 1980s. In that decade, everyone wore Antony Price. The coloured suits worn by Duran Duran in their Rio video were made by Price. David Bowie wore Price’s impeccable wide-shouldered tailoring in videos and performances throughout the ‘80s. Paula Yates in golden lamé Price cocktail dresses epitomised his look. Jerry Hall ‘married’ Mick Jagger in a Price creation in 1990. From that year on, he focused on made-to-order commissions from the likes of Queen Camilla and Kylie Minogue as well as creating catwalk looks for Philip Treacy.
Photography courtesy of 16Arlington.
Born in Yorkshire in 1945, he graduated from the RCA in 1968. A year later, Mick Jagger was wearing his clothes on the Gimme Shelter tour in 1969. He only held a handful of fashion shows throughout his career, and his later years were spent breeding birds to supply milliners like Treacy with feathers. He returned to the London catwalk in November, with what was to become his final collection of made-to-order dresses. That night, generous helpings of champagne lubricated the crowd, who’d waited for nearly an hour to see what this 16Arlington collaboration with Price would look like. Lily Allen answered that question. In full revenge-dress mode, she puffed seductively on a cigarette, stalking the catwalk in a midnight-blue velvet gown that was pitched somewhere between Jessica Rabbit and Gilda. A year in the planning, designers Marco Capaldo and Price, said their intention was to celebrate glamour and sexuality, something sorely missed on the London catwalks. They set the dial to vamp, pouring Lara Stone into a trompe l’oeil zebra bustier gown (based on originally one worn by Jerry Hall) and Alva Claire into a black feather mini dress.
Each look, paired with exclusive Manolo Blahnik heels, was crafted on a corseted super-structure, from the sculpted leather ‘fetish’ jackets to crystal encrusted gowns. Adwoa Aboah dazzled in a 3D silver sequins, Kit Butler wowed in a neon blue suit based on the looks Price designed Roxy Music’s front man Bryan Ferry. The cast vamped and camped, posed and preened, demonstrating that it is not enough to simply wear Anthony price clothes. They demand more. You must inhabit them. You must rise to the occasion.
