March 16, 2026 |
Legendary designer Antony Price died, aged 80, less than a month after his triumphant London catwalk return in collaboration with 16Arlington, an event that 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”), as well as the sculpted cocktail gowns informed by old Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth, Vegas showgirls, Alberto Vargas pin-ups and high-shine sex shop chic, predicted the look of the 1980s. In that decade, everyone wore Antony Price. He made the coloured suits worn by Duran Duran in their Rio video. David Bowie wore Price’s impeccable wide-shouldered tailoring in his Loving the Alien and As the World Falls Down videos in 1984 and ’86. Paula Yates in golden lamé Price cocktail dresses epitomised his look. Jerry Hall wore a Price creation for her and Mick Jagger’s 1990 commitment ceremony. 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.
from left: Raya wears Cobra dress by ANTONY PRICE AW83 from the archive of Alexander Fury, earrings by CARTIER and Raya wears dress by 16ARLINGTON X ANTONY PRICE, earrings by BOUCHERON, shoes by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
Born in Yorkshire in 1945, he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1968. A year later, Jagger was wearing his clothes on the Gimme Shelter tour. 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 last November with what was to become his final collection of bespoke 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 Rita Hayworth’s 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 capital’s catwalks. They set the dial to vamp, pouring Lara Stone into a trompe-l’oeil zebra bustier gown (based on one originally 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 3D silver sequins, Kit Butler wowed in a neon blue suit based on the looks Price designed for Ferry. The cast vamped and camped, posed and preened, demonstrating that it is not enough to simply wear Antony Price clothes. They demand more. You must inhabit them. You must rise to the occasion.
Here, Price’s nephew, the stylist Oliver Volquardsen, worked alongside Jenny Brough to photograph some of the designer’s fiercest fashions, joined by memories of those touched by his brilliance.
from left: Peter wears jacket by 16ARLINGTON X ANTONY PRICE, pleated lamé trousers by ANTONY PRICE AW83 from the archive of Alexander Fury, earrings by BVLGARI, shoes by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN and Raya wears dress by ANTONY PRICE 1999
Marco Capaldo, co-founder and creative director, 16Arlington
“Working with Antony was one of the most inspiring experiences of my career. His instinctive understanding of the body and his mastery of cut were extraordinary, but it was his spirit I admired most, alongside his generosity, curiosity, infectious enthusiasm and naughty sense of humour. We spoke for hours almost every day, and through that exchange he brought a sense of joy, energy and unapologetic glamour into the creative process. Antony was not only a design icon, but someone who became very close to my heart, a dear friend who I miss deeply.”
Bryan Ferry, as told to Alexander Fury
“Price is a master craftsman and one of the most remarkably gifted people I have ever met.”
Judy Price, Antony’s eldest sister
“Antony used to have this room in his then-studio/showroom on the King’s Road in the late ’90s and I remember him telling me how he once had Hilary Alexander come over to interview him and he showed her around all his workrooms. This one room was filled with chicken-wire bodies that were basically casts of his clientele so he could create garments on these bodies. Hilary walked around and Antony told me that she stopped and commented on this one cast and how it resembled an Amazonian woman/comic book character – very tiny waist, large boobs and strong, defined hips. And I said, ‘Who was it?’ I was expecting it to be a Jerry Hall or a Helena Christensen. He told her, ‘That’s my sister!’”
from left: Peter wears shirt and tie by 16ARLINGTON X ANTONY PRICE, jacket by ANTONY PRICE 1979, trousers by ANTONY PRICE 1981, both from the archive of Alexander Fury and Peter wears jacket by 16ARLINGTON X ANTONY PRICE, necklace by BOUCHERON
Fiona Volquardsen, Antony’s niece
“In the ’90s, Antony and I worked on the Brintons’ carpet campaign, which was a collaboration with designers to interpret their carpets into wearable garments. Antony was asked to do their second campaign from this series after the late Vivienne Westwood. I remember the design process being almost impossible with the use of heavy-duty carpet and making these garments that were so beyond couture, they were actually sculpture.”
Oliver Volquardsen, Antony’s nephew
“In the 2000s, I was working in Antony’s studio as an assistant. Even though it was foundational work you were able to be involved with so many amazing projects. I helped him create these mood boards for a pitch he was doing with his business partner for a line for Topman to be called Priceless, which was a take on a modern interpretation of the Duran Duran-style colourful suiting he’d created in the ’80s. I still put [what I learned] into practice now. Rather than finding and researching imagery via computer you would source imagery and have it copied from magazines and books, then cut them out to make a collage. He directed me to place and find images of tropical birds of paradise and acidic colours from swatch books where he would create these fabulous explosions of art in its own right. Those boards landed him the deal of the Topshop-Kate Moss collab rival, the Topman menswear line.”
Yasmin le Bon, model
“Antony was an exceptional person. He was the arch manipulator when it came to clothes, he made you walk taller and feel fabulous. He was funny and warm and so, so loyal. He could do everything! Design, cut and sew the whole outfit by his fair hand. I loved his voice, and I could listen to his stories forever.”
from left: Raya wears Cobra dress by ANTONY PRICE AW83 from the archive of Alexander Fury, shoes by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, earrings by CARTIER and Raya wears dress by 16ARLINGTON X ANTONY PRICE
Tim Blanks, journalist
“For me, the genius of Antony Price was always distilled into the cover of For Your Pleasure, Roxy Music’s second album. Every single detail – Amanda [Lear] the dominatrix with the big cat, Bryan the chauffeur with the big car, both of them posed against a glittering, mythical film noir skyline – was my teenage passport to a whole other world. Why aren’t I there? How do I get there? Antony knew. I didn’t. But I was more than ready to find out.”
Philip Treacy, milliner
“Working with Antony Price was an incredible experience. His exceptional talent and unique vision not only defined elegance but also sparked a passion for style and beauty in a whole generation of designers. What I admired most about him was his strong commitment to artistry – his designs transcended mere fashion, becoming a true celebration of creativity and individuality.”
John Taylor of Duran Duran
“We first met Antony on a visit to Plaza [his King’s Road shop] in early ’81 to spend our record company advance on clothes. Nick [Rhodes] and I were in awe of him, having been Roxy Music fans for so long. It took a while for us all to warm to each other. He didn’t like me rolling up the sleeves of his beautiful silk suits and I had to explain that it wasn’t a critique of his design but the only way I could play my instrument. Over time, we became closer. Nick opened a store with him on South Molton Street and soon Antony was designing and making exclusive clothing for our stage shows. That was when I truly got to see his genius. His drawings were superb, as was his ability to interpret whatever ridiculous sartorial fantasies we were having that year into clothes that always made us look cooler, sexier and smarter – that was his genius. We got to know what a sweet man he was, with a sharp lash of the tongue, of course, but never mean. He was always light and was a gift. We will all miss him.”
from left: Raya wears lamé dress by ANTONY PRICE 2019, from the archive of Found and Vision and Raya wears hat by ANTONY PRICE AW83
Alexander Fury, writer and curator
“I fell in love with Antony Price’s work when I was a kid growing up in the Northern English countryside – probably because its avaricious, predatory glamour was about as far removed from the humdrum lives I saw as it was possible to be. Glamour, fantasy and sex was what Price was all about, is all about, because his work lives on, immortalised like no other fashion in the vision of those postmodern pin-ups, the Roxy Music girls. Kari-Ann [Muller] as a reimagined [Alberto] Vargas heroine; Amanda Lear as a whiplash of ciré [fabric] leashed to an imaginary panther; Jerry ‘Ferry’ Hall as a siren crawling across the rocks of Anglesey Bay, with Antony mocking up a version of that cover with the Sizewell B nuclear reactor in the background. And, for [the cover of Roxy’s 1978 album] Manifesto, a frozen party of his own mannequins dressed in lamé and satin. They’re incredible, indelible, impossible images of unassailable glamour.
But I was also lucky enough to know Antony as a friend. I first spoke to him when I was at Central Saint Martins as a besotted student, writing my thesis on his work; later, at SHOWstudio, my first major project was around his work, which was when I finally got to meet him. He wound up calling me Kathy – after Bates, the actress – because I was his biggest fan [Bates played the stalker fan in Misery]. He was, fittingly, Misery Price, because Antony was one of the most self-deprecating yet hilariously deadpan people I have ever met. He had names for everyone. He was, however, fiercely proud of his work, confident of his abilities, a paradox. Antony knew he was a great designer, a magnificent technician, one of the greats. He just never got told that enough, in my opinion. His exceptional collaboration with Marco and 16Arlington was a rare measure of recognition for his talents – a fashion show staged 35 years after his last, and one that demonstrated his sheer brilliance. I’ll miss Antony’s endless invention, the greatness of his clothes. But I’ll miss him more.”
10 Magazine Issue 76 – CREATIVITY, CHANGE, FREEDOM – is out on newsstands March 18. Pre-order your copy here.
HIGH PRICE
Photographer JENNY BROUGH
Fashion Editor OLIVER VOLQUARDSEN
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Models RAYA MARTIGNY at Go See and PETER MACH at D1 Models
Hair TYLER JOHNSTON at One Represents
Make-up TERRY BARBER at David Artists using M.A.C COSMETICS
Manicurist LIIA ZOTOVA using ADORE PROFESSIONAL
Set designer PENNY MILLS
Photographer’s assistants ROBIN BERNSTEIN and DANIELE ROVERSI
Fashion assistant ELSA DEESON
Digital operator HO HAI TRAN
Make-up assistant SABINA GATEJ
Production ZAC APOSTOLOU
Post-production MONICA CHAMORRO
Special thanks to ALEXANDER FURY, STEVEN PHILIP and KAREN CLARKSON
