Alice Pollock (born 1942) is a British fashion designer and retailer who founded the boutique ''Quorum'', which featured the work of fellow designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, and later started the male modelling agency ''English Boy'' in London.

Quorum

Pollock founded ''Quorum'' in 1964 with the textile designer Celia Birtwell. Her first backer was the theatre producer Michael White, whose wife, the former model Sarah Hillsdon, designed for Quorum until her pregnancy. It was Pollock's second backer, a stockbroker called Michael Armitage, who introduced her to Ossie Clark at his

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

show. This led to the Clark/Pollock design partnership at Quorum where the fashion become more subtle, as the mini was replaced by the midi and maxi hemlines. Clark has been credited with opening the Quorum boutique with Pollock and he was designing clothes whilst he was still at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. Quorum provided a shop window for the work of many young designers, and began featuring Clark's work in 1965. Other Quorum designers included Michael Rainey (before he launched his own boutique '' Hung On You'' in winter 1965), Sheridan Barnett, who later launched label Barnett and Brown with Sheilagh Brown and the textile designer Frances Ronaldson, who went on to marry Pollock's ex-husband, Nick Pollock. Pollock designed for the label into the 1970s. She and Clark parted ways in 1973 and Clark and Birtwell's marriage ended the following year. ''Quorums fashion shows were known for their opulence and were popular with celebrities including

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

. Radley Gowns purchased the boutique in 1969.

English Boy

In 1966, Pollock and Sir Mark Palmer founded the early male modelling agency ''English Boy'' in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

, with Palmer as manager. Palmer declared that the agency's aim was "to change the image of British manhood and put the boy, as opposed to the girl, on the magazine cover in the future." The agency was initially run by Jose Maria Fonseca before she joined forces with April Ducksbury to found their own successful agency, Models 1, in 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollock, Alice 1942 births Living people British fashion designers