Foale, Marion and Tuffin, Sally

Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin became friends while studying at Walthamstow school of art. They both went on to attend the Fashion School at London’s Royal College of Art where they graduated in 1961. By the following year they had launched their own label and had premises on Carnaby Street where they fought to keep up with the increasing demand for their designs. They created youthful ready-to-wear clothes, and mainly sold via the London store Woollands.

Famous model Pattie Boyd along with her sister Jenny, Sandra Moss and Sarah Dawson were booked for the “Youthquake” tour of May 1965 which successfully promoted wild geometric British fashions by Mary Quant and Foale & Tuffin in the US. The following year they were booked to design Susannah York’s wardrobe in the 1966 film Kaleidoscope, and after that they designed part of Audrey Hepburn’s wardrobe in the 1967 film Two for the Road.

Their clothing range was still going strong in the 1970s, but by the middle of that decade both designers were married with children and they began to find other things in life besides designing clothes. In 1987 Sally Tuffin and her husband Richard Dennis rejuvenated Moorcroft pottery, with Sally producing many ceramic designs at her studio in Somerset. When they left Moorcroft they began to produce their own range under the name of Dennis China. Marion Foale continued in the fashion business where she is now well known for her knitwear.

Written by premierludwig

from an early 1970s jacket

Courtesy of premierludwig