Born: Dinnington, England, 1935
‘I admire the way Americans care, but it shows a little and it shouldn’t,’ said John Bates in Vogue’s ‘Designer Series’ in 1976, ‘they’re best when they’re wearing the least make-up and their hair shines like they invented shampoo.’ One of the brightest stars of British fashion during the 1970s, Bates had a French training at Herbert Sidon of Sloane Street in London; he then moved to Jean Varon in 1958 and formed his own label in 1972. Bates had a meticulous attention to detail, piecing together the complete look from millinery to custom-made stockings. He made his name by dressing Diana Rigg for The Avengers television series; her first outfit – a fight-scene suit with a black stripe across the bustline – was commissioned and made within three days.
Bates’s business went bankrupt in 1980 and, faced with an uncertain future in the rag trade, otherwise known as the ‘Calcutta run, which you do if you want to feel instantly depressed’, he moved to Wales in 1989, where he lives in a cottage with views over the estuary, designing for larger ladies and perfecting his life-drawing technique.
