14 Facts About Bill Gibb

William Elphinstone Gibb was a Scottish fashion designer who became renowned in the 1960s and 70s for his unusual and flattering designs.

Bill Gibb was born near New Pitsligo, a small village in Aberdeenshire in Scotland to George and Jessie Bill Gibb, the eldest of their seven children.

In 1960, Bill Gibb's family bought the dairy farm at Smiddyhill in Fraserburgh, before finally settling in Netherton, in New Pitsligo.

Bill Gibb's parents retired from farmwork in 1976, and latterly ran a bed and breakfast in the village of New Pitsligo.

Bill Gibb's teachers encouraged him to apply for art school in London, and so, in 1962, Gibb went to Saint Martin's School of Art.

In 1967 Bill Gibb was one of six young designers invited to present their designs in New York, which led to a three-month research tour of the United States with his then boyfriend, the artist and textile designer Kaffe Fassett, who would remain a very close friend and design collaborator.

Between 1969 and 1972, as a freelance designer, Bill Gibb designed for the London fashion house Baccarat.

Bill Gibb's design was described as the epitome of the new emerging trend for romantic eclecticism in British fashion design, as well as demonstrating how traditional handicrafts, such as hand-knits, were becoming acceptable for mainstream fashion.

Bill Gibb wore a "Renaissance" evening dress featuring printed textiles based on 1520s Hans Holbein drawings to the Daily Mirror's Fashion Celebrity Dinner in 1970.

Bill Gibb presented his first collection under his own name in 1972.

Later, in the 1980s, Bill Gibb collaborated with another Leicestershire manufacturer, Annette Carol, to produce acrylic knitwear using a jacquard technique.

Bill Gibb was not a good businessperson, and his business was not financially successful, and collapsed in 1977,1979 and 1980.

Bill Gibb was described as "one of the most gentle, kindly and considerate human beings I have ever met" and a "man without malice" by the journalist Jack Webster.

Bill Gibb's work is represented in the permanent collection of many museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Manchester City Galleries, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as those listed above.