Remembering Antony Price - A Fond Farewell to an Icon in Fashion Design and Dear Friend

I met Antony Price at the Embassy Club just days before his big Camden Palace show in 1983. He took me by the hand, introduced me to his manager Rick, and told me to meet Rick at his shop on the Kings Road the next day to be fitted for the show. I did go to the shop the next morning, but Rick didn’t recognize me without makeup, hair a tangled mess, and I’m sure looking rather hung over.  I was too shy to remind him, so I spent every penny in my bank account on a gorgeous maroon taffeta frock and scampered out.

Antony Price was far more than a genius designer. He was a visionary light years ahead of his day. A master tailor that could design and construct a garment from inception through to completion like no other designer I’ve known in my lifetime. His painstaking process yielding couture level fit.

Famously inspired by the Golden Age of Hollywood, he based my wedding dress on My Fair Lady, and then there was the Jessica Rabbit dress, and Mommy Dearest suit; but Tone took vast inspiration from nature too. I’ll never forget him pointing to a particularly beautiful flower during one of our holidays together exclaiming “God was having a great day when he designed that one!” Every time I see a magnificent plant or animal I think of Tone. His love of nature manifesting in the Crocodile dress with its removable tail (train) and a stunning hunter green silk suit with ostrich feather bustier and jacket collar I still cherish to this day.

I often stayed with Tone In the countryside when I came back to England for a visit. One of those visits he designed a Chef’s dress for a television pilot I was working on. I remember being enthralled by the aviary Tone had made of chicken wire so his beloved birds could fly in and out of his home at will, complete with peacocks roaming the exotic garden in all their glory too. Tone would smuggle clippings of plants that caught his fancy back from his travels and lovingly nurture them in this splendid setting. His garden reminded me of that scene in Finding Neverland when Johnny Depp brings Peter Pan to the ailing Kate Winslett – I half expected to see fairies, Indians, and pirates peering at me from every nook and cranny.

Debonair, charming, ever so clever, and always deliciously witty. I loved experiencing the world through Antony’s perspective. He was an exceptional friend. When I told him I was pregnant, he immediately checked a book out from the library on what a woman goes though during pregnancy so he could support me. When I had a meltdown over having nothing that fit me to wear to Jerry Hall’s 30^th birthday party, Tone saved the day yet again. Pointing to my gargantuan pregnant belly he said, “well we aren’t going to hide THAT so we might as well put a bow on it!”  Then he dubbed it the chocolate box dress. As soon as Tatjana was born, I called him to say I needed a whole new wardrobe. His spot-on response was “don’t be ridiculous, you’re a vampire! You just need some cocktail frocks and a few evening gowns”.

On my last trip to London, I rang Antony after not seeing each other for nearly 10 years.  In typical Tone fashion, he abruptly answered “I can’t talk NOW! I’ll call you back “and put the phone down on me before I could get a word in edgewise.  Twenty minutes later he called and explained, “I was in the middle of cutting Miss Ferry’s hair! Where are you?” As soon as I told him I was in London he replied, “I have to see you, I must see you before I die”.

The truth is I will never be ready to day goodbye to Antony, but I am SO grateful for our last evening together. Giovanna Taylor graciously opened her home to us, cooked a spectacular meal, and Tone took the train in from the country. We laughed deep belly laughs reminiscing, hugged, and left nothing unsaid. He knows how much I love him so there are no regrets – just an elephant standing on my chest at the thought of never seeing him again, and 42 years of sublime memories to cherish for a lifetime.