My uncle, Jim O’Connor, who has died of cancer aged 80, was an influential designer whose highly innovative approach made him a key figure on the London fashion scene in the late 1960s and early 70s. Using a pop-influenced approach and bright primary colours, Jim sought always to make his designs exciting and accessible to all.
As a hard-working student full of energy and excitement, Jim was disinclined to look to France and haute couture for inspiration during his time at the Royal College of Art. His lecturers expressed concern about his prospects, but his 1968 graduation show caused a stir and was featured in Vogue. Another Vogue feature in 1969 noted that “Jim O’Connor is a bright designer without a break: no manufacturer, no boutique, no money. What he has is a fresh, direct, new way of seeing things and the things he makes are fun.”
In 1970 Jim started working at the clothing boutique and label started by Tommy Roberts, Mr Freedom, where he finalised a project he had started working on some years before – brightly coloured winged boots, as worn by Elton John. At Mr Freedom, Jim met Pamla Motown, a fellow designer, and they became a freelance team starting with a collection of knitwear for Jeff Banks. The collection featured in the Sunday Times in January 1972 but was never produced.
Jim and Pam married in 1976. Finding it difficult to get designs into production, they moved to New York, where they achieved some success, including a four-time sell-out punk collection for Macy’s department store in 1977. Moving to Los Angeles in 1978, they started their own boutique, Poseur, where they could control design, production and retail. In 1981 it moved to the Melrose Avenue district of West Hollywood and became a hugely influential punk and mod store that Jim continued to run after his divorce from Pam.
Michael Jackson bought one of Jim’s bondage jackets from Poseur and, without seeking Jim’s permission, reproduced it in leather and wore it on the front cover of his Bad album in 1987. There was an attempt by Jackson to claim that he had designed the jacket himself but Jim was quickly able to show Jackson’s credit card receipt and his original design to prove that this was not the case.
By 1989 Jim found that Poseur was constraining rather than inspiring him, and he decided to close the business and move to Japan, where he spent two years working as an English teacher. Returning to Los Angeles in 1991, he worked in a variety of design-related roles until he became a teacher at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. He returned to the UK in 2023 to be closer to his family.
Jim was born in Battersea, London, the youngest of three children of Larry, a trade union rep and Violet, a dinner lady and filing clerk. Both parents were Communist party members and Jim was an active member of the Young Communist League and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament throughout his youth. He attended Sir Walter St John’s grammar school for boys (known as “Sinjuns”) and after three years studying sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art, he was offered his place at the RCA.
Some of Jim’s designs feature in the V&A fashion collection and can be viewed online.
He is survived by his brother, Bob, two nieces and three nephews.
