Obituary: Thea Porter

As the Seventies eclipsed the Sixties, and clothes became progressively throwaway, extreme and overstated, Porter did not attempt to dilute her design signature but resolutely stuck to her guns and returned to her first love - exotic interiors. "She was an incredibly important designer, who epitomised that gorgeous hippy look," says Zandra Rhodes, who has been tracking down Thea Porter pieces to place alongside Bill Gibb, Jean Muir and Ossie Clark in her forthcoming museum.

Porter was a quiet visionary - not only in her design sensibility but in the fact that she straddled the two worlds of fashion and interior design - a practice which is now commonplace and undertaken on an international scale. Her love of the old, the worn and the cherished - antique textiles translated into modern saleable pieces - was decades ahead of its time.

"What I hate is clothes that look new," Thea Porter told House and Garden in 1968. A sentiment currently expressed by every significant designer from John Galliano to Dries Van Noten.

Dorothea Noelle Naomi Seale, fashion designer: born Jerusalem 24 December 1927; married 1953 Robert Porter (one daughter; marriage dissolved 1967); died London 24 July 2000.

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