Obituaries - Jan. 5, 1988

Bill Gibb, 44, Scottish Fashion Designer

Bill Gibb, 44, a Scottish fashion designer whose creations helped make London a world fashion center in the 1970s. They were worn by Princess Anne, Ann Margret, Bianca Jagger and Empress Farah Diba, wife of the late Shah of Iran. One of his dresses, made for Twiggy the model, is in the costume collection of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. As a child, Gibb sketched costumes from history books and went to London to study fashion at St. Martin’s School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art, producing his first clothes in 1968. That effort led Henri Bendel, a New York fashion store, to commission an exclusive Bill Gibb collection. Vogue magazine voted him Designer of the Year in 1970. Gibb moved away from the miniskirt, introducing flowing long skirts and mixed prints in a forerunner of the ethnic look. He favored extravagant designs in clinging fabrics and animal skins but his knitwear brought him most acclaim. Early editions of Monday’s Daily Mail said he died from AIDS but his family insisted he had cancer and died of it Saturday.