Biography - Janice Bell |
|
Janice Bell was born in 1942 and lived in the London's East End until she was 16. She left school, and got a job in a office, but she got the sack for eating all the jaffa cake biscuits. Janice decided to join her friend who was working in a local clothing factory, within a year she had been sacked from almost every factory from Stepney Green to Aldgate. In the process she had remarkably picked up the skills to design her own clothes. By 17 Janice was making leather bags and wallets. She got married and had two boys Nicholas and Adrian, the marriage was dissolved in 1962. In 1963 she met long time partner George and in 1964 they had a daughter Beth. In 1967 they re-located to Kensington. In 1968 George and Janice opened a shop called 'Colours of the Sun' in Marbella Spain. The shop was a great success, selling Baluchi mirrored tee shirts, her own designs of carpet coats, bags and chenille skirts. The Duchess of Alba was a good customer. In 1970 they returned to the Kensington flat and working from home, continued designing and making clothes. Janice was buying old dresses for the wonderful fabrics and prints from Portobello Road and using the fabrics to make new designs, she created bomber jackets made from a collection of old prints sewn together as a montage. In 1971 they had their third son George. Janice rented a studio in Kensington Army Barracks and was soon supplying the traders in Kensington Market. In 1972 the couple had a baby girl, Amber. As the business expanded they rented 6 more rooms at Kensington Barracks to cope with demand for her designs. By 1973 The business was booming and were supplying Miss Selfridge, Fiorucci, Henry Bendel, Whistles, Bob Shop Paris, Parkers of Bond Street, and Vanilla in Kensington Church Street, including various shops in Germany, Holland and H&M in Sweden. Such was the success of Janice's clothes she was now designing and making clothes for TV advertising starting with a large campaign for Dr Whites she progressed into movies designing clothes for a 'Fellini' movie. Janice then met up with Peter Golding the owner of the fabulous 'ACE' in the Kings Road Chelsea. She designed the famous 'Jean skirt' for 'ACE' Janice decided to go up-market and opened her own shop in London's Soho with a steady stream of celebrity clients such as Charlotte Rampling, Marianne Faithfull, Annie Ross, Brit Ekland, Paula Yates, Liza Minnelli, Princess Diana, Chrissy Woods, Lynsey De Paul, Angie Bowie, Anouska Hempel, Pat Booth, Nina Carter, Vivien Neaves, In 1977 Janice designed all the clothes for the 1978 British Leyland Calendar. She went with photographer John Kelly to California for the shoot and was responsible for the styling and make-up throughout the shoot. British Leyland filmed the whole process from start to finish. By 1983 she was producing her own range of clothing in India for 'IBIZA' and in Sydney Australia she was the stylist for a Penthouse Magazine shoot.. In 1984 'IBIZA' created a chain of stores across the UK and Germany with Janice as their main designer. She created special styles for New York's, 'Gallery of Wearable Art' and other stores. In 1986 'IBIZA' opens a studio-factory in London. Janice was their sole designer. In 1990 she was designing one-off dresses and wedding dresses. 1995 Janice continued designing rare one-off garments for the Japanese market. Janice began studying Metaphysics under the tuition of Heather Andrew Dobbs she successfully completed a foundation course in Spiritual Mind Treatments. By 2009 she had acquired an in depth understanding of Metaphysics. By 2011 She successfully completed and demonstrated an in depth understanding of working with the law of Metaphysical Thinking and successfully completed a course on Spiritual Psychology. She successfully became a teacher of Metaphysics, she had learned many valuable life lessons studying Metaphysics and had also become fascinated and influenced by the great thinkers of the past. She studied the great philosophers - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle In 2014 she successfully became a teacher of Metaphysics. 2015 Janice started writing 'What the F..k is Metaphysics' a novel. Quote "Being a good East End girl, I related to Charles Dickens, and what happens later in life, It soon became clear why I felt this connection. I am of the opinion that we still at the core of our thinking hold some of the ancient beliefs in our hearts. The more I studied the more I realised there was a connection between Fashion and Metaphysics. As the strings that combine our cells carry our DNA, the DNA strings intertwine and weave all our choices together. This then becomes the fabric of our lives. Using your consciousness, you will form the foundation of your life. Which you will then weave and transform into the fabric of your choice, which could make you soft cotton, or rough hessian, pure silk or sensual velvet. The strongest string of DNA will determine how you make that choice." In 2015 I found a synopsis I had written about ten years ago about some pure white cats with ice blue eyes that were feral and living in a stable in Southern Spain .... a true story. My Biography for the present, is on hold.
|
