My wife, Christine O’Sullivan, who has died aged 72, was a pattern cutter and designer whose creations were sold by many of the top high street stores in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, including Marks & Spencer, Top Shop, Debenhams and John Lewis.
Her main speciality was nightwear for women and children, and one of her claims to fame was that she designed the dressing gowns used on stage by Ian Dury and Jane Horrocks in the 1987 play Road, at the Royal Court theatre in London.
Chris was born in Peckham, south London, to Rene (nee Mapley), a secretary and mental health nurse, and Nick Hilton, a plumber. She went to Thomas More secondary school in Purley, Surrey, before studying design at Croydon College of Art (1969-73).
From there she worked in London for a firm called Saracen as a designer and pattern cutter of ladies’ and children’s blouses and nightwear, supplying M&S, before moving in 1977 to Banbury in Oxfordshire to perform a similar role for Golden Charm, supplying other high street stores.
After a year in 1982-83 at Jean Lee, designing and cutting ladies nightwear for Etam, Top Shop, Debenhams and John Lewis, she worked for eight years at Courtaulds in London as senior designer for one of their M&S nightwear manufacturers. It was during that time she was asked to design for Road, a commission that came about through a friend who worked with Horrocks.
In 1990 Chris went freelance, mainly working for companies supplying M&S. But as she moved into her 40s she found that companies were favouring younger designers, and by 1995 she was working as a sales assistant at the Banbury branch of M&S, where she was amused to serve customers buying her red check pyjama designs.
Outside work, Chris pursued he interest in art by specialising in abstract paintings in acrylic. After gaining a master’s degree in fine art at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education in 2000, she had solo exhibitions at the O3 Gallery in Oxford (2007) and in Bicester (2013), and in 2009 she won the Oxfordshire ArtWeeks ArtWine competition, which led to her entry being displayed on 600 bottles of wine. In 2015 she co-curated a Terry Frost exhibition at Banbury Museum.
Chris lived next-door-but-one to me in Banbury and that is how we met in 1980. We married in 1987.
She enjoyed yoga and went on a number of retreats abroad, including in India and Crete. Having trained as a yoga teacher, she enjoyed introducing others to the practice she loved.
Despite being fit and a non-smoker, Chris died of lung cancer. Before her death she volunteered to be featured in the All You Need is Lungs campaign to encourage non-smokers and health professionals to develop greater awareness of the symptoms of the disease.
She is survived by me, her father, and her siblings, Tony and Jay.
