Michael Rainey

Michael Sean O'Dare Rainey (21 January 1941 – 29 January 2017) was an Australian-born British fashion designer, best known for his 1960s London boutique, Hung On You.

Early life Rainey was the son of Sean Rainey and Joyce Marion Wallace (1923–2006), better known as Marion Wrottesley, after her later marriage to Richard Wrottesley (later 5th Baron Wrottesley).

Career Hung On You jacket tailored for John Lennon and worn by him during the Beatles 1966 German tour in Hamburg. In December 1965, Rainey, together with his then wife Jane Ormsby Gore, opened the fashion boutique Hung On You, at 22 Cale Street, London, with a mural by Michael English. Rainey had no previous experience in the fashion business or in retailing, and instead was inspired by his well-dressed friends including his wife's brother Julian Ormsby Gore, and the antique dealer Christopher Gibbs. The decor and tailoring were somewhat similar to Nigel Waymouth and Sheila Cohen's Granny Takes a Trip, which opened three months later in February 1966. His wife Jane Ormsby Gore had been making regular visits to India, looking for fabrics, so there was also an oriental accent to the clothes, as well as a repurposing and reuse of vintage garments and designs. He sold the lease to the boutique in 1969 to Tommy Roberts and it became Mr Freedom.

Personal life Rainey married Jane Ormsby-Gore, the eldest daughter of David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, about whom the V&A notes "widely perceived as a style leader of her generation, Jane Ormsby-Gore worked for Vogue in the early 1960s". She also worked with the antique dealer Christopher Gibbs.