"Did you ever dream about a place you never really recall being to before? A place that maybe only exists in your imagination? Some place far away, half remembered when you wake up. When you were there, though, you knew the language. You knew your way around. That was the sixties....
No. It wasn't that either. It was just '66 and early '67. That's all there was....."
Showing posts with label Dandie Fashions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dandie Fashions. Show all posts
Another great photo from the streets of 60's Swinging London. Time is 1967 and a place is 161 King's Road, outside Dandie Fashions boutique. I have no idea whether that lot are models wearing Dandie Fashions clothes, or just random people trying to cross the road. Either way, they look great.Also, I've never noticed before that 'God Is Love' bit on the upper part of the mural...
While I am on the subject of Dandie Fashions (again), here's some photos of Ringo from 1968, wearing what almost certainly is a Dandie Fashions jacket..
It's difficult to tell for sure, but since The Beatles pretty much owned Dandie Fashions by 1968, it is very likely..
Binder, Edwards & Vaughn were a design group specialising in psychedelic murals and paintings. They were active in London between 1965 and 1967, and during that short period they received a lot of attention from press, most notably The Sunday Times, and they attracted 'hip' clientele - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, London boutiques Dandie Fashions and Lord John and many others.
Their brand of psychedelia was characteristic for its rejection of Art Nouveau as an influence. They tried to make their work unique and forward-looking.
Doug Binder, Dudley Edwards and David Vaughn met in Bradford Art College where they studied in the early sixties. Binder and Edwards main designers, while Vaughn took on the role of a manager. Dudley Edwards remembers: The Input between me and Doug was 50/50. To begin with the earliest influences were the panted door fronts in the Asian ghettos near Bradford Art College. Those doorways glowed like gems in the dark. We also loved the dissonant color combinations they used. It was similar to the effect that Thelonious Monk would get on the piano. (...) There was also an influence of certain Marvel comics, like the backgrounds in Steve Ditko's "Dr. Strange" (Norman Hathaway, Dan Nadel, Electrical Banana, p 65).
Article in The Sunday Times Magazine, 1966. From left Doug Binder, David Vaughn and Dudley Edwards.
Binder, Edwards and Vaughn moved to London in the mid-1960's and set up a studio on Gloucester Avenue. They started out from painting and selling furniture. One of their earliest clients was their Gloucester Avenue neighbour, photographer David Bailey, whom they tricked into buying a painted chest of drawers by 'accidentally' displaying it right outside his front door. We thought, If we put a painted chest of drawers on David Bailey's doorstep in the middle of the night, it'll be the first thing he sees in the morning and he's bound to want it. It worked! (Hathaway, Nadal, p 65). Soon after they began exporting their painted furniture to USA, Canada and Belgium.
They also began beyond the furniture buisness. A design group Wolff Olins commissioned them to paint the facade of their studio.
The address was number 81, so we used a combination of numbers and words, '8ONE' where the 'O' served a dual function as both a digit and a letter, all portrayed in 20th Century Fox style (Hathaway, Nadal, p 65).
They also started painting cars. They have painted a 1960 Buick convertible.
The car have captured attention of The Kinks, who have used it for a photo on a cover of their 1966 'Sunny Aftenoon' EP.
The cover was noticed by Tara Browne, who commissioned Binder, Edwards and Vaughn to paint his AC Shelby Cobra....
Through Browne, they have met Paul McCartney , who commissioned them to paint his piano.
1967
Other famous projects by Binder, Edwards and Vaughn was a mural for Lord John boutique on Carnaby Street..
1967
and a mural for fashion departament of Woodlands 21 store.
1965
Binder, Edwards and Vaughn parted ways in mid-1967. Dudley Edwards, who struck a friendship with Paul McCartney, was commissioned to do some more work for a Beatle. Paul called and asked if I was free, and would I like to stay at his place and paint a mural for him. Stash (Stanislas Klossowski De Rola) was staying there as well, so it was just the three of us. A lot of the time I got the feeling Paul wasn't really bothered with me doing a mural, really. He just wanted a mate around. So every time I started painting Paul would say, 'Let's go off to a studio and lay off some tracks' or 'Let's go to a nightclub' (Hathaway, Nadal, p 66)..
Edwards also did a mural for Ringo Starr.
Edwards' mural for Ringo, 1967.
Dudley Edwards formed a buisness partnership with Mike McInnerney, an art editor of International Times. They did a few projects together, of which the most impressive one was the mural for The Flying Dragon Cafe in King's Road.
1968
After that Dudley Edwards went into designing poster art. He is still a graphic designer today.
Because Binder, Edwards & Vaughn did not work within a usual popular media, like album covers, posters or even ads, their work is not very well remembered today. But between 1965 and 1967, they were called 'The Beatles of the art world' and during their short existence , they had a tremendous impact on visual culture in Swinging London of the 1960's.
For the full story of Binder, Edwards and Vaughn (and more examples of their artwork) read 'Electrical Banana' by Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel.
Recently, I picked up in charity shop something called Brooke Bond Picture Cards of British Costume. It is sort of a mini album for collecting cards that came with Brooke Bond tea bags ( "In the interest of education", apparently). The album was fully completed with 50 cards, each one depicting a different era of British costume. Card number one shows clothes from 1050. The last one, number 50, shows 'Day Clothes' from 1967 (I assume that is the year album was printed and completed) and it caught my attention for obvious reasons.
Man in the picture is wearing what looks like Dandie Fashions jacket, although illustrator made it slightly too long - it should end around the area where girl's left palm is. This mistake led to another - that is, describing the jacket as mid-Victorian tail coat with militarytrimmings (where are they?)
Alan Holston wearing Dandie Fashions jacket, 1967
The drawing of a girl is clearly 'inspired' by famous photo of Donyale Luna - one of the first prominent black models - from 1966 modelling a dress by Paco Rabanne.
Donyale Luna in 1966 photographed by Guy Bourdin
The description of a girl seems pretty sloppy as well. Natural hairdo? Exotic make-up?and also, these are not day clothes! The descriptions were written by Madeleine Ginsburg, B.A., A.M.A. of Victoria and Albert Museum, who clearly was not a fan of contemporary fashion. Picture number 49 depicts Christian Dior's New Look from 1947, which means that everything that happened in British fashion between 1947 - 1967 was not worth attention according to Ms. Ginsburg (although 1920's get three different pictures). Another suspicious thing is the fact that C.W. Cunnington's books figure prominently in the bibliography. At the time, he was an influential fashion historian but a lot of his research had long since been discredited as sexist and misleading.
Although this little picture album cannot be treated seriously, it does remind me of lot of 'serious' books I went through, while doing a research at University, with drawings that focus on general impression, rather than details. My advice to anybody who does a research in the field of fashion and dress history is to stay clear of those kind of books altogether. You'll know them when you see them. Use the primary sources instead.
Following my recent post about Tara Browne, I am posting this newly uploaded film about Tara Browne - a French documentary from 1966. A fascinating insight into a life of a socialite in 1960's Swinging London - we get a rare glimpse of clothes , music, cars and girls....and of course, Tara.
Here are some photos my girlfriend and myself recently took on King's Road. Unfortunately, these days, it looks just like any other street in London - full of high street shops and soulless gastro pubs.As we were walking around, we were trying to imagine how amazing this place it once must have been....
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Michael Chaplin and Nigel Weymouth outside Granny Takes a Trip (488 King's Road) in 1966.
Yours truly, same place, November 2011
Granny Takes a Trip, 1967
Granny takes a Trip, 1968
Granny's former location, November 2011. If my girlfriend had been there in 1968, she would have blended into the yellow background.
At present, 488 King's Road is a home to a bespoke Italian chandelier shop.
Freddie Hornick and Alan Holston outside Dandie Fashions (161 King's Road) in 1967.
Me on 161 King's Road, November 2011. Now it is a location of lovely, small photo gallery. The subject of their current exhibition is Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick and The Factory in 1960's.
Still from the film "Blow-Up", 1966. David Hemmings goes to meet his agent a restaurant on Blacklands Terrace, off King's Road.
Same place today. The building had acquired few windows and extra floor, but it's still a restaurant.
Still from "Blow Up" (1966) - Dedicated Followers of Fashion on Culford Gardens, off King's Road.
Dedicated follower of 60's fashion in the same place, November 2011.
Ok, this has nothing to do with King's Road, but since I'm posting photos of myself I might as well include photos of me and my girlfriend taken during NUTs Brighton Mod Weekender in August by photographer Kim Tonelli.
Perhaps 'an icon' is not a right word here. But Tara Browne had become something of a cult figure - mostly among Beatles fans - since it was his death that inspired the lyrics of "A Day In The Life" (Little known fact: his death also inspired another song: "Death Of The Socialite" by The Pretty Things).
Born in 1945, The Hon. Tara Browne was a son of Dominick Browne, the 4th Baron of Oranmore and Browne and Oonagh Guinness - an heiress to the Guinness fortune. After completing his education in public school in Paris, he came to London, and, like other 'hip' aristocrats in Swinging London, he invested money in a tailoring venture - Foster and Tara. He provided financial backing for tailors Pops and Cliff Foster. Foster & Tara initially were making clothes on order for boutiques such as Granny Takes a Trip, before Tara decided to open his own boutique - Dandie Fashions, which would exclusively sell F&T designs.
Tara Browne and his wife Nicky photographed by Michael Cooper for Men In Vogue in November 1966
Tara Browne with Brian Jones on Tara's birthday, 04.03.1966
On December the 18th, 1966, Tara was driving his Lotus Elan through South Kensington with his mistress, model Suki Poitier - the was on their way to meet decorators Binder, Vaughan & Edwards to discuss designs for the shopfront of Dandie Fashions. While passing the junction of Redcliffe Squre and Redcliffe Gardens, he "didn't notice that the light had changed", and crashed the car with a parked lorry. He died in hospital few hours after (Suki Poitier survived, and soon started dating Tara's friend - Brian Jones).He was 22. The following day, Tara's friend John Lennon picked up a copy of Daily Mail which contained the article about the accident. The rest is a well-known story...
Suki Poitier (centre) and Tara Browne (right), 1966
Apparently, Irish writer Paul Howard is currently writing a biography of Browne. He interviewed several close friends of Tara's. One of them, Hugo Williams shared some of his memories of Tara on The Spectator website: At 15, in 1960, Tara was barely literate, having walked out of dozens of schools. He smoked and drank but he hadn’t got on to joined-up handwriting yet. He was living at home with his mother Oonagh Guinness and her third husband, a louche Cuban ‘shoe-designer’ presently named Miguel Ferreras, who was gaily going through her fortune. Tara was two years younger than me but years ahead in sophistication and fun, dealing jokes, insults and ridiculous boasts from an inexhaustible deck like a child delightedly playing snap. In his green suits, mauve shirts with amethyst cuff-links, his waves of blonde hair, brocade ties and buckled shoes, smoking menthol cigarettes (always Salem) and drinking Bloody Marys, he was Little Lord Fauntleroy, Beau Brummell, Peter Pan, Terence Stamp in Billy Budd, David Hemmings in Blow-Up. His drawly Irish blarney was the perfect antidote to our public school reserve and what would come to be called ‘postwar austerity’.
All the white-gloved pre-debs doing time at Paris finishing schools found their way to Oonagh’s apartment, where they encountered their first taste of Sixties hedonism, without Daddy being around to say no to drinks and cigarettes and staying up past their bedtime. There was the chauffeur-driven Lincoln Continental to conduct us to the clubs and swimming-pools. There was fresh milk in the fridge picked up daily by the Irish butler from the American embassy canteen, the only place in Paris where you could find it in those days. If there was any embarrassment about money Tara would pretend to find a ‘dix milles’ note in the street.
Tara could hardly have failed to be a success in Swinging London. While I was wandering around the globe in ’63 and ‘64, he embarked on the second and last phase of his meteoric progress. He got married, met the Stones and the Beatles, opened a shop in the King’s Road and bought the fatal turquoise Lotus Elan in which he entered the Irish Grand Prix. He let me drive it once in some busy London street: ‘Come on, Hugo, put your foot down.’ I had just got my first job and our ways were dividing. His money and youth made him a natural prey to certain charismatic Chelsea types who turned him into what he amiably termed a ‘hustlee’. He reputedly gave Paul McCartney his first acid trip. The pair went to Liverpool together, got stoned and cruised the city on mopeds until Paul went over the handlebars and broke a tooth and they had to call on Paul’s Aunt Bett for assistance. There is still a body of people — and a book called The Walrus is Paul — who believe that Paul is dead and is now actually Tara Browne with plastic surgery.
Everyone has got some golden boy or girl in their life whose death or sudden departure distils the period into the long party it should have been but probably never was. When my first girlfriend was trying to think of something really nice to tell me she came up with ‘Your eyes are nearly as nice as Tara’s’. I remember being tremendously pleased about this and could hardly wait to tell him. I discussed titles for the book with Paul Howard and there seemed to be no choice: A Lucky Man Who Made the Grade"
I have accidentally found this photo of very sharp-looking gent from 1960's. It turned out to be Nicholas Hoogstraten - an infamous property magnate, a man who to this day is said to own half of Brighton (at least). In 1960's he was the youngest self-made millionaire in Britain. This photo was taken in Hove in 1968. He is wearing the same suit as Bill Wyman wore for Stones photoshoot in Green Park in January 1967.
It is very likely that this amazing suit was from Dandie Fashions. It looks very similar to the Dandie Fashions suit modeled by Alan Holston on the photograph below.In fact, it is exactly the same cut, although the fabric is different.
It is always great to find some new photos of clothes from that fantastic King's Road boutique.
If Keith and Mick were the mind and body of the Stones, Brian was clearly the soul - wrote Rolling Stone magazine few days after Brian's death in August 1969. Apart from being a great guitarist and musical arranger, Brian Jones was also the most eye- catching member of The Rolling Stones. He was always immaculately dressed. No matter if it was sharp Mod style of early 1960's or a flamboyant Peacock Style of the latter part of the decade, Brian would always get it right. His friend, antique dealer and editor of Men In Vogue Christopher Gibbs (himself a dandy) remembers: Brian did absolutely love dressing up (...) He had a tremendous lot of clothes and spent an awful amount of time preparing himself for late-night forays into the clubs" (Paul Gorman, The Look - Adventures in Pop and Rock Fashion, p 76). Brian dated Anita Pallenberg between 1965 and 1967, and for those two years they were a 'golden couple' of Swinging London.
Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg photographed by Michael Cooper for Men In Vogue, November 1966.
Jones' biographer Geoffrey Giuliano writes about him and Pallenberg: "Together they forged a revolutionary androgynous look, keeping their clothes together, mixing and matching not only fabrics and patterns, but cultures and even centuries. Jones would parade the streets of London wearing a Victorian lace shirt, floppy turn-of-the-century hat, Edwardian velvet frock coat, multi-coloured suede boots, accessorised scarves hanging from his neck, waist and legs along with lots of antique Berber jewellery.
According to journalist Al Aronowitz, 'Jones was the first man I ever knew to wear costume jewellery bought in the ladies' department at Saks'.
At Courtfield Road (Brian's London apartament), Chelsea's power pair played host to a constant stream of beautiful people from John Lennon and George Harrison to Sonny and Cher, Donovan and Jimi Hendrix. Trendy film maker Donald Cammell, heir Paul Getty, and Britain's bright young thing would gather at the South Kensington flat to smoke dope, drop acid and discuss the issues of the day.
Observed Anita: 'Brian was very interesting socially. He dealt with the fame and all that. He picked the best, the cream, Dylan, Terry Southern, Warhol. Brian set the pace'." (Geoffrey Giuliano, Paint It Black - The Murder Of Brian Jones, p 47-48).
Brian in his Courtfield Road flat, photographed by Gered Mankowitz, 1966
Marianne Faithfull remembers: One of the best things about visiting Anita and Brian was watching them get ready to go out. What a scene! They were both dauntless shoppers and excessively vain. Hours and hours were spent putting on clothes and taking them off again. Heaps of scarves, hats, shirts and boots flew out of drawers and trunks. Unending trying on of outfits, primping and sashaying. They were beautiful, they were the spitting image of each other and not an ounce of modesty existed between two of them. I would sit mesmerised for hours, watching them preening in the mirror, trying on each other's clothes. All roles and gender would evaporate in these narcissistic performances, where Anita would turn Brian into the Sun King, Francoise Hardy or the mirror image of herself (Marianne Faithfull and David Dalton, Faithfull, Penguin Books, London, 1994, p 90).
Brian Jones was a regular customer of Granny Takes A Trip, Hung On You and, most notably, Dandie Fashions, where he purchased amazing long, velvet double breasted coats. He was an ultimate 1960's dandy - the most perfect example of Peacock Style.
Brian Jones Goes Shopping - an article by Paul Gorman about Brian's favorite boutiques (Mojo Classic, Volume 2 Issue 4, 2007: 54-59)
At the beginning - Jones, Jagger and Richards in 1961.
1964
1965
1966
1966
Playing Dulcimer on "I am Waiting" during TV show Ready! Steady! Go!, 27.05.1966.
Playing sitar on the same show.
1966
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The wit and wisdom of Brian Jones back in 1966 - reprinted from Melody Maker and Rave in Uncut magazine.
Stones on the cover of Town And Country with socialite Alexandra F. Chase, June 1966.
Brian Jones and Keith Moon, 1966
Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg, 3.12. 1966
With female fans, November 1966
With Andy Warhol in New York boutique Paraphernalia, 1966.
Stones accepting Golden Discs at Kensington Palace Hotel, September 1966. Brian Jones is wearing double -breasted coat from Dandie Fashions.
Brian Jones laughing at the riot at Stones gig at the Royal Albert Hall, 26.09.1966.
1966
London Palladium, 23.01.1967. Brian Jones again wears Dandie Fashions coat.
Photoshoot in Green Park, January 1967.
Eamonn Andrew's Show. 05.02.1967.
Onstage in The Hague, Holland, 15.04.1967
Inventor of Glam? Brian in 1967
Brian, 1967
Brian and Suki Poitier in Morocco, 1967
Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967
Monterey 1967
April 1967
Monterey 1967
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With one-time girlfriend Linda Keith in Wells (Somerset) in 1967
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May 1968
Height of Hippie chic - Brian Jones and Suki Poitier, 13.09.1967
Leaving the court after a drug bust, 30.10.1967
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Brian and Suki Poitier photographed by David Bailey, 1968
Shirt made by Deborah & Clare worn by Brian Jones around 1968. Recently sold in auction for £1750.
1968
Brian Jones with John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and Taj Mahal during recording of Rock and Roll Circus, 10.12.1968.
Rock and Roll Circus - Brian's last ever gig with the Stones.
Last photo of Brian ever taken, Cotchford Farm, June 1969
Brian's tombstone in Cheltenham
The fascinating story of Brian's life (and bizarre circumstances of his murder) had been a subject of several publications. I would recommend Paint It Black - The Murder of Brian Jones by Geoffrey Giuliano, Who Killed Christopher Robin? - The Murder of a Rolling Stone by Terry Rawlings, Brian Jones: Golden Stone by Laura Jackson and Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of The Sixties by A.E Hotchner.
I would also recommend Stephen Wooley's 2005 film "Stoned" about the life and death of Brian Jones. Although it was slated by the critics and many Brian fans, I always defend it - the use of costumes and music in the film are truly amazing - it captures the atmosphere of 1960's really well.
I'll end with this great video of The Rolling Stones, Andrew Loog Oldham and Cathy McGowan miming to Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe' on TV show Ready! Steady! Go! in 1966. There's a chemistry between Brian and Cathy McGowan...
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