London In The Sixties by Rainer Metzger

In the recent few years, there has been a surge in numbers of new publications about 1960's London. The subject continues to fascinate fashion historians (like Richard Lester or Paul Gorman), pop historians (Barry Miles, who must have published at least a dozen books which touched upon a subject one way or another) or historians in general (Dominic Sandbrook, Jonathon Green, Arthur Marwick). Then, of course, there are all the photographers' albums, Taschen coffee table books, biographies and autobiographies of designers, pop stars, film stars and etc. London In The Sixties - Rainer Metzger's book published earlier this year by Thames & Hudson , does not quite fall under any of these categories, and although it is probably the closest in spirit to a coffee table book, it offers far more in-depth critical analysis. It is an ambitious attempt of analising every major form of art and culture that was happening in 1960's London - art, design, fashion, pop music, cinematography, theatre, literature, architecture and television. With 342 illustrations on 365 pages it does manage to get a point across really well. The book is a part of the series by Thames and Hudson about revolutionary cities in revolutionary (in cultural, not political sense) times. Previous books include: Berlin In The Twenties, Munich - Its Golden Age of Art And Culture (both by Metzger), Paris Between The Wars, and Vienna 1900 and The Heroes Of Modernism. Given the main subject of previous publications, it is not surprising that Rainer Metzger devotes a lot of space to painting and graphic design. The works of Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Pauline Boty are thoroughly analised and put in a social context. Same goes for illustrations of Alan Aldridge, Martin Sharp or Hapshash and The Coloured Coat. There is a competent review of cinema -  from early 1960's kitchen sink dramas - films of Tony Richardson, John Shlesinger and Karel Reisz through, of course, Blow-Up and swinging comedies of Richard Lester to decadent excesses of Donald Cammell's Perfomance. The importance of fashion is outlined through mentions of Mary Quant, John Stephen, Ossie Clark, King's Road boutiques and 'obligatory' images of mini-skirted dolly birds  strolling down Carnaby Street. Rainer Metzger also takes a look at the brutalist architecture of Erno Goldfinger , television programs such as The Avengers and The Prisoner, Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, The Anti-Vietnam protests and rise of counterculture , and many other cultural events that shaped 1960's London. Then, of course, there's the Pop Music. In this section, quite a lot of (and by quite a lot, I mean slightly too much) space is devoted to The Beatles. Let's face it, The cultural importance of  the Fab Four had been written about to death, and for some readers any mention of it is an instant page turner. What's more, there are some mistakes in the chapters about pop music. For example this photo on page 175:

  
It is captioned as 'The Kinks, c. 1967'. But actually, the photo is from 1976, when The Kinks were promoting their album Schoolboys In Disgrace (Hence the uniforms) released that year. John Dalton and John Gosling (the bearded ones on the photo) joined the band in 1969 and 1971 respectively, and were not in the line-up of The Kinks in 1967.
Similar mistake is on the page 223, where this photo of  Mick is dated 'January, 1969'.

But, in reality, the photo is from 1972, and I know it because Mick is wearing Ossie Clark stage outfit custom-made by Ossie himself especially for that 1972 American tour. Also, The Stones did not tour in January 1969, in fact they did not play any gigs between Rock n' Roll Circus (December 1968 - it was Brian Jones' last gig with The Stones) and Free Concert in Hyde Park (July 1969 - Mick Taylor's first gig).

Ok, so these are not massive mistakes, but any kind of mistake is surprising in such a high-profile publication. Perhaps Rainer Metzger - an Art History professor at University of Karlsruhe - was not that familiar with Pop history. Or maybe his team of researchers had let him down. Either way, it is a proof that you can't always trust what you read, no matter how respectable the publication might be.

The book could be described as 'Swinging London for Dummies' - if you have a good knowledge about 1960's London , there is little chance that this book will tell you something you don't already know. Still, it has enough great photographs to make it enjoyable. Some of the images might be interesting for readers of this blog..

 

   

Early incarnation of Granny Takes A Trip, circa 1966.

Michael Rainey outside his boutique Hung On You

Feature about Granny Takes a Trip and Hung On You from Nova magazine

 I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, 1967

 Cover of OZ magazine from April 1967, designed by Martin Sharp.

 

   Ray Brooks and Carol White in Cathy Come Home (1966)- an uber-depressing and brutally realistic debut feature of director Ken Loach. The film tells a story of working class family which, as a result of various misfortunes, is forced to live a life of poverty and homelessness. This rarely mentioned but nevertheless important film highlighted many social issues of the time, and served as a sad reminder, that for most of the people in  1960's Britain, life was not ''Swinging' at all.  The surprising inclusion of it in the chapter about movies shows that Rainer Metzger tried to avoid easy cliches and explore the darker side of the 1960's.

  

Chair by Allen Jones, 1969

Eduardo Paolozzi, The City of The Circle And Square, 1963-1966.

Eduardo Paolozzi, Signs of Death and Decay in the Skies, 1969-1970.

Bridget Riley inside her installation Continuum, 1963

Poster for This Is Tomorrow - a very influential 1956 exhibition in Whitechapel Art Gallery which predicted direction art and design would take in 1960's.

Overall, London In The Sixties is a really enjoyable book, and I'd recommend it to anybody interested in the subject. It would also make a great Christmas present...    

Girlfriends of The Rolling Stones modelling for Ossie Clark, 1967

Swinging London royalty modelling clothes from 1967 winter collection by Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock (who at the time ran Quorum boutique on King's Road). From left: Linda Keith, Chrissie Shrimpton, Suki Poitier and Annie Sabroux. Three of these lovely ladies: Keith, Shrimpton and Poitier were famous for having dated a Rolling Stone. Chrissie Shrimpton, who,of course was Jean Shrimpton's younger sister, was Mick Jagger's girlfriend between 1964 and 1966. The disintegration of their relationship around 1966 was visible in Jagger's lyrics - "Out Of Time", "Yesterday's Newspapers" and "Stupid Girl" were all rumored to be about Shrimpton (Mick eventually dumped her for Marianne Faithfull).

Chrissie Shrimpton and Mick Jagger in February 1966

Linda Keith dated Keith Richards in 1966.She had played small, but important part in Jimi Hendrix's career - she introduced him to Chas Chandler, his future manager (and former bass player in The Animals). The story goes: Linda had accompanied The Stones and The Animals on a trip to the US in 1966. One night, she has accompanied Brian and Keith to The Cafe Wha, a seedy back streeet dive in Greenwich Village, New York, where the three had sat mesmerised as the young, left-handed virtuoso known as Jimi Hendrix had laid waste to his audience. Days later Linda revisited the cafe, this time accompanied by Chandler who, disenchanted with his life as an Animal, was on the lookout for pastures new. Linda suggested to Chandler that managing new acts could aid his departure from playing, and, if so, then young Jimi was the best place to start.

Having already made Jimi's acquaintance, Linda set about securing the guitarist's attention with more than just a buisness proposition. Her overtures to Jimi triggered the end of her liaison with Richards. It was finally extinguished when she repeated her suggestions to Hendrix some months later following his triumphant introduction to England (Terry Rawlings, Brian Jones: Who Killed Christopher Robin?, p 92).

When Richards started dating Brian's ex - Anita Pallenberg, Brian hooked up with....Linda Keith. But he didn't stop there. To complicate matters, he simultaneously started an affair with Suki Poitier - one-time girlfriend of Tara Browne.

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Brian Jones and Suki Poitier, 1967 (Photo from a collection of Ms. Jayme Franklin).

Considering the circumstances, I wonder whether Linda Keith and Suki Poitier were even on speaking terms during that Ossie Clark photoshoot...

Mick Jagger wearing a jacket from Hung On You

This photo of Mick trying on a new jacket was taken by Bob Whitaker in 1967 in Chelsea boutique Hung On You, where Jagger (and a lot of other 60's pop stars) was a frequent customer. As Bob Whitaker remembers: Hung on You was just around the corner from my studio and it was always full of pretty girls. There was a lot of paranoia surrounding the shop. The clothes were very flamboyant and the police took that as an excuse to bust you" ( Q magazine, special edition, Feb 2005).  

Mr. Fish

Michael Fish was born in 1940 in Essex. He started his career in fashion from working for a respectable fashion house - Collet's , in the mid-1950's. Quickly, he progressed to working first at New & Lingwood and then Turnbull and Asser - well known Jermyn Street shirtmakers who specialized in inventive, made-to-measure shirts. Michael Fish's arrival at Turnbull and Asser was a breath of a fresh air for the company. His highly imaginative and colourful designs helped the company to move with the times. Their first ready to wear shirts designed by Michael Fish were significantly different from their standard offerings. He changed the cut of a high collared shirt - he made the points larger and more widely spred and he introduced embroidery and ruffles. His designs for accesories were also revolutionary - his ties were wide and his pocket handkerchiefs were specially hand-blocked and printed.

Michael Fish and his customer at Turnbull and Asser, Sean Connery.

In 1966, after nine years at Turnbull and Asser, and a brief period at John Stephen's as an assistant designer, Michael Fish opened his own shop, Mr. Fish. His business partner was Barry Sainsbury - a wealthy young entrepreneur from upper middle class background , with good social connections. Their idea was to sell upmarket, fashionable clothes for the elite customers. The boutique was situated in 17 Clifford Street in Mayfair. The exclusivity of the shop was determined by high prices - usually around £35 for a jacket, £100 for a whole suit,  and anything between £8 and £20 for a shirt. The reason for such high prices lied in the generous use of expensive fabrics. The originality of  Mr. Fish's clothes was expressed in the slogan written on his shopping bags: "Peculiar to Mr. Fish". The shop was famous for its colored silk and cotton shirts, often ruffled, which fitted loosely around the body, rather than tightly (like typical shirt of , for example John Stephen). Another design typical for Mr. Fish was velvet jacket - it was usually double - breasted and elegantly draped. His famous paisley-patterned wide ties - also known as 'kipper ties', had become one of the symbols of 1960's male fashion. Mr. Fish was also one of the first designers to venture into gender-bending territory with his designs for dresses for men. The most memorable one is a white dress worn by Mick Jagger for The Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park on  5th July  1969.

A year later, David Bowie, on the cover of his album The Man Who Sold the World wore colourful velvet frock designed by Mr. Fish.

David Bowie wearing frock from Mr. Fish on the cover of Curious. 1970 

I tried to break down the frontiers for man - said Michael Fish in the interview for Nik Cohn. Do I care about the masses? Jesus Christ had only twelve disciples and one of them was doubting Thomas (Nik Cohn, Today There Are No Gentlemen, p 145). Whatever masses might have thought of Mr. Fish's clothes, he certanly became a sensation in fashion world. he was praised by journals such as Elle or Woman's Daily Wear. He did joint fashion shows with Mary Quant, Valentino and Annacat. His clothes were worn by fashion photograpers  such as David Bailey, Patrick Lichfield, Lord Snowdon (Tony Armstrong - Jones) and actors  Terence Stamp and James Fox.

Above and below: Patrick Lichfield modeling Mr.Fish's clothes circa 1971

James Fox on the set of Duffy wearing shirt and dice-motif suit by Mr. Fish. 1968.

It seemed like the clientele of Mr. Fish boutique consisted mostly of rich and famous or those aspiring to be rich or famous. Michael Fish himself tried to sound like he was unconcerened by it: A lot of top faces come to me  but I don't give names, that's not my bag. I could reel off the list that's unbelivable, pop stars and film stars almost anyone you could mention, but I despise all that. I loathe vulgarity. I think I have a certain humble kind of chic and chic is something rather special (Cohn, p 148). In the same interview, however, he states: I don't care about taste. I think taste is a word like love; it should be forgotten for fifty years, I don't even know what it means. Actually I think I'm very vulgar. Revolutionaries have to be (Cohn, p 145). Though it may seem that second quotation is much more honest expression of Mr. Fish's true politics, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of those two statements. What he tried to do, one may argue, was to make flamboyancy chic. It was an attempt to challenge traditional notions of dandyism. Beau Brummell famously said that to be well dressed meant not to be noticed. It seems like Mr. Fish's reply would be: Not anymore. Not in the 1960's. The success of his shop and the elite list of his clientele gives him a power to say it and remain a credible authority in fashion.

Janet Lyle (Annacat) and Patrick Lichfield in a shirt from Mr. Fish. 1971.

Michael Fish in purple silk tunic jacket and poplin roll-neck, 1967 

Michael Fish and Barry Sainsbury. Photo shoot for Sunday Times, 15.10.1968 

It is important to say, however, that both, his success and his time as an authority in fashion did not last long. The withdrawal of Barry Sainsbury as a financial backer, the expiry of the lease of Clifford Street premises, the fore-mentioned use of expensive fabrics and Michael Fish's tendency to give generous credit to his famous clients had quickly caused him financial problems.  Nik Cohn in Today There are No Gentlemen (1971) sensed that Mr. Fish's star as a designer was fading. He expected him to go wholesale or strike a deal with chain stores. This did not happen. Barry Sainsbury's replacement as an investor - Captain Fred Barker, bewildered by financial losses decided to shut the shop down in the early 1970's. Michael Fish tried briefly to resurrect his business  - in 1974 he opened a new shop in Mount Street, this time with rock managers Robert Stigwood and David Shaw as investors. However 1974 was not 1966 - London was no longer a 'swinging' place it used to be, and the idea of the boutique ran in the laid back manner and selling expensive clothes to the elite clientele seemed out of place in the country struggling with recession. Michael Fish withdrew from fashion world altogether, and spent the rest of his days as the nightclub owner. The significance of his boutiques, however , should not be underestimated. Large collection of his designs in Victoria and Albert Museum is a proof that between 1966 and 1970, he was one of the most important fashion designers in Swinging London, and the inventor of the Peacock Style.

Suit from Mr. Fish from 1968. Donated to V&A by David Mlinaric.

Above and below:  Mr. Fish's suits in V&A Museum