The New Psychedelics - a Revival That Never Was?

It is generally known that 1979 was a year of Mod revival. However, it turns out that apparently it was not the only subculture from the sixties that was revived that year. Ted Polhemus, in his highly influential book Street Style (chapter titled Swinging London and Psychedelics),claims that Psychedelic/Peacock style coincided with Mod revival in late seventies and early eighties. Sadly, the only proof of the existence of that revival in Polhemus's book is this photo:

New Psychedelics in 1994 edition of  Ted Polhemus' Street Style

The caption under the photo reads: "New Psychedelics outside the Regal clothing shop, which was located on Newburgh Street one block over from Carnaby Street and served as a focus for this revival".


Further traces of the revival can be found in Amy De La Haye's book Surfers, Soulies, Skinheads and Skaters: A Subcultural style from Forties to the Nineties. This book immortalized first ever fashion exhibition in V&A entirely devoted to the subcultural style - Street Style from 1994. In the book, we find a section devoted to 'Psychedelic Revival UK 1979'.

The text reads: "Worn by Clive Sutherland, who was a regular client of Andrew Yiannakou's shop in Kensington Market. He created an authentic Psychedelic Revival look by combining Yiannakou's pieces with period pieces, such as the 1960s Turnbull & Asser crepe de chine shirt illustrated . This suit was made to order.

Yiannakou started to make psychedelic clothes from the late 1960s and was at the forefront of the late 70s/early 80s revival. He used original 60s patterns and fabrics to create a purist revival style. At the end of 1979 he opened the Regal in Kensington Market." 

Here's the picture of the suit, which is still in V&A collection:

Unfortunately, those brief mentions in Polhemus' and De La Haye's books are the only traces of 1980's psychedelic revival. I would love to find out more about the Regal. If anybody has any photographs or original clothes from that boutique, please do share it!

EDITED TO NOTE: I HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY QUITE A FEW PEOPLE WHO 'WERE THERE' DURING 1980-1981 PSYCH REVIVAL AND SHARED SOME GREAT MATERIAL WITH ME. READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE.

Vince - Small Boutique That Initiated Big Changes

In my last post, I looked at the career of John Stephen - a true revolutionary of male fashion in the 1960's. Now, I would like to devote a little space to Bill Green and his boutique called Vince (1954 - 1969). Bill Green pre-dated John Stephen (who was also his one-time employee) few years, and the height of his career was in the late 1950's - however, his designs were an inspiration for many designers who would revolutionize male fashion in 1960's.

Bill Green started his career in the late 1940's from being a photographer specializing in taking photos of semi-naked wrestlers and musclemen. His models were wearing provocative bikini-style posing briefs, designed by Green himself, who, in the absence of  readily made garments decided to start his own line of briefs. He began to sell them through the mail order catalogue in 1950. His homoerotic designs appealed initially almost exclusively to gay customers. After holiday in France and Italy in 1952, Green, impressed by young Frenchmen who were sporting 'existentialist' look - black sweaters worn with lack jeans - started his own line of such clothes. He was the first one to introduce this look to British men. His mail order business flourished, and  in 1954 he opened Vince's Men Shop in Newburgh Street. This choice of location was not accidental -in 1950's, this part of Soho was an epicentre of gay underworld. Marshall Street Public Baths - a popular cruising area for gay men was just around the corner.However, the clientele of Vince quickly expanded beyond gay community. His unconventional designs appealed to young West End actors and Chelsea bohemians. Green was using fabrics which were unusual at the time - velvet, silk, bed-ticking for hipster trousers and pre-faded denims. is window displays were also quite shocking at the time - the mannequins dressed in briefs, or pink hipster trousers.

Typical magazine ad for Vince from 1962.

One of the shoppers at Vince's recalls his visit in the mid-1950's: "The only person (I) saw was tall, well-dressed young Negro who bought a pair of coloured denim hipster trousers. The Negro was obviously homosexual and I realized that homosexuals had been buying this stuff for years. they were the only people with the nerve to wear it" (Jeremy Reed, The King Of Carnaby Street, p 8). But the fact that, by late 1950's, it was not just homosexuals who had the nerve to wear it, proves that there was a shift in taste among young Londoners. The clientele of Vince included such names as actor Peter Sellers, jazz musician George Melly (who joked: "I went into Vince's to buy a new tie and they measured my inside leg" (Reed, p 9).) Pablo Picasso (who bought a pair of suede trousers), The King of Denmark, and young model-soon-to-turn-actor Sean Connery. Bill Green's designs did not influence street style or youth fashion directly as teenagers generally could not afford to shop there. However, the impact of Vince is difficult to underestimate. For the first time it was acceptable for heterosexual men to wear clothes previously only worn by homosexuals. It was also the first time when leisure were became chic - jeans and sweater could  be worn for an evening out from now on. This was a step towards informality, ambivalence and flamboyance - and it led grounds for a revolution in male fashion that happened in 1960's.  The young man largely responsible for this revolution worked briefly as a sales assistant at Vince's. Bill Green had sensed is ambition: "Not much good" - he said of his work as sales assistant - "Always dreaming of the bigger things" (Nik Cohn, Today There Are No Gentlemen, p 64). The young man himself also seemed dissatisfied: "I was just standing there taking money. Suddenly I thought, if this guy (Green) can do it, so can I..." (Reed, p 19). The young man was, of course, John Stephen. He had learnt a lot at Vince's and his own early designs and shop fronts owed a lot to Bill Green. However, the rise of John Stephen as a designer marked the downfall of Bill Green's. Stephen was much more in touch with the youth culture. Bill Green could not keep up with rapid changes in fashion which were happening from early 1960's onwards. By mid-1960's, his shop became un -chic. Financial problems forced him to move Vince's Men Shop from Newburgh Street to cheaper location in North London. In 1969, he closed his shop for good.  Bill Green might have been one of the initiators of the revolution in fashion, but he quickly fallen behind the times. In 1971, Green (by then a manager of a restaurant in Soho) said to Nik Cohn: "If I was to go into male fashion again today, I wouldn't even know where to start" (Cohn, p 51).

Outfits from Vince's Men Shop from mid-1960's in Victoria and Albert Museum.

John Stephen - A Forgotten Fashion Revolutionary?

John Stephen and Mary Quant, 1966.

It seems today, that John Stephen is a slightly forgotten figure. Much has been said about the impact of  1960's fashion designers such as Mary Quant or Barbara Hulanicki on female fashion, but John Stephen who was just as revolutionary in a field of male fashion, is usually being omitted from Fashion History. It was particularly visible during last year's exhibition Carnaby Street - 50 years of fashion and music (curated by Amy De La Haye and Judith Clark) which took place in a pop up shop on Carnaby Street. The role of John Stephen in making Carnaby Street a epicentre of Swinging London, seemed to have been downplayed by the authors of the exhibition. Out of original garments displayed, nearly all were female garments, and none of them was by John Stephen.It seems highly innacurate, considering that Carnaby Street was associated largely with male fashion - thanks to John Stephen , who, by late 1966 owned 14 boutiques on Carnaby Street.

Luckilly, the most recent publications about 1960's  fashion such as magnificent Day Of The Peacock by Geoffrey Aquilina Ross and Boutique London by Richard Lester give John Stephen the credit he deserves. And, of course there was a new biography of John Stephen by Jeremy Reed (on which I will focus later).

In order to fully understand John Stephen's role as one of the 'architects' of Swinging London, it is worth to take a brief look at his fascinating life.

John Stephen was born in Glasgow in 1934. He came to London at the age of 18. Interested in fashion, young John took up a job at Moss Bross in Covent Garden, a well-known tailoring establishment, which specialized in evening suits. Stephen had learnt to cut in the military department of Moss Bross and was gaining experience as a salesman on a shop floor for a salary of £6 per week. he was not comfortable with a formal atmosphere of Moss Bross and he spotted the absence of outlets selling modern clothes for youth in London. He observed the explosion of Teddy Boy fashion and he had seen it for what it was - a beginning of an era where teenagers  would search for their own identity which they could express through clothing (unlike most of his contemporaries, who had seen it merely as a brief fad). Desperate to open his own shop, Stephen worked double shifts to save enough money. In addition to his day job at Moss Bross, he worked as a night waiter at Forte's - a West End restaurant. in 1956, he started working at Vince - an avant-garde, and then uber-cool boutique situated in Newburgh Street ,which specialized in  selling quirky clothes to bohemians, homosexuals, and West End actors. The owner, Bill Green, felt that, Stephen's enthusiasm, good looks and impeccable style would make him popular with customers. However, ambitious Stephen had seen Vince merely as a stepping stone in his own career. In 1957, with a help from his new business associate, Bill Franks, Stephen managed to open his own shop at 19 Beak Street. His early designs were not million miles away from those of Bill Green - they included hipster trousers, multi-coloured denim, as well as tab-collar shirts in colours such as peacock blue, foggy-gray or pink. He appropriated some of the advertising tactics used at Vince's - drawings of musclemen, casually dressed James Dean lookalikes, etc. Before his shop at Beak Street started breaking even, he managed to open another one thanks to courtesy of his landlord. The second shop was located at 5 Carnaby Street. At that time, in 1958, Carnaby Street was just a gray back street of Soho - a home to a few tobacco shops and Central Electricity Board building. Within the next six years, thanks to Stephen, it would become an epicentre of London's fashion world.

Carnaby street in 1966 - at the height of Stephen's career.

Stephen's biographer, Jeremy Reed writes that: "Stephen had a mission that was compounded into youthful genes, not only to change the way men looked forever, but o make clothes and the compatible awareness of self-image into necessary lifestyle. Nobody before or afterwards was to provide the individual with such a rapid update of detail-obsessed fashion, to the extent that styles were deleted every week" (Jeremy Reed, John Stephen - The King of Carnaby Street, p 24). Stephen was also the first designer to understand the dynamics of street style. He observed mod subculture, which was rapidly growing in the late 1950's, and was aiming his designs at these fashion-conscious young men. Knowing that buttons featured prominently in the mod iconography, he was using them in an innovative way, by arranging them in double or triple groupings on the shirt fronts. He introduced patterns such as paisley and polka dot to the designs of his shirts and ties. He was designing collarless suits as early as 1958, few years before they were popularized by the Beatles. The popularity of his designs was growing, and, in 1959, he opened third boutique at 49/51 Carnaby Street. Apart from the originality of his designs, the key to his success might have been relatively low prices. His jackets were priced between £7 - £10, trousers and shirts £3 - £5 (the average weekly wage of a teenager in early 1960's was about £16). Nik Cohn writes: " Every time you walked past a John Stephen window, there was something new and loud in it, and when you counted out your money, you found you could afford it" (Nik Cohn, Today There Are No Gentlemen, p 66). Nearly all fashion writers analyzing John Stephen's impact (Nik Cohn, Alistair O'Neill, Jeremy Reed) indicate his young age as a key factor in his success. Being a part of 'youth' himself made him understand youth fashion better than his contemporaries - like, for example, Bill Green, who was in his forties in he late 1950's. Stephen understood the intentions of Mods - they wanted to look well, but not necessarily to attract he opposite sex - that was a secondary reason for dressing up. It was their longing to be seen , to be the Face (slang term for a fashion leader) that really mattered. Jeremy Reed writes that the attitude of Mods "was one of remaining unattainable, and their exclusively male coterie invited mental homosexuality and gossip as a substitute for intimacy with girls. While Mods were their own, and not John Stephen's creation, their sexual ambiguity ideally suited his equally ambivalent clothes" (Reed, p 67). this phenomenon has its origins in Regency dandyism. George Walden, in his essay  Who Is a Dandy? which analyzes the impact of Beau Brummell on early 19th century male fashion, wrote: that sexuality is an adjunct, rather than at the centre of dandy's creed (George Walden, Who Is a Dandy?, p 32).

By 1966, John Stephen owned fourteen boutiques on Carnaby Street, as well as branches on Regent Street, in Brighton and Loughton. Apart from his boutiques for men (called 'His Clothes') he also owned 'His 'N' Hers' and 'Tre Camp' for girls, and his own tailoring shop.

Male West One - one of John Stephen's boutiques on Carnaby Street, 1966.

Stephen's Domino Male and Trecamp on Carnaby Street, 1966.

Apart from the fore mentioned affordable prices, the success of John Stephen was assured by the fact that Pop stars were his frequent customers. Rock n'  Roll idols Cliff Richard and Billy Fury were shopping at John Stephen's as early as 1960. Billy Walker of Walker Brothers was modelling for him in 1962, and by 1966, nearly every group in London - most notably The Rolling Stones, The Who, Small Faces and The Kinks, were sporting John Stephen's clothes.



Mick Jagger and Keith Richards shopping at John Stephen's, 1965. 

Towards the end of 1960's Stephen's designs moved on with the fashion once again  - in 1967 he started incorporating oriental elements in a spirit of hippie fashion. He was designing colourful kaftans, decorated with beads, tunics and foppish dandy outfits , inspired by Regency fashions. The Peacock Revolution was a result of a momentum started in the late fifties by John Stephen.

Suit by John Stephen from 1970 displayed in Victoria and Albert Museum.

Stephen's star as a designer started fading in the late sixties. By 1970 he was generally seen as terribly demode. In 1975 he sold his company, which, by then was struggling with financial problems. After another takeover the company finally ceased to exist in 1986. Stephen himself disappeared from public eye ( although he was still involved in fashion, working for the small bespoke tailoring company). He died in 2004. A year later a plaque with his name was unveiled on Carnaby Street in recognition to his outstanding contribution to British Fashion.

Suit  by John Stephen from 1968 (University of North Texas collection)

Shirt by John Stephen with typical for mid-1960's round collar. Found on E-bay.

Tie by John Stephen bought in Carnaby Street around 1967 (courtesy of Mr. Peter Lowe) 

Eastern-influenced hippie menswear by John Stephen (circa 1968)

Crochet tops and striped cotton skirt and trousers by John Stephen, 1965

John Stephen's groovy wigs, modelled by the man himself, 1968

John Stephen dressing one of his models. 1967

In a late 2010, a biography of John Stephen written by Jeremy Reed was published. Unfortunately, the book does not do John Stephen justice. Although large parts of it are interesting, it has a lot of considerable drawbacks. Bizarrely, it only covers Stephen's life until 1969, so we don't find out anything about the downfall of his empire. There is very little about Stephen's private life - his lifelong struggle with bi-polarity disorder is hardly mentioned. Also, the images are black and white (which seems strange in a book about the designer who was famous for introducing colour into male clothing) and there is no name index or bibliography at the end. 

It is good that a book about John Stephen has been written, but unfortunately,one can't help but have an impression that Jeremy Reed's effort is a wasted opportunity.

Carnaby Street Vs. King's Road

By 1966 the phenomenon of 'Swinging London' had reached its peak. The momentum that started from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Mod Subculture, the emergence of new designers such as Mary Quant or John Stephen had put London on the map as a new capital of music, fashion and design. This phenomenon was brought to the attention of the rest of the world by American journalist Piri Halasz, who, in her cover story for Time magazine titled 'London: The City that Swings' (April 15th, 1966) described the changes that had taken place in the capital of Britain. As a result, the places described in the article, such as Carnaby Street, became swamped with tourists from all over the world trying to have their share of 'swinigng action'.

The guide books for tourists were being published, such as Karl Dallas' 'Swinging London - A guide to where the action is'. In the introduction to this book, Barry Fantoni seems bewildered with he new phenomenon and criticizes "Fleet Street hacks who when hung up for two thousand words take a taxi into Carnaby Street or Kin's Road and write a fab load of switched-on rubbish that gets subbed down to a caption for a photo of some swinging dolly with her skirt up over her knickers".  He claimed , rightly, that "London has been swinging for ages, it's just that Time magazine and supplements hadn't noticed it". (Max Decharne, King's Road, p 207)

A Map of Swinging London's boutiques and clubs in Rave magazine, April 1966

A map of Swinging London's boutiques and clubs in 16 magazine, 1967

Both, Barry Fantoni and Piri Halasz cashed up on the new phenomenon and wrote guides to Swinging London. 

Carnaby Street was the biggest victim of the phenomenon it helped to create. From 1966 onwards it was associated less with the emergence of new trends for fashionable young people, and more with kitsch for tourists. As George Melly writes in Revolt Into Style: "Soon there were as many girls as boys, as many adolescents as adults and more tourists than anyone. The 'In' group wouldn't have been seen dead in Carnaby Street by 1966. Chelsea, after a period of decline, reasserted its role as the stage of fashion, and so it remained ever since ( George Melly, Revolt Into Style, p 154). Even John Stephen - a designer who was largely responsible for making Carnaby Street what it was, seemed to have agreed with this statement. Asked by Nik Cohn about post - 1966 Carnaby Street, he said: " Who are they? (...) They are nobody in particular. They're mister average" (Nik Cohn, Today there Are No Gentlemen, p 117). Barry Fantoni wrote that: "Carnaby Street customers are (to use unfashionable expression) working class. While they think nothing of spending the week's wages on a complete outfit, the class that shop on King's Road will spend that sort of money on shirt" (Decharne, p 207).

Go Mod! - By 1966, everybody did.

Michael English's interpretation of Carnaby Street and its boutiques, 1970

Swinging London poster sold at I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet circa 1967

The Peacock Revolution, which was sparked by such designers as Bill Green ( Vince) and John Stephen in the late 1950's had reached its crescendo with the arrival of Mr. Fish and King's Road boutiques. However, there was a significant difference not only between the clientele of Carnaby Street and King's Road, but mainly between the designers and entrepreneurs themselves. Bill Green (of Vince), John Stephen and Michael Fish were all from poor backgrounds, and spent years climbing in a hierarchy of fashion industry. All three of the were also homosexual. Designers associated with King's Road boutiques - John Pearse, Nigel Weymouth (Granny Takes A Trip), Michael Rainey (Hung On You), Tara Browne (Dandie Fashions) were, by contrast, heterosexual and extremely upper class. This difference between class and sexuality is very poignant for the whole Peacock Revolution pehaps maybe even for the whole Swinging London phenomenon. It is worth to quote Nik Cohn on the issue of class that owned King's Road boutiques:

" Public school boys, arriving in London, were no longer faced by clear out alternatives - politics, The Army, The City. They were no longer born to govern, had no inbred function (...) Where once they would have been busy building empires, now they gambled and smoked hash, and immersed themselves in Pop. From time to time, they would acquire new toys, like a boutique or an antique shop or a photographer's studio, to give the illusion of purpose"(Cohn, p 92).

The Chelsea Set: Neil Winterbotham, Ossie Clark, Julia Cooke and Michael Williams - fashionable, 'young bright things' of the 1960's.

It seems like for the owners of the King's Road boutiques, their businesses were more of a leisure activity than a method of making a living. They did not do it for survival; therefore they could afford to take various risks  - experiments with adjusting clothes, mixing styles, selling flamboyant outfits to rock stars for high  prices. Relaxed, laid back in their attitude, they were not good at being businessmen, which explains why their boutiques were so short lived. They did , however create  one of the most interesting styles in British post-war male fashion. Peacock Style was a true modern expression of traditional dandyism. It was elegant, flamboyant, exclusive and memorable.

An article about Chelsea boutiques in Town magazine, August 1966.

 Map of Swinging London boutiques

Look At Life: A documentary about King's Road boutiques from 1967, narrated by Michael Ingram.

Somebody used the same footage, but speeded up,to make a video to one of my favorite songs: I'm Rowed Out by The Eyes. True lost Mod classic, and it works so well with the footage. Enjoy!

Source of the images: "Boutique London" by Richard Lester, "The Look - Adventures in Pop and Rock Fashion" by Paul Gorman and Away From The Numbers tumblr. 

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