"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 161 King's Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 161 King's Road. 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..
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.
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"
Dandie Fashions opened on 161 King's Road in October 1966. It was a brainchild of two young entrepreneurs - John Crittle (an Australian, former employee of Michael Rainey in Hung on You) and Tara Browne (an heir to the Guinness fortune) who wanted their boutique to be a retail outlet for their new tailoring business Foster and Tara. Unfortunately, in December 1966, Tara Browne died in a car crash (he was on his way to discuss designs for a shop front with graphic artist David Vaughn). His share of the business was bought by Crittle.
Alan Holston - manager of Dandie Fashions modelling a double-breasted jacket from his boutique, 1967
John Crittle and his wife Andrea, 1968
Dandie Fashions photoshoot circa 1967
Outside Dandie Fashions circa 1967
Crittle, in his policy was essentially copying Hung on You - from Art Nouveau designs for the shop front to clothes themselves - silk frilled shirts, velvet suits in every possible colour and double - breasted jackets. Nevertheless, shop proved a quick success and soon its clients included Brian Jones, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix. Brian Jones became so friendly with John Crittle, that he had lent him his chauffeur Brian Palastanga and limousine when Crittle was on his way to the court after the drug bust on Dandie Fashions in May 1967.
Brian Jones wearing a jacket from Dandie Fashions. London Palladium, 23.01.1967
The Who's Roger Daltrey wearing a jacket from Dandie Fashions
Beatles were also customers at Dandie Fashions, and , seeking an investment opportunity, they bought the shop in May 1968 and transformed it into Apple Tailoring - part of their ill-fated, badly ran Apple Enterprise. John Crittle was employed as a director; however his skillful management could not save the boutique from quick bankruptcy in the late 1968. Crittle returned to Australia where he died in 2000. He is now also remembered for being a father of a ballet star Darcy Bussell - his child with Andrea.
Dandie Fashions jacket from 1967. It was sold by Kerry Taylor auction house in March 2010 for an undisclosed price.
Dandie Fashions suit, also sold on auction by Kerry Taylor house in 2010.
Floral Jacket from Dandie Fashions worn by Jimi Hendrix in 1967.
Floral jacket from Dandie Fashions worn by Jimi Hendrix circa 1967. It was displayed in 2010 during Jimi Hendrix exhibition in Handel House, London.
Status Quo's drummer John Coghlan (far left) also had one.. (1967)
So did this gentleman photographed in Apple boutique in 1968
Jacket with a mandarin collar from Dandie Fashions worn by Paul McCartney in 1967.
Paul McCartney's order receipt for the jacket.
Freddie Hornick (owner of Granny Takes a Trip) and Alan Holston outside Dandie Fashions, 1967
The Revolution That Nearly Failed - an article in December 1967 issue of Town magazine. The photo depicts a group of young men sporting peacock style outside Dandie Fashions.
Dandie Fashions after re-launch as Apple Tailoring, 1968
Inside Apple Tailoring, 1968
Apple Tailoring, 1968
John Crittle with John Lennon outside Apple Tailoring, 1968
Edited to note - since I originally posted this, a lot more information on Dandie Fashions came into daylight - please read great article by Peter Feely, who did very thorough research and extensively interviewed Alan Holston. (2015)
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