Lord John, Mates Boutique and post-1966 Carnaby Street

In the mid-1960's , after John Stephen's success, Carnaby Street became a gold mine for fashion retailers. For a few years in the late 1960's, the combination of Carnaby Street address and colourful clothes became almost a guarantee of instant, but short term success. Stephen's clothes were and remained well-made. His imitators realized this to be unnecessary - George Melly wrote - It didn't matter how quickly everything fell to bits. The clothes weren't meant to last, but to dazzle. Their shops, blaring pop music and vying with each other for a campest window and decor, spread the length of Carnaby Street and its environs (George Melly, Revolt Into Style, p 151). Among those competitors,only two men managed to come to a financial success comparable to John Stephen's. These men were Warren Gold, who ran Lord John, and Irvine Sellars who ran Mates boutique.

Shoppers at Lord John, 1966.

Lord John was started by brothers Warren and David Gold who opened two boutiques on Carnaby Street in 1964 after a successful period of selling suede jackets from their stall on Petticoat Lane. Aping John Stephen, Lord John specialized in Mod look. Warren Gold made sure that his designs were always up to date, and followed the trends, which, as far as male Mod look was concerned , were changing on almost weekly basis in the mid-1960's. This strategy proved an instant success, and soon Gold brothers were seen around London            

driving Rolls-Royces. Warren Gold liked his gangster-like image. Nik Cohn wrote about him: When I interviewed him, Gold wore a see-through bodyshirt over a golden-tanned spare tyre and was not communicative: 'Let's make this fast , young man - I've got a very busy day' (Nik Cohn, Today There Are No Gentlemen, p 115).    

Warren Gold, 1969

In 1967 Gold brothers commissioned decorators Binder, Edwards & Vaughan to paint the exterior of Lord John's branch on the corner of Carnaby Street and Ganton Street with a psychedelic mural, making it probably the most eye-catching building on the street. This, combined with the skillful advertising campaign in the press, only added to the success of Lord John. By 1970, Gold brothers owned eight boutiques, and expanded it to thirty during early seventies.

Psychedelic mural by Binder, Edwards & Vaughan

Newspaper ad for Lord John from around 1966.

Jackets from Lord John from early 1970's (found on E-bay).

Coat from Lord John from 1968 displayed in Victoria and Albert Museum.

Cat Stevens outside Lord John, 1966

The Yardbirds at Lord John, 1966

Mickey Dolenz from The Monkees being fitted by Warren Gold himself, 1967

Fashion spread in Fab 208 magazine featuring Lord John coat, 1967

Lord John shopfront circa 1969

Outside Lord John, 1969 (courtesy of John Hellier)

Irvine Sellars was a founder of Mates - one of the first chains of unisexual boutiques in London. 

Mates, 1967

Just like Warren Gold, he started his career in fashion from a stall in East End. Observing the beginnings of Carnaby Street, he had noticed that more and more often boys accompanied girls on the shopping trips (and vice versa). He decided to start a boutique that would sell clothes for both sexes. His designs , just like those of Warren Gold's, were initially aimed at Mod youth - and just like Warren Gold , he did not quite achieve John Stephen's originality. Nevertheless, he was making money, and by 1969 (at the age of 32), he owned a chain of 24 boutiques. Nik Cohn wrote about Sellars: He had his own factory in Neasden, and a house in Brighton, and a very large flat overlooking Marble Arch, impersonal and full of antiques which he paid a friend to choose for him. 'This is one of the biggest flats in London, and I can prove that', he said. 'It has ten rooms, three bathrooms and the furnishings are worth a fortune.'

Irvine Sellars, 1970.

He was not villainous. It would be pleasant to depict the Carnaby Street operators as bloodsuckers, ruthless exploiters, milking innocent kids of their very last dime; but Sellars wasn't like that. 'I'm in business', he said, 'and when you're in business, your personal tastes come second to your profits, or they should do. People try to get at me but I'm not a monster, I'm a human being, like everyone else (Cohn, p 115).

Mates on Carnaby Street , circa 1967

Warren Gold and Irvine Sellars were typical entrepreneurs that had overtaken Carnaby Street after 1966 - businessmen first, designers second. They do not have the same significance for fashion history as John Stephen (who, as elsewhere in this blog was said, is himself very underrated), but, just like him ,they became rich. And when the sixties ended ,their boutiques were on the 'way out' - just like John Stephen's. Both Gold and and Sellars ended up selling their businesses, once they stopped being profitable. Warren Gold remained in the clothing business - he came back to Petticoat Lane, where in the Big Red Building he opened Goldrange - a clothing factory outlet store, which he owns to this day.

Sellars (These days known as Sellar - he seems to have dropped 's' from his surname) went into property business, which made him one of the richest people in Britain. Today, he is one of the main investors behind The Shard - the new tallest skyscraper in London.

  

    

Smashing Time - The Ultimate Swinging London Film

I remember watching a documentary about Performance in which Anita Pallenberg said that there was a whole genre of so-called 'Swinging London films', in the late sixties and they were all dreadful!. It is true. A lot of films had been made that tried to repeat the success of Blow-Up, Alfie or Georgy Girl. The most memorable of those films would include Up The Junction (Hollywood - financed attempt at the kitchen-sink genre, lacking both, the edge and a depth of Tony Richardson or John Shlesinger), rather brilliant Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1967) and Smashing Time (1967).

Poster for "Smashing Time" (1967)

Smashing Time was described by many as "Carry On Swinging London", although such description is not entirely accurate. It flopped at the time of its cinematic release in 1967 , and to this day it has not been released on dvd in Britain (a region 1 dvd will set you back £35 on Amazon). Not so long ago, it emerged on YouTube in 12 parts, only to be taken down after few months.It is there where I finally saw this film , about which I have heard so much. I must admit, that it is not a great film - but there are some interesting things in it. Amazing costumes are certainly a reason to watch this film. A footage of Carnaby Street at its height is another.And a scene in which an outfit destroyed in a pie fight prompts a young 'peacock' to commit suicide is priceless.

The film features Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave at the height of their fame, but their great abilities as  comic actresses, so well presented in their earlier films, The Knack..And How To Get It (Tushingham), and Georgy Girl (Redgrave) is lost here between really tacky slapstick humor. The film was scripted by George Melly - jazz musician, raconteur, Swinging London scenester, and above all, an author of Revolt Into Style - a great analysis of Sixties London scene.  His script was an attempt to document and satirize 'Swinging London' at the same time. Perhaps this too obvious attempt to document an era is a main fault - the film captures the spirit of the time and it hits a viewer over the head with it, to the point where its neither funny nor interesting. The film follows a story of two hapless Northern 'lasses' who come to London , having read all the stories about swinging scene. They quickly get lost in a world of dodgy bedsits and even dodgier strip clubs. Lynn Redgrave's character eventually makes it big as a pop singer and dates a David Bailey-esque photographer (Michael York, in his first ever role), but she realizes that fame and fortune are not what she thought they would be. Hardly an original story, but the film has certain kind of charm. 

Readers of this blog should find one scene interesting. At one point in the film, Rita Tushingham's character finds a job in a uber-hip boutique called Too Much.

 This fictional place is obviously inspired by places such as Granny Takes a Trip or Hung On You. In one scene, the owner of Too Much visits a run down second hand clothing shop in search for an inspiration (which is what Sheila Cohen and John Pearse from Granny Takes a Trip were doing). In other, she disappears, leaving poor Rita Tushingham (whom she hired only five minutes earlier)  in charge of the shop. She gets irritated when posh and trendy friends of the owner come to the shop to hang out, without intention of buying anything (which was a common practice in Granny Takes a Trip). This brilliant scene, luckily is still on You Tube:

Note a brilliant cameo from Murray Melvin (reunited with Rita Tushingham after A Taste Of Honey). Rita Tushingham's scream about the sort of people who want something for nothing is poignant, and shows a class division in Sixties London, which George Melly later pointed out in Revolt Into Style.

It was already mentioned that the film was neither a commercial nor critical  success. Lynn Redgrave said: "We thought as we were making it, this will be just right. But the minute it came out people said, 'It's over. Swinging London is over' " (Shawn Levy, Ready! Steady! Go! The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London, Doubleday edition, p 300).

It is possible that making of the film was quite chaotic. One of my tutors at University told me that he once interviewed Rita Tushingham on the subject of costumes in Smashing Time. Apparently she could not remember any details whatsoever about the production , apart from the general feeling of chaos.

Smashing Time might not be the greatest film about 1960's London, but it can be described as 'Interesting Failure' .Hopefully BFI will release it on dvd at some point, or maybe the film will reappear on YouTube again. Here's the original trailer to give you a little taste of Smashing Time.

       

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.

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.