Binder, Edwards & Vaughn

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....

...and a facade of his new boutique, Dandie Fashions

1967

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.

  

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.