//Robert, Batcave, London, 1983. Photo: Derek Ridgers//
//Fuck ceramics, Tyler Udall//
Curator and writer Faye Dowling’s latest venture is the intriguing Goth Shop, which enters the physical realm tonight as a pop-up gallery and retail outlet in London’s Spitalfields.
//Cover, Curious issue 19, 1971. Photography: Brian Ward. No reproduction without permission.This copy: Paul Gorman Archive//
//Opening spread The Queen Of Clapham. Photography: Edward Bell. No reproduction without permission//
//From The Cool Kilt vs The Hot Pant. Photographer not credited. No reproduction without permission//
//Opening spread I Was A TV. Photographer not credited. No reproduction without permission//
The British sex magazine Curious was well-named: for the duration of its near-decade long run from the late 1960s it was indeed a curiosity.
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//Opening spread of my interview with Peter York, Arena Homme + Winter/Spring 2020. Portrait: David Sims//
//From the Them fashion story. Photography: Julien Martinez Leclerc; fashion: Tom Guinness//
The jury is out on this autumn’s relaunch of the print edition of venerated British style magazine The Face; as I suggested here it’s going to take more than one splashy issue to assess whether the proposition has legs as we enter the 2020s (next May will mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of The Face by Nick Logan).
//Maquette for Great Big Biggest Wide London, 1958. 5.6 x 61cm//
//Robyn Denny, 1961. Photo: Bernard Jacobson Gallery//
The late British abstract artist Robyn Denny is best known for his large-scale works, such as Great Big Biggest Wide London, the giant 1959 mural for menswear company Austin Reed’s Regent Street store.
//Wild Daughter at the ICA last month. The gold phallus worn by James Jeanette was created by leathermakers Whitaker Malem//
//Still from Wild Daughter’s Mr G, directed by Douglas Hart and styled by Elie Grace Cumming//
I was flattered recently to receive an email from Jacob Shaw, bassist in art-rockers Wild Daughter, about the effect my work has had on certain visual elements of the group and in particular a performance during their recent ICA night The Moon Sextiles The Sun.
// In George Cox creepers: Malcolm McLaren, 430 King’s Road, January 1972. Photo: David Parkinson / Slowthai, Northampton, 2018. Photo: Ewen Spencer for Arena Homme + //
“Those blue suede shoes had a magical association that seemed authentic. They represented an age of desperate romantic revolt to change your life.”
Malcolm McLaren, notes on his life in fashion, 1997
I’m celebrating the 70th anniversary of the introduction of George Cox & Co’s first creeper at the Port Eliot Festival next week with Adam Waterfield, the fourth generation owner of the great independent British brand, and his son Alistair, a Central Saint Martins student and model who is very much involved in the family business.
//Cover, Fashion: An Anthology catalogue, V&A, 1971//
//Frontispiece: a Beaton photograph of a model wearing a 1961 Balenciaga dress//
//Vern Lambert in Milan in the 80s. Photo: Alfa Castaldi//
My recent Rocketman post gave me cause to dig out my copy of the catalogue produced for the groundbreaking exhibition Fashion: An Anthology, staged by London’s V&A from October 1971 to January 1972.
//Above Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin meet “Tommy Roberts” in Rocketman. Stills from Kii Arens promo video for Egerton and John’s new single (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again//
//The pair of Mr Freedom winged boots acquired by Cecil Beaton for the V&A 1971 exhibition: Fashion: An Anthology//
During the production of Elton John biopic Rocketman there were plans for a scene set in London’s groundbreaking pop-art boutique Mr Freedom in the early 70s.
This was to set up the central character’s visual transformation during visits to the store under the influence of its charismatic founder and frontman, the late, lamented Tommy Roberts.
//Shopping list/instructions written for me by my employer in 1978. Advance was the dry cleaners in Edgware Road. I’m not now sure about Stanton Freres; was it the local off-licence?//
I left school and home when I was 17 and, on the dole in 1978, supplemented my income working for a woman in her late 30s whose sugar daddy had put her up in a flat in a mansion block off Edgware Road. He rarely visited, and in fact died while I was in her employ. The family forbade her from attending the funeral and I realise now her tenancy was likely quite shaky.
//My essay on Malcolm For Mayor with stickers by Scott King and Matthew Worley//
“The sticker may be the most efficient art form ever invented”
Jeffrey Deitch, 2019
I have an essay in DB Burkeman’s just-published follow-up to his 2010 survey of the use of audacious and eye-catching stickers in art, design, fashion, music and social activism.
| Paul Gorman is a writer. This is his blog: art, books, conversation, cults, dancing, design, encounters, environments, events, film, galleries, groups, individuals, invitations, magazines, music, opinions, performance, photography, places, press, privacy, spaces, style, thoughts + views. |
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