// 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.

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Tags: Adam Waterfield, Alistair Waterfield, Andrew Greaves, Arena Homme +, Central Saint Martins, Comme des Garçons, David Parkinson, Ellie Grace Cumming, Ewen Spencer, Fred Perry, George Cox, Glastonbury Festival, Harold The Ted, Jonathan Baron, Le Kilt, Lewis Leathers, Northampton, Olly Alexander, Port Eliot Festival, Sam Rock, Slowthai, Years And Years

//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.

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Tags: Adrian Emmerton, Alfa Castaldi, Anna Piaggi, Balenciaga, Cecil Beaton, Chanel, Charles James, Courrèges, Diana Crawshaw, Diane Saunders, Dior, Jane Mulvagh, Jim O'Connor, Karl Lagerfeld, Madame Grès, Pamla Motown, V&A, Vern Lambert, Vionnet

//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.

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Tags: (I'm Gonna) Love Me Again, Annie Liebowitz, Bernie Taupin, Cecil Beaton, Electric Colour Company, Elton John, Fashion An Anthology, Jamie Bell, Jim O'Connor, Jon Wealleans, Kii Arens, Pamla Motown, Rocketman, Rolling Stone, Taron Egerton, V&A

//Window display for Impresario at the New Museum, Sept 16 – Nov 20, 1988. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

//Introduction to the show. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

My biography of the late Malcolm McLaren will now be published in April 2020, exactly 10 years after his premature death at the age of 64.

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Tags: Adam Ant, Art & Text, Catherine McGann, Impresario: Malcolm McLaren & The British New Wave, Keith Haring, Marcia Tucker, New Museum Of Contemporary Art, Paul Taylor, Vivienne Westwood, William Olander, Witches

//Outtakes of the eight women featured in London Belles, published in the December 7 1973 issue of West One magazine. Photography © John Bishop. No reproduction without permission//

Although high fashion may be a thing of the past, what has replaced it is individuality and freedom to express. Women like these now make up their own minds about what they are and what they wear. Perhaps the rest of us should get the message and start being living fashion.
West One, December 7, 1973

I’m really honoured that veteran fashion photographer John Bishop has granted me this exclusive to show previously unpublished outtakes from the landmark London Belles feature he shot for the 1970s British magazine West One.

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Tags: AS Neill, Jane Merer, Janet Street-Porter, John Bishop, Jose Fonseca, Launita, Louise Doktor, Models 1, Pru Walters, Shelley Martin, Summerhill, Suzi Quatro, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Vivienne Westwood, West One

//From The Times, September 24, 1974. Courtesy Matthew Worley//

//Mrs Scully features on the “right” side of the shirt after a reference to George Dangerfield’s book The Strange Death Of Liberal England//

//A 1970s issue of Mistress magazine//

I’m grateful to British academic Matthew Worley for having enlightened me as to the identity of “Mrs Scully”, whose name was among those printed on the You’re Gonna Wake Up us-and-them t-shirt first sold in Sex at 430 King’s Road in the autumn of 1974.

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Tags: bernie Rhodes, George Dangerfield, Gerry Goldstein, Joan Scully, Joe Orton, Matthew Worley, Search magazine, The Clash, The Strange Death Of Liberal England, The Times, You're Gonna Wake Up One Morning And Know What Side Of The Bed You've Been Lying On!

//John Rotten performing with the Sex Pistols at Andrew Logan’s Valentine’s Ball, February 1976 in a hybrid Sex t-shirt combining the images from the ‘Tits’ and ‘Naked Footballer’ designs. Note Jordan Mooney (far left), Luciana Martinez (third right), Derek Jarman (with camera) and Vivienne Westwood (far right). Photo: Joe Stevens. No reproduction without permission//

Last summer I spent a pleasant afternoon in the company of American academic Benjamin Court, who has been researching a dissertation entitled The Politics of Musical Amateurism, 1968-1981.

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Tags: Andrew Logan, Audun Engh, Benjamin Court, Bob Anthony's Beefcake, Dave Martin, Jim French, Joe Stevens, Johnny Rotten, Jordan Mooney, Lavender Scare, Luciana Martinez, Maurice Spencer, Naked Footballer, Peter Gravelle, Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Stanford University

//Jean Shrimpton in Mr Freedom Minnie Mouse top, Hans Feurer, Fancy Dressing, Nova, December 1970, with the original design on tracing paper by Refna. No reproduction without permission//

Exciting news: Elizabeth Hamey, who signs her work ‘Refna’, has granted me access to her amazing archive of work at the cross-hatches of art, design and fashion in the 1960s and 70s.

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Tags: Adrian Mann, Alkasura, Elizabeth Hamey, Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, English Boy, Goofy, Hans Feurer, Jean Shrimpton, Jimmy Page, John Lloyd, Kleptomania, Mick Jagger, Mick Rock, Mickey Mouse, Ossie Clark, Paul Reeves, Refna, Richard Burton, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, The Universal Witness, The Venus Of Urbino, The Yardbirds, Titian, Trevor myles, Twen, Walt Disney Co

//Above and below: Screen grabs from the all-new George Cox website//

To mark the relaunch of the fifth-generation British rock’n’roll footwear brand George Cox, I have written an essay tracing the history of the company from the establishment by brewery worker George James Cox in 1906 to its welter of activities in the 21st century.

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Tags: George Cox, George James Cox, The Hamilton

//Jim French. Photo: SHOWStudio//

The American illustrator and photographer Jim French – best known for his pioneering endeavours in the field of homoerotic art – has died at home in Palm Springs at the age of 84.

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Tags: Andy Warhol, Bruce Weber, Colt Studios, Cowboys t-shirt, Hand In Glove, Herb Ritts, Jim French, Longhorns - Dance, Luger, Manpower, Margaret Walters, Morrissey, Philadelphia Museum School, Rip Colt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sex Pistols, Tammis Keefe, The Male Nude, The Smiths, Tom Of Finland, Vivienne Westwood