Paul Gorman is…

Rarely spotted Mr Freedom designs emerge from Audrey’s wardrobe after 45 years

May 31st, 2016
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//Audrey Watson’s great grand-neice Carlie models the spot-print two-piece bought in 1971 from Mr Freedom’s branch at 20 Kensington Church Street in west London. All photos: Helen Smith//

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//Sooty & Sweep print Mr Freedom shirt also acquired by Watson on one of her shopping trips to London in the early 70s//

The emergence of good condition Mr Freedom designs with strong provenance is rare these days, so I’m delighted to showcase these unusual and original garments from the seminal early 70s London boutique operated by Trevor Myles, John Paul and Tommy Roberts.

They were acquired in the early 70s from the second Mr Freedom outlet in Kensington by the ultra-stylish British collector Audrey Watson, now 87 and a lifelong devotee of quirky and interesting clothing who has reluctantly begun the process of divesting herself of her fashion archive.

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Sighting of Barney Bubbles in BBC 1971 doc New Horizons: The Alternative Society

May 27th, 2016
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//Barney Bubbles pasting up a page layout at Friends office on the upper floors of 305 Portobello Road, 1971//

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//Caroline Coon in interview about Release at the drug charity’s premises at 50a Princedale Road, W11//

The BBC TV documentary The Alternative Society is an intelligent snapshot of London’s Notting Hill-based early 70s counterculture.

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May 20: Celebrating Malcolm McLaren’s fashion legacy at London’s ICA with Young Kim, designer Kim Jones + Man About Town editor Ben Reardon

May 11th, 2016

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Next week I will be taking part in a panel discussion on the fashion legacy of the late cultural iconoclast Malcolm McLaren at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

The other participants in the chat – chaired by Young Kim of the Malcolm McLaren Estate – are Louis Vuitton menswear artistic director and McLaren/Westwood collector and expert Kim Jones and Ben Reardon, editor of Man About Town; the new issue of his magazine contains a huge section dedicated to McLaren’s stylistic forays with and without Vivienne Westwood, including a fashion story photographed by Alasdair McLellan and styled by Olivier Rizzo and my essay Been There Done That Going Back.

The panel will be followed by the launch of Man About Town S/S 16 in the ICA Bar in partnership with specialist dealer Idea Books.

Tickets for the event are £7/£8 available here.

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Cruelty free fashion in blue camo heaven: Good Guys x Le Tricycle

May 5th, 2016

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I’m particularly taken with these blue camo numbers, which are the result of a fresh collaboration between cruelty free fashion shoe brand Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather and Paris’s vegetarian food bike Le Tricycle.

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