Sheila Rock: Early fashion styling captured the development of British menswear in the 70s
//Phil Lynott, styling Sheila Rock, photography Mick Rock, Club International, October 1973//
//The Gentlemen At Number Ten, styling Sheila Rock, photography David Parkinson, Club International, December 1973//
To celebrate the opening next week of a new exhibition of work by photographer Sheila Rock, here is a selection of her early fashion styling.
//Above: Dreams Of Decadence, styling Sheila Rock, photography Mick Rock, Club International, August 1973//
These shoots haven’t been seen since publication in early 70s issues of the progressive British men’s magazine Club International, where editor Tony Power and art director Steve Ridgeway pushed back against the standard strictly nudie format with such intelligent and forward thinking content as essays by Quentin Crisp, Mick Farren, Humphrey Lyttleton and George Melly, graphics and illustrations by Bush Hollyhead and Terry Pastor and fashion pages by Hipgnosis, David Parkinson and Rock and then-husband Mick.
//Above: Man-Maid, styling Sheila Rock, photography David Parkinson, Club International March 1974//
The fashion stories inevitably featured female nudity and some of the text was pre-PC, but nevertheless Rock, on her own and in tandem with her husband and Parkinson, demonstrates a sure hand in capturing the developing menswear scene at a time when it was not covered in a meaningful way anywhere else in British publishing.
//Above: A Room With A View, styling Sheila Rock, photography Mick Rock, Club International, February 1974//
Rock went on to chronicle the punk and post-punk explosions and was also a valued contributor of fashion and reportage to Nick Logan’s The Face magazine.
//White On Brother, styling Sheila Rock, photography Mick Rock, Club International, October 1973//
//The Gentlemen At Number Ten, styling Sheila Rock, photography David Parkinson, Club International, December 1973//
Her show From Punk To The English Sea – which includes contemporary photographs of one of her most famous subjects, the Sex and Seditionaries superstar Jordan Mooney – is at London’s Chelsea Space gallery for a month from September 28.
More details here.