Another of Mr Freedom’s ‘monstrous oddities’: Sue + Simon Haynes’ giant blue fun-fur gorilla
//Mirabelle, May 2, 1970//
From the archive of the late Tommy Roberts, this image from British teen fashion magazine Mirabelle shows a particularly outré commission from fashion’s master of flamboyant retailing: a 7ft high rendition of a King Kong-style gorilla in blue fun fur created by the design team Sue and Simon Haynes.
“I can’t remember how we met Tommy,” says Simon Haynes. “Maybe it was via Duggie Fields, who was at Chelsea Art School with Sue. We were making things in fun-fur and probably had a bale in electric blue which seemed right for the gorilla. I knew how to make an armature, so put that together out of wire.”
The gorilla was an extremely popular addition to Mr Freedom’s window display at 430 King’s Road, but by the time Mirabelle was published, it had gone. On April 30, Roberts and shop manager Gerald Tilling donated it to the street celebrations by fans of Chelsea FC, whose team had won the FA Cup the night before. The gorilla’s fur made it a perfect fit for Chelsea, known as The Blues for the colour of their strip.
//King's Road, April 30, 1970. Somewhere in this melee was a 7ft tall fun-fur gorilla. At left, opposite the World's End pub and adjacent to the Sunlight laundry, the terrace and awning of Granny Takes A Trip. Newspaper photo from worldsenders.co.uk//
The Haynes’ design for the playful Mr Freedom boardroom above the boutique prompted Harpers & Queen to assert they were “bringing new dimensions to interior decoration”. 
The Haynes also supplied Mr Freedom with hundreds of enamel badges in fun shapes (including flying penises – “Mick Jagger bought a few of those”), and in Simon Haynes’ own archive is a sketch for a tie label; the manufacturer was Roberts’ father’s neckwear company Roberto.
//Sketch, tie label, pencil, paper and card, 1970//
Read Worldsenders account of the Chelsea fans 1970 celebrations here.
These days Sue Haynes is Sue Thomson; visit her website here.
Buy Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero here.