This is the front of the jacket of my new book Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero.
Cover of Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero
Apr 6th, 2012
Monster V&A design book: Bubbles, Hirst, The Queen + Bowie get special treatment…but where’s Malcolm?
Mar 21st, 2012
British Design From 1948: Innovation In The Modern Age – the new book accompanying the forthcoming show at the V+A – is a bumper edition: 400 pages weighing in at 5lbs.
It’s cheering to see Barney Bubbles’ design Ian Dury With Love granted upfront prominence; the poster is in select company given special treatment by the book’s designer, Barnbrook’s Daniel Streat. The others are: Cecil Beaton’s 1953 coronation portrait of The Queen, a shot of Damien Hirst’s Notting Hill restaurant Pharmacy and Brian Duffy’s Aladdin Sane portrait of David Bowie.
“Serious tailoring”: Derek Morten
Dec 3rd, 2011
//Paul Smith Collection, A/W 2011.//
Thanks to Julian Morey for alerting me to these splendid photographs of Paul Smith designer Derek Morten in clothes from the company’s autumn/winter 2011 collection.
Morten has worked with Smith since the mid-70s and is currently head of the label’s menswear division for Japan.
//Paul Smith Collection, A/W 2011.//
A thoroughly nice chap, Morten is also self-deprecating and reserved, as I discovered when I interviewed him recently for the Tommy Roberts book (he designed menswear for Roberts’ extraordinary Covent Garden outlet City Lights Studio).
Bowie Boys by Tommy Roberts
Apr 4th, 2011
I am currently working with Tommy Roberts on a book about his life and career in fashion. Tommy has been assembling a selection of anecdotes and stories which will feature as occasional tasters here over the coming months.
This reminiscence stems from the period in the early 70s when Tommy operated City Lights Studio. Situated at 54 Shorts Gardens WC2 with a darkly glamorous interior design realised by Electric Colour Company’s Andrew Greaves + Jeffrey Pine, City Lights was the first fashion store in London’s Covent Garden, the neighbourhood then dominated by the capital’s fruit and veg market.
City Lights Studio, which came into being at the end of 1972, was a fashion emporium I created in tandem with Willy Daly, a colleague and friend since we had worked together at Mr Freedom.
City Lights was situated in an imposing high-ceilinged loft atop a building in Covent Garden. Our studio designed, wholesaled and retailed an extremely stylish and tasty array of men’s and women’s wear, shoes, hats, jewellery and other fashion accessories.
For this story I’m concentrating on the menswear.
From the vaults: Paul Smith on the threat to the High Street (Guardian 1988)
Feb 24th, 2011
Publication: The Guardian Weekend supplement, Dec 3-4, 1988.
I have collected and kept magazines, newspapers, fanzines and all sorts of publications for decades.
From the launch edition of The Weekend Guardian, this was the first in a series of think pieces by prominent people on aspects of design.
Paul Smith could tell what was coming; the desecration of Britain’s High Streets – and thus independently operated, individual and often idiosyncratic retail outlets – at the hands of the giant chains of faceless stores.
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