//David “Piggy” Worth and Judy Nylon at the back of the building which housed his basement flat, Edith Grove, World’s End, London, 1971. Photo: © Tony Hall. No reproduction without permission//

//Worth in Ossie Clark snakeskin coat, Brompton Cemetry, west London, 1971. Photo: © Tony Hall. No reproduction without permission//

//On West Pier, Brighton, 1971. Photo: © Tony Hall. No reproduction without permission//

“Piggy was a special dreamer” Judy Nylon

“Piggy got me my first job with Helmut Newton” Yvonne Gold

“He was an amazing character, funny, exuberant, outgoing, such fun to be with. Everybody wanted to be his friend” Tony Hall

Before David Gandy, before Nick Kamen, there was David “Piggy” Worth.

//With Graeme Edge’s girlfriend at the Moody Blues’ drummer’s apartment, Bayswater, west London, 1971. Photo: © Tony Hall. No reproduction without permission//

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Tags: Adel Rootstein, Biba, David "Piggy" Worth, Duggie Fields, Gaby Longhi, Graeme Edge, Helmut Newton, Herb Schmitz, Jean Machine, John Stephen, Jordan Mooney, Judy Nylon, Ken Russell, Missionaries of Charity Sisters, Moody Blues, Ossie Clark, Shirley Russell, The Boyfriend, Tony Hall, Tony Lonsdale, Yvonne Gold

//Roxy, 25 Kensington Church Street, 1972. Photo: Masayoshi Sukita//

//Inside Roxy, 1972: Shelley Martin in a flamenco dress designed by Dinah Adams. Photo: Masayoshi Sukita//

//Some of the Roxy crowd photographed around the corner from the shop (from left): The late Granny’s co-owner Marty Breslau, whose ensemble includes a Wonder Workshop top; Louise Doktor; Shelley Martin; John Knight. Photo: Masayoshi Sukita//

I’ve been aware of the existence of the Kensington boutique Roxy for some time, particularly since the store name was used as the title of the feature on London street fashion in a 1972 edition of Japanese magazine An An.

But my curiosity was pricked recently while browsing that same issue of An An which appears in Freddie Hornik’s scrapbook (see last post).

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Tags: American John, An An, Anella and Davide, Biba, City Lights Studio, Dave "Che" Shimeld, Derek Harris, Freddie Hornik, Granny Takes A trip, Janet Street-Porter, John Bishop, John Knight, Ken Todd, Kensington Church Street, Let It Rock, Louise Doktor, Marty Breslau, Masayoshi Sukita, Mr Freedom, Roxy, Roxy Music, Shelley Martin, Sheridan Barnett, Trevor myles, West One

“One day, ‘Carnaby Street’ could rank with ‘Bauhaus’ as a descriptive phrase for a design style and design legend.”

Ken and Kate Baynes, Design, August 1966.

Today is the seventh anniversary of Westminster Council’s dedication of a plaque in Carnaby Street to the late fashion retailer John Stephen, the 60s media darling dubbed “The £1m Mod” for his entrepreneurial success and flamboyant lifestyle (houses in Cannes and Milan, a white Alsatian named Prince who dined with him at his regular table at Mirabelle).

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Tags: 1966, Anthony Little, Biba, Bill Franks, Carnaby Street, David Cripps, Design, Ernest Satow, Foale & Tuffin, Henry Grossman, John Stephen, Ken and Kate Baynes, Mary Quant, Maureen Roffey, Michael Wolff, Myles Anthony, Phil May, Terence Spencer, The Pretty Things, Tom Wolsey, Vespa, Westminster Council

//Roberts, right, tries on a military greatcoat at I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet//

Look out for an appearance by Tommy Roberts – subject of my new book – in the 1967 documentary Three Swings On A Pendulum, currently available for viewing (in the UK at least) on BBC iPlayer.

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Tags: Arnold Wesker, BBC, Ben Olins, Biba, Carnaby Street, Charlie Simpson, Gear, Geraldine Chaplin, Granny Takes A trip, I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, John Paul, John Pearse, King's Road, Lewis Nkosi, Male W1, Olivier Todd, Oz, Portobello Road, Robert Hughes, Three Swings On A Pendulum

A viewing of Jes Benstock’s fab doc A British Guide To Showing Off occasions this opportunity to dig out the London Belles feature from a 1973 issue of shortlived free magazine West One.

Above is milliner Diane Logan in one of her outfits as contestant Rita Ritz in the 1973 Alternative Miss World.

Logan – wife of sculptor Peter, mother of fashion illustrator Blue and sister-in-law of AMW host & hostess Andrew – is wearing a satin bathing suit with one of her own hats (from Logan’s Chiltern Street shop) and sandals from Tommy Roberts’ Covent Garden boutique City Lights Studio.

Another London Belle was Vivienne Westwood in an early media appearance wearing a Let It Rock striped suit, ankle boots, patterned stockings and an adapted Chuck Berry t-shirt from 430 King’s Road’s incarnation as Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die.

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Tags: Alternative Miss World, Andrew Logan, Biba, Blue Logan, Chuck Berry, City Lights Studio, Diane Logan, Frederick Freed, Fulham Road, Jean Howell, Jes Benstock, Laurita, Let It Rock, Louise Doktor, Mary, Models 1, No One To Love Me, Peter Logan, Sha-Weez, Shelley Martin, Society for Cutting Up Men, Suzi Quatro, The British Guide To Showing Off, Tommy Roberts, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Valerie Solanas, Vivienne Westwood, West 1, Zandra Rhodes

Can of Biba own-brand baked beans. Packaging design: Whitmore-Thomas Partnership, 1973.

Chelsea Space director Donald Smith has invited me to contribute items from my design collection to his forthcoming show Ideal Home, which features the work of more than 50 artists and designers spanning 1913 to 2011.

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Tags: Biba, Chelsea Space, Damien Hirst, David Bowie, Do It Yourself, Donald Smith, Ian Dury, Ideal Home, Jane Ashley, laura Ashley, London Design Festival, Lucian Freud, Mark Titchner, Patrick Caulfield, Richard Wentworth, Roy Lichtenstein, Steve Howard, Tim Whitmore

Place: Golden Square, London W1.

Time: 1pm

Coffee: Nordic Bakery Soho

Lloyd Johnson, Ben Olins and I met on a sunny Saturday for a chat about Rowan Joffe’s recently-released film Brighton Rock. The transposition of the storyline to 1964 has resulted in marketing which leans heavily on the backdrop of the Mods vs Rockers “riots” in British coastal resorts that year.

Pretty Green and Merc are among promotional partners; there lingers the distinct impression of an attempt to reach out to cinemagoers by creating a British version of the Mad Men buzz.

In fact the mod content is a gloss overlaying this stodgy interpretation of the 1947 film classic rather than Grahame Greene’s 1939 novel (despite claims to the contrary; Joffe even chose the first film’s climactic cop-out, against the author’s wish for an unremittingly bleak ending).

An original modernist raised in neighbouring Hastings, Lloyd has considerable first-hand knowledge of the subject and worked on the film which is a primary visual influence: Quadrophenia.

Ben’s fascination for the period is manifested in such activities as the club-night The Fabulous Cellar and certain aspects of his media company Herb Lester Associates.

As a cradle Catholic my heart sank when I heard the word on this; one of the great literary investigations into good and evil recast as a mod rite of passage. Mod really is the mainstream option these days isn’t? So codified as to be meaningless and square beyond belief: all those “rules”, all that conformity. For that, and many other reasons, the film lived down to my low expectations.

What do you reckon?

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Tags: Andrea Riseborough, Andy Serkis, Ben Olins, Biba, Brighton Rock, Craig Parkinson, Cubitt, Densons, Hastings, Helen mirren, Herb lester Associates, John Hurt, Lloyd Johnson, Mad Men, Merc, Philip Davis, Pinkie, Pretty Green, Quadrophenia, Richard Attenborough, Rowan Joffe, Sam Riley, Sean Wilson, The Fabulous Cellar

By the time this appeared in International Times, The Angry Brigade had bombed the Biba boutique in Kensington High Street, west London, on May Day, 1971.

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Tags: Biba, International Times, Kensington High Street, The Angry Brigade