//But Is It… ART, t-shirt design, Ian Harris for Jasper, 1979//

I’ve dug into collector and graphic artist Ian Harris’s rich archive again and turned up a brace of t-shirts he designed in the late 70s for Jasper, the eponymous London-based fashion label operated by entrepreneur Jasper Hamilton Holmes from showrooms in central London.

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Tags: Antony Price, Brown's, Crolla, Elvis Costello, Geoff Cooper, Georgina Godley, Hawkwind, Ian Dury, Ian Harris, Jane Whiteside, Jasper, Jasper Hamilton Holmes, Ronnie Stirling, Stiff Records, Stirling Cooper, The Damned, Whistles

/A selection of the 60 appended cards Harris placed in London art gallery and museum shops. No reproduction without permission//

//The Death Of Marat, Jacques-Louis David, 1793. No reproduction without permission//

//Charles I, Daniel Mytens, 1631. Card from National Portrait Gallery. No reproduction without permission//

Ian Harris is a man of many parts, having been at various stages in his life a successful graphic artist, fashion designer, homewares retailer and musician/performer, notably with late 60s blues-rock group The Earth and as his mod revival alter ego Terry Tonik.

Just this week Harris let me in on a curious, humorous and anonymous public intervention series he staged in London galleries and museums a few years back.

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Tags: Augustus Leopold Egg, Ball At The Moulin De La Galette, Charles I, Cornelius Johnson, Daniel Mytens, Gerlach Flicke, Ian Harris, Imperial War Museum, Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Francois Millet, Joe Orton, John Betjeman, John Everett Millais, Kenneth Halliwell, Mariana, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Past And Present No 1, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Tate Britain, Terry Tonik, The Capel Family, The Death Of Marat, The Earth, The Gleaners, Thomas Cranmer

//Front cover, Elemental, The Earth, Rare Vinyl, 2016. Design: Ian Harris//

Ian Harris is one of those London characters who turns up at various stages in the capital’s post-war pop culture narrative.

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Tags: 39 Gerrard Street, Alan Parsons, Black Sabbath, Coffin Club, Elemntal, Genesis, Ian Harris, Janet Street-Porter, Kleptomania, Pretty Things, Record Collector, Regent Sound Studios, Rolling Stones, Terry Tonik, the Beatles, The Earth, The Who, West One

My recent post about the Mr Freedom designs in the V&A collection sparked some memories from graphic artist Ian Harris, who sends this 1972 photograph of himself in a Mr Freedom hamburger print shirt:

//Ian Harris with his then-wife Maggie, Brighton, UK, 1972. Ian Harris Collection//

//Mr Freedom hamburger print shirt in the V&A’s collection. Note appliqué//

In the 1972 photo, the shirt’s hamburger appliqué is obscured; Harris had worked for Mr Freedom partner Tommy Roberts at his 60s boutique Kleptomania, and gave the late Roberts a number of items relating to his career a few years back. Included was the appliqué which Harris had kept for many years.

As Harris points out, his wife Maggie, a model, is sporting an Angie Bowie-influenced look in the photo above. Here she is in another early 70s shot, taken outside John and Lyris Mann’s Kensington boutique Strictly For The Birds:

//Maggie outside 4 Holland Walk, Kensington, London, 1971. Ian Harris Collection//

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Tags: Ann Green, Equinox, Holland Street, Ian Harris, Jimmy Page, John Mann, Kensington, Kleptomania, Lyris Mann, Richard Young, Strictly For The Birds