Category: 430 King’s Road

‘Because of the economic crisis, people are trying to consume as fast as possible. Ideas are dead; there aren’t any to express the mood. Fashion is irrelevant’: Malcolm McLaren + SEX, November 1975

It’s unlikely that cities will shake or nations start to rock under the impact of Malcolm McLaren’s sexual revolution. A few people might die though. Malcolm McLaren, at 30, is a mixture of entrepreneurial cultist, sexual evangelist, businessman, artist, fetishist and political philosopher; a psychotic visionary in the ephemeral subculture of the fashion world. David […]

August 13, 2012

430 King's Road

The King’s Road Music + Fashion Trail

These are the first five downloadable clips in the King’s Road Music + Fashion Trail, a celebration of landmark boutiques I am making for the culture section of Royal Borough Of Kensington + Chelsea Council.

August 11, 2012

430 King's Road

‘Pop culture’s one-man production line’ – Tommy Roberts book in new issue of GQ

The September 2012 issue of GQ features this David Parkinson photograph of the interior of Tommy Roberts and Trevor Myles’ Mr Freedom at 430 King’s Road. One of a number of previously-unpublished photographs in Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero, this shot captures the extraordinary fit-out Myles and Roberts’ commissioned from pioneering East […]

August 3, 2012

430 King's Road

Rough Kids, Sex Pistols + Art School Babies: Tommy Roberts in the final issue of The Word

Out later this week, the final issue of The Word marks a significant staging post in the story of magazine publishing in the digital age. Champions of the written word and intelligent discourse about popular culture, the editorial team headed by veteran double-act Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have assembled a fine last edition in […]

July 9, 2012

430 King's Road

V&A talk today: King’s Road from Mary Quant to Malcolm McLaren + Vivienne Westwood

This morning I am participating in the V&A’s study day From Biba To Topshop with a presentation on the rise and fall of boutique culture in London’s King’s Road, starting with the opening of Bazaar by Archie Nairn, Alexander Plunket-Green and Mary Quant at 138a in 1955 and closing with the establishment of World’s End […]

June 30, 2012

430 King's Road

All satin, no tat, 1971: Kansai Yamamoto, Michael Chow, David Parkinson, Tommy Roberts, Barney Wan et al

The joy of writing about a subject as rich as Tommy Roberts is that research turns up an apparently limitless supply of fabulous material. Even the tangential stuff – such as this from my archive, a spread from a 1971 Sunday Times Magazine – gets me going.

June 14, 2012

430 King's Road

Memories of Dandie Fashions + Paradise Garage + a return to Granny’s

Filming continued yesterday for this summer’s King’s Road Fashion & Music Trail, which is is being launched to visitors to west London’s historic thoroughfare as part of Kensington & Chelsea’s InTransit festival in July. We will be covering all the boutique manifestations at 430 King’s Road; for a start I plumped for its incarnation as […]

May 18, 2012

430 King's Road

Filming: Lloyd Johnson and Nigel Waymouth for the King’s Road Fashion + Music Trail

Yesterday filming started for this summer’s King’s Road Fashion & Music Trail, which is is being launched to visitors to west London’s historic thoroughfare as part of Kensington & Chelsea’s InTransit festival in July. The films of sites which have housed important boutiques in the story of rock & roll fashion will be accessible for […]

May 17, 2012

430 King's Road

The Emperor Of Wyoming, 404 King’s Road

Billy Murphy’s boutique The Emperor Of Wyoming was an extremely important staging post not just in the story of British rock and roll fashion but also the development of the vintage scene in this country. Opened by Murphy at 404 King’s Road in 1972, TEOW specialised in selected items of Westernwear and American clothing at […]

April 20, 2012

430 King's Road

Monster V&A design book: Bubbles, Hirst, The Queen + Bowie get special treatment…but where’s Malcolm?

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 […]

March 21, 2012