Paul Gorman

Fashion

And… I’m back!

Well, it’s been a while but I’m posting here again with takes on the usual, unusual and out-there from the world of visual culture.

There’ll be some changes made over the coming months and also some exciting announcements in regard to new projects but meantime here are two events to which I’m contributing in the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 16 September) I’m taking part in Facade Charade, a conversation about the relationship between architecture and fashion with writer/curator Priya Kanchandani and architects Sheila O’Donnell, of Irish practice O’Donnell + Tuomey, and Zaha Hadid’s Melodie Leung.

And on Sunday 27 September I’ll be in conversation at the annual countercultural fest Convenanza with publisher Lee Brackstone, major domo of the towering White Rabbit Books imprint, about the Granny Takes A Trip book we produced together last year as well as my earlier book The Look, which was admired by Convenanza’s figurehead, the late Andrew Weatherall.

Details on the Activities + Events page.

Talking Fashion and the King’s Road with design legend Sue Timney

//From the presentation for tomorrow’s event//

Tomorrow I’ll be talking to interiors, homewares and textile designer Sue Timney about the fashion legacy of the King’s Road, the two-and-a-half mile thoroughfare in west London’s Chelsea where the late Mary Quant kicked off the boutique boom by opening her clothes shop Bazaar at 135a in 1955.

 

Continue reading Talking Fashion and the King’s Road with design legend Sue Timney

Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

When he launched the small-format 32-page song sheet The Melody Maker in 1926, Tin Pan Alley music publisher Lawrence Wright sparked the media revolution that created the music press.

This multi-million pound business eventually straddled the Atlantic and simultaneously proved a fertile breeding ground for generations of writers, photographers, film-makers and performers who made their mark in the wider world.

Everyone from Bob Geldof, Chrissie Hynde and Neil Tennant to Danny Baker, Caroline Coon, Julie Burchill, Barbara Ellen, Caitlin Moran, Miranda Sawyer and movie directors Cameron Crowe and Anton Corbijn (and even Michael Winner) cut their teeth on music magazines such as Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Rolling Stone, ZigZag and Smash Hits.

Continue reading Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

Invitation to the 1970 opening of Universal Witness in Fulham Road: Paul Reeves’ taste-making brilliance, George Hardie’s graphic excellence + David Bowie’s bippity-boppity hat…

//George Hardie’s design for card announcing the opening of Universal Witness at 167 Fulham Road on November 17 1970//

Here’s another treasure from the trove of Design magazines given to me by the designer Paul Walters; the invitation for the opening of Paul Reeves’ west London boutique Universal Witness in November 1970.

Continue reading Invitation to the 1970 opening of Universal Witness in Fulham Road: Paul Reeves’ taste-making brilliance, George Hardie’s graphic excellence + David Bowie’s bippity-boppity hat…

Malcolm McLaren’s London Life with Helen Barrett at the London Society on June 9

In the evening June 9 I’ll be in Soho for a London Society event about the London life of the late cultural provocateur Malcolm McLaren.

At workplace venue Fora in Broadwick Street writer Helen Barrett and I will be discussing the ways in which the man born in Stoke Newington and buried in Highgate Cemetery used the city as the springboard for his dizzying range of creative and subversive activities.

Continue reading Malcolm McLaren’s London Life with Helen Barrett at the London Society on June 9

Read my essay From The Streets To The Stadium in the new Stone Island monograph Storia

I have an essay in the Stone Island monograph Storia which is published today by Rizzoli Books.

Edited by Eugene Rabkin of StyleZeitgeist and art-directed by the supreme Simon Foxton, Storia is an extremely handsome volume featuring texts by Angelo Flaccavento and Jian Deleon, as well as my piece, From The Streets To The Stadium, which traces the Italian label’s place in popular culture.

Storia is available from all good booksellers – a special edition has been published in a slipcase with a poster.

This is available from Stone Island stores around the world, but hurry; within a few hours of publication I’ve been hearing tales that it has sold out in certain territories.

Photos of book by Sabrina Tanzi.

Fashion Beast: Arena Homme + pays tribute to Malcolm McLaren’s collaboration with Alan Moore

//Introductory spread from the Fashion Beast feature in Arena Homme + 53, Summer/Autumn 2020//

//Above: Fashion Beast story, AH+ 53. Photography Drew Vickers; fashion Tom Guinness//

The new issue of Arena Homme + – which is available to read through Exact Editions here for those who can’t obtain physical copies – includes a 28-page extravaganza on Malcolm McLaren’s activities across cinema, fashion and music during the mid-80s.

With an extract from my new biography of McLaren, the feature homes in on Fashion Beast, the unrealised film collaboration with Britain’s dark magus of comic book writing Alan Moore. It also includes my interview with Moore as well as an ingenious fashion story photographed by Drew Vickers and styled by Tom Guinness.

Continue reading Fashion Beast: Arena Homme + pays tribute to Malcolm McLaren’s collaboration with Alan Moore

Fashion: An Anthology – the brilliance of Cecil Beaton x Vern Lambert at the V&A in 1971

//Cover, Fashion: An Anthology catalogue, V&A, 1971//
//Frontispiece: a Beaton photograph of a model wearing a 1961 Balenciaga dress//
//Vern Lambert in Milan in the 80s. Photo: Alfa Castaldi//

My recent Rocketman post gave me cause to dig out my copy of the catalogue produced for the groundbreaking exhibition Fashion: An Anthology, staged by London’s V&A from October 1971 to January 1972.

Continue reading Fashion: An Anthology – the brilliance of Cecil Beaton x Vern Lambert at the V&A in 1971

Rocketman: Mr Freedom, Tommy Roberts and Jim O’Connor’s winged boots


//Above Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin meet “Tommy Roberts” in Rocketman. Stills from Kii Arens promo video for Egerton and John’s new single (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again//

//The pair of Mr Freedom winged boots acquired by Cecil Beaton for the V&A 1971 exhibition: Fashion: An Anthology//

During the production of Elton John biopic Rocketman there were plans for a scene set in London’s groundbreaking pop-art boutique Mr Freedom in the early 70s.

This was to set up the central character’s visual transformation during visits to the store under the influence of its charismatic founder and frontman, the late, lamented Tommy Roberts.

Continue reading Rocketman: Mr Freedom, Tommy Roberts and Jim O’Connor’s winged boots

Recent journalism: Baggies with attitude for MacGuffin + the colour black in street style for Fred Perry Quarterly

//MacGuffin No 7, spring 2019//
//Fred Perry Quarterly Issue 2, Spring 2019//

Here’s a couple of pieces of recently published journalism, one filed for the Netherlands-based biannual MacGuffin, the other for the second issue of Fred Perry Quarterly.

Continue reading Recent journalism: Baggies with attitude for MacGuffin + the colour black in street style for Fred Perry Quarterly