The recent FT piece about the value of Disney to high-end brands (Fashion Takes The Mickey) caught up with those which have engineered hook-ups with the House Of The Mouse in recent years: Dolce & Gabanna, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Iceberg, Neil Barrett, Manish Arora, Hayden-Harnett, Capellini, Cory Grosser, Chopard, Tommy Hilfiger…
A Disney apparatchik is quoted: “We would never work with a designer that was too edgy or irreverent.”
Once upon a time they weren’t so purse-lipped.
Tommy Roberts reminisces about the look of 1967:
By 1967 Haight Ashbury hippie culture had taken off in London.
At Kleptomania – my boutique around the corner from Carnaby Street at 10 Kingly Street – it was embraced with gusto.
Out went red guardsman’s tunics, Union Jack kipper ties, Victorian-style lacy mini dresses, soul music and anything to do with “Swinging London”.
In came trumpet-sleeved kaftans, Gypsy fringed shawls, psychedelic posters, joss sticks, peace ‘n’ love badges, Frank Zappa and Jefferson Airplane.
Mr Freedom was as much an event as a boutique, described by the London Evening News in 1970 as a “spectacle like no other show on earth, taking place down the King’s Road non-stop, six days a week”.
Here Tommy Roberts reflects on some of the extraordinary in-store displays commissioned from young artists and designers.
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.