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.
Next up from Stagger Lee (click on the title to listen/download):
Lykke Li – Sadness Is A Blessing (Atlantic)
“I could have picked anything from the Wounded Rhymes album, and it’s not often you can say that anymore. Not sure she’s being marketed right. The angle seems to be some sort of kooky pop moppet when she’s a really singular talent, fiercely protective of her music. May be album of the year…”
“Maybe somehow the desire for knowledge is back, and to be glamorous will be to have a big brain.
That’s why I believe that the stars of the future aren’t designers or musicians, they’re teachers. Because people are searching for answers, they’re searching for content. A college professor is much more glamorous than an actor.”
Malcolm McLaren, 1995.
Thanks to Steven Daly for sending me Holly Brumbach’s interview with Malcolm, Being And Nothingness And Kate Moss, New York Times, May 21, 1995.
You can trust in Stagger Lee Fisher; he’s a man of great musical wealth + taste.
I’ve asked him to select the 10 top tracks currently buzzing around his brain.
First up (click on the title to download):
Penny & The Quarters – You & Me (Numero Group)
“This sweet soul number cropped up on the soundtrack of the movie Blue Valentine (the romance movie equivalent of Cannibal Holocaust), and is from the vaults of Prix Records, a rough rehearsal demo found in a box. Nobody knows who they were, but this is one of the loveliest things I’ve heard in a very long time.”
Continue reading Stagger Lee selects: You & Me by Penny & The Quarters
This Family Dog postcard was a present for Victor Moscoso fan Mrs G a couple of years back.
Continue reading Postcards: Moscoso+ Kagan for The Family Dog
I’m not sure I agree with their characterisation of Philip Sallon’s personality as “bubbly” but who wouldn’t endorse these wishes for a speedy recovery to one of London’s living legends?
Derek Boshier In The ’70s is the self-explanatory title of an exhibition of the great man’s work running from this Saturday (April 9) through to May 7 at San Francisco’s Steven Wolf Fine Art.
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.
Now this really gets me at it of a Friday night.
I first saw this on a night of rare “punk” footage at the King’s Cross Scala hosted by Clinton Heylin in the early 90s; there were a couple of hundred of us huddled there – including such fans as Alan McGee + Bobby Gillespie – for that opportunity.
Everything we saw that night is freely available on Youtube these days.
Continue reading I like a bit of a cavort: Tonight by MC5 1972
Over on GQ Eye, Glenn O’Brien writes about this Bill Burroughs scarf produced by Kate Simon from a sequence of her photographs of the master.
Read O’Brien’s post here.