/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

//1960 Weidenfeld & Nicolson edition. Jacket design: Eric Ayers//

“This choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life.”
Vladimir Nabokov, from the introduction to the 1963 edition of Bend Sinister

Donald Trump’s nightmarish occupancy of the US presidency has occasioned quite a few literary comparisons, causing sales spikes for such dystopian works as George Orwell’s 1984 and prompting arguments about whether other books more accurately envisioned what passes for our current version of reality: see Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

An admittedly cursory check around hasn’t turned up anyone else who, like me, makes the connection to Vladimir Nabokov’s 1947 novel Bend Sinister, about a bereaved world-renowned philosopher living in a totalitarian state run by the repulsive schoolmate he had once bullied and nicknamed “The Toad”. This tyrant, Paduk, rules via his Party Of The Average Man.

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Tags: 1984, Aldous Huxley, Bend Sinister, Brave New World, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Vladimir Nabokov

//British street style legend Paul Beecham in Battersea, south London, 1974//

//Jasper Havoc (Peter McMahon, 1953-1979), a member of the Sydney performance troupe Sylvia and the Synthetics, in Ladbroke Grove, west London, in 1977 and on the front of England’s book//

Jane England’s Turn And Face The Strange is a valuable addition to the documentation of the social and cultural churn occurring at the edges of society in the 1970s.

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Tags: Adrian Dannatt, Berlin, Bertie Marshall, Brian Britton, Dominie Mauconduit, Jane England, Jasper Havoc, Paul Beecham, Sylvia and the Synthetics, The Sunday Times Magazine, urn And Face The Strange

//Outside Paradise Garage, 430 King’s Road, GW Hales, 1971//

As punk expert/collector and design academic Paul Burgess notes, references to 430 King’s Road turn up in the most surprising places.

So thanks to him for notifying me about this photograph of the coolest address in pop culture – and in particular the tiger stripe-flocked Ford Mustang which adorned the street outside during the Paradise Garage phase – in a 1976 light educational book for young children.

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Tags: Electric Colour Company, GW Hales, Henry Pluckrose, Lisa Petersen, Odhams, Paul Burgess, Trevor myles

//The Stiff Records clock. Concept: Jake Riviera, design: Barney Bubbles, lettering: Caramel Crunch, 1977. No reproduction without permission//

Stiff Records was on fire in 1977.

The British independent record label, with owners Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson snapping up acts and art director Barney Bubbles applying his unsurpassable skills to the visualising of their music, came straight out of the traps 40 years ago this month with the release of the first ‘punk’ LP Damned Damned Damned by – who else? – The Damned.

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Tags: Caramel Crunch, Dave Robinson, Demon Records, Elvis Costello, F-Beat, Ian Dury, Jake Riviera, Larry Wallis, Max Wall, Mick Farren, Nick Lowe, Stiff Records, The Adverts, Wreckless Eric

//Detail: Etching in steel toe-cap for the 80s collection. This image © Paul Gorman Archive. No reproduction without permission//

On the collapse of their design partnership in October 1983 after showcasing of the collection Worlds End 1984 in Paris and London, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood went their separate ways.

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Tags: Amanda Grieve, Andrea Linz, Blonde Ambition, Dinkie Heel, Fans, Hypnos, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Madam Butterfly, Madonna, Mr Freedom, Paradise Garage, Robert Erdman, Simon Withers, Susie Bick, Trevor myles, Vivienne Westwood, Witches, Worlds End 1984

I am fortunate enough to be able to state that the first live music concert I attended was the midnight double bill of Frank Sinatra and The Count Basie Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall in May 1970.

//The headliners at the RFH, May 1970. Photo: Getty//

//At The RFH, May 1970. Photo: Getty//

I was 10 years old. My resourceful mother wangled tickets for the entire family, with one of my sisters selling programmes. That gained her access to the artists’ area; she gave me the backstage pass which I duly placed in the school project autobiography I wrote the following year.

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Tags: Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, I Got You Under My Skin, Live At The Sands, Royal Festival Hall, Sinatra At The Sands

Sweet relief from travails personal and political was provided last night by visits to openings of two contrasting yet similarly satisfying creative endeavours in our great capital.

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Tags: Bermondsey, Daniel Kelly, DKUK, Fashion & Textile Museum, Josef Frank, Make It Real, Peckham, Sam Jacob Studio, Svenskt Tenn, William Morris

//From the series Skelmersdale, 1984. Photograph by Stephen McCoy//

//Derrin Crawford & Demi-Leigh Cruickshank, The Liver Birds, LOVE, 2012. Photograph by Alice Hawkins//

//Raf Simons menswear Autumn Winter 2003, Paris Menswear Fashion Week. Copyright Catwalking.com//

Here is a selection of amazing images featured in new exhibition North: Identity, Photography, Fashion, which is open to the public from today at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery.

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Tags: Adam Murray, Alasdair McLellan, Alice Hawkwins, Brett Dee, Demi-Leigh Cruickshank, Derrin Crawford, Doncaster, i-D, Liverpool, Lou Stoppard, Love, Manchester, Open Eye Gallery, Raf Simons, Skelmersdale, Stephen McCoy

//Mannequin, New Power Studio, Autumn/Winter 2010 – Spring/Summer 2012. Wall: Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield, 1995-2001, Jason Evans//

//Set design, Tony Hornecker, 2016. Film: Stylist Simon Foxton discusses growing up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, produced in collaboration with SHOWstudio, 2016//

I am very grateful to curators Adam Murray and Lou Stoppard for these exclusive installation shots from their exciting exhibition North: Identity, Photography, Fashion, which opens in a couple of hours at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery.

Exploring the influence of England’s northern cities and landscape on fashion and visual culture, the show presents the work of such vital image-makers as Alasdair McLellan – who has created his first film installation for public display at North – as well as Jamie Hawkesworth, Glen Luchford and Nick Knight.

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Tags: Adam Murray, Ben Kelly, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Christopher Shannon, Glen Luchford, Haçienda, Humphrey Jennings, Humphrey Spender, Jamie Hawkesworth, Jason Evans, Jeremy Deller, John Skelton, Kate Phelan, Lou Stoppard, Mark Leckey, New Power Studio, Nick Knight, Open Eye Gallery, Raf Simons, Showstudio, Simon Foxton, Tim Walker, Virgil Abloh