Ok we nicked the headline from Madame, but this is definitely the best t-shirt of the summer so far. It also happens to be the very first one from M.Goldstein.
They’re available from the shop at 67 Hackney Road from Saturday (June 27), but at the moment in one size only, so hurry, hurry, hurry.
Other sizes are coming on stream soon as well as fresh designs featuring more heroes and heroines.
Visit M. Goldstein’s online home here.
Three people appeared in court yesterday accused of selling fake clothing from the 70s punk boutiques Sex and Seditionaries designed by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood as well as forged screen prints purporting to be by the contemporary artist Banksy.
Grant Howard, 43, of Birdhurst Rise, south Croydon, and Lee Parker, 44, of Caroline Way, Eastbourne, east Sussex, were charged at City of London Magistrates’ Court with conspiracy to defraud.
It is alleged they made and sold counterfeit McLaren/Westwood clothing and Banksy artwork, and are also accused of possessing articles for use in fraud.Vesna Grande-Howard, 32, also of Birdhurst Rise, south Croydon, is accused of money laundering.
Howard was remanded in custody and Parker and Grandes-Howard were remanded on bail. The three will appear at Southwark Crown Court on August 18.
•••THE LOOK will not be publishing comments on this case until its completion.•••
Check out THE LOOK’s contribution to the new Mojo special, The Story of Britpop.
Published to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the release of Definitely Maybe, Parklife et al, THE LOOK provides insights into the roots of Britpop style, how Burro provided key designs for the movement’s guiding force Paul Weller and it’s greatest act, Pulp, as well as the importance of wearing the shirt outside the trouser at all times.
Last week Urban Outfitters Oxford Street hosted the UK launch party for Keanan Duffty’s new book Rebel Rebel Anti Style.
The 200-plus crowd made for a suitably eclectic and interesting bunch, including, of course, Keanan and his designer wife Nancy Garcia, the Rococo boys, Soo Catwoman, Mark Eley & Waks Kishimoto, Glen Matlock, Paul Stokes, Faris Rotter, Jen Ross, BP Fallon (who wrote the foreword), Natalie Gibson and Jon Wealleans.
Rebel Rebel is available now in the UK from Urban Outfitters and other great booksellers and is published in the US in September by Universe.
The row over authenticity and the pioneering punk fashions of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood just took a turn for the weird.
THE LOOK can exclusively reveal a series of designs bearing striking similarities to key McLaren and Westwood creations which have been trademarked without their knowledge by a company unconnected with either of them.
//Left: Westwood orb 1987. Right: Red Planet orb 2008//
And, in a bizarre move, the same company recently attempted to copyright a design entitled “Destroy Jesus”; this consists of key elements of the notorious “Destroy” shirt as worn by the Sex Pistols and sold through McLaren and Westwood’s shop at 430 King’s Road in it’s 1976-79 incarnation as Seditionaries.
//Left: variations on Seditionaries design 1977. Right: “Destroy Jesus” application 2009//
The business behind this activity is Red Planet, most recently trading on eBay as Saint Art Junkie but previously known by a variety of names, including Too Fast To Live To (sic) Fast To Die Clothing Company.
Last week THE LOOK bought from Red Planet a t-shirt for £12 bearing a skull & crossbones logo and the phrase Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die. It came complete with a “free gift” tag carrying the same ident.
//Left: Vivienne Westwood t-shirt 2003. Right: Red Planet t-shirt purchased last week//
Operated by Tony Knight from an address in Droylsden, Manchester, the company has posted an announcement on eBay confirming that this trademark - number 1449591517 – along with others is registered with the Intellectual Property Office, the government body which controls intellectual copyrights. The cost of registering an apparel trademark with the IPO is less than £500.
The design is near-identical to the logo and name used by McLaren and Westwood for 430 King’s Road between 1972 and 1974. This has subsequently been revived and referenced by Westwood many times on t-shirts, knits and badges; THE LOOK has an authentic tee bearing the phrase and logo bought from Westwood as recently as 2003.
//Westwood MAN label 2000. Right: Red Planet Jeans trademark 2008//
The other trademarks registered with the IPO by Red Planet include two encircled orb and cross logos as well as the name “Worlds End apparel clothing”. Of course, World’s End is the name given to 430 King’s Road in 1980 (under which it continues to trade to this day). It is from here that Westwood carved out her reputation as an internationally recognized designer; the Gothic serif font used by Red Planet is close to the lettering she continues to use for her own-label designs.
//Too Fast To Live 1972. Pic: David Parkinson. Right: Red Planet tag, 2009//
An image indelibly associated with Westwood’s business is the encircled orb and cross, of which there have been a number of permutations since she introduced it with her “Harris Tweed” show of March 1987. It should be noted that the Harris Tweed Authority had the royal orb as it’s own trademark since 1911; it overlooked Westwood’s adoption since this was seen as introducing the mark to fresh generations of consumers.
While it states that it is not associated with the Westwood business, Red Planet’s eBay entries have stressed the designer’s name as being Vivienne or Vivian Peters. Together with the company title and other references, this creates the keywords: “Vivienne”, “Westwood” and “red”, thus attracting buyers searching the online auction site for bona fide items such as her Red Label collections.
//Red Planet Worlds End logo 2008. Right: Vivienne Westwood red label 2001//
THE LOOK was alerted to Red Planet’s trademark registrations by disgruntled individuals claiming they have been barred by eBay from marketing repro McLaren and Westwood clothing at Red Planet’s insistence.
“I had a Destroy shirt for sale and it was withdrawn,” says an individual who requested anonymity. “eBay said it breached Red Planet’s trademark ownership. I thought that Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood designed these punk symbols of art?”
//eBay announcement posted recently//
In line with their non-conformist approach to the fashion business, neither McLaren nor Westwood has ever asserted their ownership of intellectual copyrights on the sale of reproductions of their 70s output of at least 30 t-shirt designs, bondage trousers, so-called Anarchy, Parachute, Peter Pan and muslin shirts and rafts of jackets and shoes.
The international trade in reproduction Sex and Seditionaries clothes is now a multi-million dollar business supplied by such specialists as Dangerously Close in the UK, Posers Of Hollywood in the US, 666 in Japan and King Mob, which is understood to have a manufacturing base in Thailand and also trades on eBay.
Last year McLaren launched a campaign against reproduction clothes being marketed as originals, targeting in particular dealer/collector Simon Easton, who had sold a large number of disputed items to artist Damien Hirst for £70,000. Easton protested his innocence and outlined his case to THE LOOK here.
A spokesperson for Vivienne Westwood confirmed to THE LOOK that the company is looking into Red Planet’s IPO registrations, while McLaren admitted that he is flabbergasted by Red Planet’s actions. “This is extraordinary,” he adds. “The plot thickens.”
Our inquiries have revealed that Red Planet’s attempt to register “Destroy Jesus” with the IPO has in fact failed, not because it infringes McLaren and Westwood’s copyright, but due to a moral objection being raised by an unnamed individual.
Now the IPO has confirmed to THE LOOK that it is likely that “further proceedings” will be initiated into two more Red Planet trademarks to establish if they were registered in bad faith.
When contacted by THE LOOK, Red Planet declined to respond to our inquiries.
We are very happy to announce that we have found Ossie Clark’s python jacket a new home.
//Left Ossie Clark 1970. Pic: Hulton Getty. Right: The jacket. Pic: THE LOOK 2009//
Our recent story about this incredibly significant garment provoked a flurry of interest around the world and the person who has owned it for more than three decades has now passed it on to a private collector. We are sure they will be very happy together.
Nice to report that Priceless S/S 09 - the latest collaboration between The Look Presents and rock couturier Antony Price - has been going great guns online and in-store in London and New York this week.
With it’s own dedicated sections and front-of-house displays - all rock star pointy boots and desert video-shoot landscapes - Priceless has been attracting the full range of customers, including those seeking to escape the done-done-done skinny silhouette into the fuller shapes of Antony’s sunwashed double-breasted suits with pleated trousers.
Meanwhile the artful tees (with signature cap sleeves) have been pounced upon, as have the stylish flowery ties.
Online sales are really kicking through - visit here to check out the range or if you’re in the environs, pop into Topman Oxford Circus and the new store on Broadway at Broome.
This photo of the amazing “egg shoes” created by Johnny Moke in 1998 has been contributed by the late designer’s friends and collaborators Adeline Andre and Istvan Dohar.
View their touching tribute to Johnny among the comments posted in the wake of THE LOOK’s obituary.
THE LOOK is featured in the LA Times’ spotlight on South Paradiso Leather new store on Sunset.
//South Paradiso exterior +Romulus von Stezelberger. Photos: Ricardo DeAratanha/LA Times//
Read Booth Moore’s article here and our previous coverage of South Paradiso here.
Here’s yet another exciting exclusive from THE LOOK: images of what is claimed to be not only a snakeskin jacket designed by Ossie Clark - the world’s most collectible post-war fashion designer - but worn by him in a famous photograph taken in July 1970.
//Front view (c) THE LOOK 2009//
Interest in original designs by Clark - who died in near-penury at the hands of his psychotic lover in 1996 - has boomed over the last decade, stoked by exhibitions including a V&A retrospective and referencing by Kate Moss in her collections for Topshop (for whom his former partner Celia Birtwell also designs).
Last year witnessed Marc Worth’s relaunch of the Ossie Clark label, with which Birtwell is not associated. Although this has been greeted with a decidedly mixed reception, the appetite for original clothing remains unabated.
And now THE LOOK has been contacted by the owner of a zippered python skin “rocker” jacket who presents a convincing case that it is the very same garment as in the photograph below. This is Birtwell’s favourite photograph of her late partner.
//Ossie Clark 1970. Pic: Hulton Getty//
“I was living in London in the early to mid-70s and given the jacket by a friend who told me it once belonged to Mick Jagger,” says the owner. “Knowing my friend that was feasible. When I looked at the photograph I saw that it is the EXACT same jacket that Ossie is wearing.”
//Label (c) THE LOOK 2009//
The owner - who is contemplating selling it - says the jacket is in excellent condition: “The leather is soft and not cracked, and all the zips work. Only the lining is slightly worn.” It measures 28in from shoulder to hem at the front and 27.5in at the back. The length from shoulder to cuff is 22.5in.
//Back view; front detail (c) THE LOOK 2009//
Artist Peter Schlesinger wears a python jacket made by Clark to the same design on the cover of his photographic memoir of the late 60s and early 70s Checkered Past.
//Schlesinger on the Checkered Past cover in his Ossie python jacket, Los Angeles 1969//
The owner of the jacket in the photographs we are publishing today is adamant: “The one on Peter is the same design, but I’m convinced mine is the one worn by Ossie. I’ve studied it carefully.”
As recounted in Chapter 15 of THE LOOK, Clark introduced his fitted leather rocker jackets in 1966 in stark contrast to the effortlessly feminine attire for which he became best known. That year, Clark recalled in his diaries, he chanced upon rolls of python and watersnake in a “Dickensian”warehouse; the skins had lain untouched for 20 years.
Among the first articles he made from the material was a suit for Linda Keith , who modeled it for Clark in London on April 14, 1967 as part of his presentation of his A/W 67 collection alongside Chrissie Shrimpton, Suki Poitier, (whose ensemble included a snakeskin bodice) and Annie Abroux (wearing a black leather biker jacket with matching cap).
//Linda Keith, Chrissie Shrimpton, Suki Poitier and Annie Abroux, 1967. Pic: Hulton Getty//
Clark created his snakeskin clothes from diagonal strips, and the watersnake was dyed while those made out of python appeared in natural hues of grey/blue and brown. “The biker jackets were in a lot of different colours and materials,” says Celia Birtwell in THE LOOK . “They were absolutely beautiful.”
//Keith Richards in Ossie Clark snakeskin jacket with Charlie Watts, Sticky Fingers, 1971//
Clark’s music connections went every which way, particularly with the Rolling Stones and their circle including Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull.
Brian Jones intermittently lived above Quorum - the Chelsea boutique which launched Clark’s career - and introduced bandmate Keith Richards to the designer’s printed satins and skin-tight jewel-coloured trousers. Richards wears a Clark-designed black snakeskin rocker jacket in the photographic insert with the original vinyl release of Sticky Fingers.
Clark was such a firm friend of the ousted Stone that they spoke on the day that Jones drowned in his swimming pool, July 3, 1969.
Clark was also backstage at the free concert the Stones gave in Hyde Park a few days later, and he collaborated with Mick Jagger on performance clothes, including the diabolic black cape worn by the Stones’ frontman at Altamont in 1969 and the skin-tight studded jumpsuits for the notoriously drug-addled 1972 tour of the US.
Inquiries about the Ossie Clark python jacket featured here should be made in the first instance to THE LOOK.
Priceless Spring/Summer 09 - the latest menswear collaboration between The Look Presents and rock couturier Antony Price - is in-store in New York and London and available online worldwide now.
//Priceless purple and green taffeta suits//
Combining sunwashed pastel shades and soul brother chic, the new range of jackets, trousers, shirts, waistcoats, coats and ties draws on Antony’s work with such era-defining bands as Roxy Music and Duran Duran.
Visit here to view the collection and grab yourself a slice of finely tailored rock & roll style.
Pam Hogg’s re-entry into retail with a pop-up shop in Soho’s Newburgh Street - just a few doors away from the premises she inhabited in the thoroughfare in the late 80s and early 90s - looks like a more enduring prospect than the four weeks it will remain open.
//Outside 9 Newburgh Street on Tuesday night. Pic: Susie Bubble//
There is no doubt that the pop-up shop represents consolidation of the hard work Pam has put in over recent years re-establishing her name as a formidable fashion force (as covered in Chapter 30 of THE LOOK).
//Pippa Brooks with Pam Hogg and Mark Powell. Pic: Caz Facey//
With the crowd including friends wearing catsuits and other glamour-puss Hogg Couture designs, Pam’s ability to draw the widest variety of bods never ceases to amaze.
//Michael Kostiff and Pam inside the store. Pics: Pippa Brooks//
From celebrity offspring Peaches Geldof and Jaime Winstone through Nick Cave and Susie Bick to Pippa Brooks, Princess Julia, Mark Powell, Phil Dirtbox, Susie Bubble, Jefferson Hack and Anouk Lepere, Roisin Murphy, Henry Holland, Dougie Fields, Terry de Havilland, Michael Kostiff, Johnny Blue Eyes and THE LOOK, we were all there to pay homage to the wonder that is Pam.
//Screens with footage of Pam’s original Newburgh Street store//
Her first show in over a decade at the recent London Fashion Week wowed journalists and the industry alike, and with Roisin, Siouxsie Sue and Kylie Minogue sporting her clothes on-stage and in videos, the sky seems to be the limit, even with the attention given to such fans as Thierry Henry’s ex-wife Claire Merry at the Star Trek premiere.
//Trademark rock & roll glamour-puss style. Pic: Susie Bubble//
As well as the catsuits, dresses and tops, the pop up shop is stocking t-shirts, posters badges and signed CDs.
//Hogg homeware includes plates and mugs//
Pam’s pop up shop is open for another three weeks. We urge you to get yourselves along.
The celebration of great fashion boutiques is more often than not a backward-looking exercise, so it’s a joy to report on an exciting venture currently breaking new ground.
//Pippa Brooks outside 67 Hackney Road, east London//
M. Goldstein in Shoreditch continues the strong lineage established by Pippa Brooks in Soho in partnership with Max Karie with the fabulous stores Shop in Brewer Street (which mutated briefly into The World According To…) and Greek Street’s Shop At Maison Bertaux.
//Jones & Brooks//
And now Goldstein’s - run with her partner Nathaniel Lee Jones - combines Brooks utterly contemporary take on fashion retailing with Jones’ experience in the reclamation business to create a unique outlet, part junk-shop, part cutting-edge clothing emporium.
The Goldstein Attire label invests vintage items with design values and incorporates the Bodymap archive courtesy of collaborator Stevie Stewart. And it’s delivered with the panache one would expect from this former frontwoman of Posh and latterly All About Eve Babitz.
“We feel there’s too much ’stuff’ in the world, particularly mass-produced, badly-made clothes,” says Brooks, who is also an in-demand DJ with her popular Thursday night Madame just down Hackney Road at the George And Dragon and as a member of Team Ponystep (currently making waves in Paris once a month).
“We prefer to make something new from old, to put it simply,” she adds. “For example, we acquired some vintage shirting and that inspired the clothing we have made since. Rather than the other way round, it’s about being resourceful with what’s available, quite make-do-and-mend, which has always been a philosophy Nathaniel and I have subscribed to. Our customers are guaranteed to take something utterly unique away with them.”
//As featured in i-D, outside M.Goldstein with sons Duke and Joe. Pic: Marius W. Hansen//
The range includes dresses, cardigans and antique christening gown smocks as well as Bodymap over-knees, frilly knickers, frill-back stockings and so-called “tit jumpers”. Also in the pipeline are patchwork men’s and women’s shirts tailored from vintage shirting and recycled shirt dresses.
//Goldstein Attire recycled shirt dress//
Brooks’ new direction is a manifestation of the new spirit abroad in fashion, one where individuals are taking responsibility in these times of economic crisis and dwindling resources by liberating themselves from the grinding seasonal cycle.
“Goldstein’s is somewhat of a reaction against the fashion treadmill; buying collections six months in advance, being beholden to that prior decision then when the clothes arrive having to shift them until the onset of the next season,” says Brooks.
“I hate trends and being told what to do when! I love clothes, but fashion can be restricting and also relentless. I started buying second-hand clothes when I was 12, jumbling and car-booting and I still wear loved pieces bought when I was a teenager.”
M. Goldstein is at 67 Hackney Road, London E2 9ED.
Johnny Moke, who has died aged 63, was the London fashion luminary who will be remembered not only as a Mod exemplar and a leading member of the retail scene around Kensington Market and the King’s Road from the Sixties to the Noughties but also as the self-taught creator of elegantly crafted shoes who nurtured fresh design talent.
//Johnny Moke in his King’s Road shop, 2000. Pic: Robert Holmes//
Designer Antony Price recalls the footwear Moke supplied for a 1988 catwalk show. “Johnny produced exquisite black satin shoes with an extremely high heel to go with the architectural dresses I had come up with,” says Price.
“The underside was made out of peach-beige leather, which accentuated the pin-thin heel and made the models - including Yasmin LeBon, Talisa Soto and Naomi Campbell - look stunning.”
Born John Joseph Rowley in Walthamstow, east London, on September 2 1945, Moke developed a precocious interest in style. Interviewed for THE LOOK, he recalled that his dressmaker mother encouraged him in his first shoe purchase at the age of 13: a pair of pearlised crocodile Densons with Cuban heels and gold buckles.
In the early 60s Moke was a member of east London’s select group of clothes-mad modernists which also included Mark Feld (later Marc Bolan) and by 1967 was occupying the tiny work-room/basement of Granny Takes A Trip, selling antique clothes, mainly women’s. With partner Mickey Oram, this business lead to the formation of Rowley & Oram in Kensington Market.
It was around this time that ownership of a series of then-trendy Mini-Mokes inspired the new surname. “Mokey had one car in bright yellow with red bumpers,” says Lloyd Johnson. “We’d all leap in it and drive around being very ‘Swinging London’ for a laugh.”
//Exterior 396 King’s Road, London, 2000. Pic: Robert Holmes//
Fashion developed through personal relationships with pop stars: ”I’d design, say, yellow and pink velvet trousers and somebody like Ronnie Wood would see them at The Speakeasy and ask for a pair,” said Moke, who also befriended Jimi Hendrix and made multi-coloured corduroy trousers for the guitarist’s festival appearances.
Moke was the first retailer to stock an outrageous new design from young shoemaker Terry de Havilland - three-tiered patchwork snakeskin platform sandals which proved popular with Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Britt Ekland and Angie and David Bowie.
In the early 70s Moke opened the Hollywood Clothes Shop in Fulham. The designs and the interior paid tribute to the golden age of the movies. Cinema seats were installed, moveable fittings portrayed scenes from classic films and the clothes were placed on mannequins of 40s stars. Marc Bolan bought a sailor suit style pair of 30s pyjamas for a performance of Hot Love on Top Of The Pops.
Moke recalled how the most popular line was a bomber jacket with elasticated waists and cuffs in boldly-coloured Prince Of Wales check; one was so favoured by George Harrison that he wore it well into the 90s. The Hollywood Clothes Shop closed in 1972 and Moke opted out of fashion for a few years, travelling the countryside in a caravan and settling on a farm. In the late 70s he returned to the clothes business with Adhoc, which was established in the basement of Kensington Market with his associate Willie Deasey.
In 1979, as the mod revival went into overdrive as a result of the release of The Who’s film Quadrophenia, Moke’s name was introduced to a fresh generation of sartorialists when he collaborated with Richard Barnes on the book Mods!, to which he provided many original items.
//Interior 396 King’s Road London, 2000. Pic: Robert Holmes//
Adhoc was sold on the dissolution of his partnership with Deasy, and survives to this day with an outlet in the former BOY premises at 153 King’s Road. He launched his own outlet, a shoe shop, in 1984 at 396 King’s Road. The crafted footwear drawing on traditional forms soon attracted a faithful international clientele which included Bryan Ferry and Paul Weller.
In 1999 the Johnny Moke label was the subject of three intriguing ad shorts art-directed by Mike Keane and created by agency Broadbent Cheetham Veazey.
Johnny Moke held out longer than most independent boutiques against the invasion of the King’s Road by multiple retailers, chain-coffee shops and mobile phone outlets.
Expressing his disillusionment that fashion “finished with the 20th century” at the hands of globalisation and mass-marketing, Moke reinvented 396 King’s Road with a new label NOWE (an acronym for New/Old/West/East).
He augmented his shoe designs with ethnic clothing created by independent companies from all over the world. Moroccan slippers and Peruvian neck-chokers proved popular as did rails of vintage items such as Burberry raincoats and new lines by young British designers including Kate Sheridan, Alice Temperley and Alison Willoughby.
“The concept is to do anything I want, working with artisans from India to South America,” he told THE LOOK. “It may be fashionable, but it’s not fashion.” Moke finally closed his outlet in 2002 and in recent years his shoes have been available via international licenses, mainly in Asia.
//Two of Moke’s cards for RCA Secrets 2008//
Last year Moke contributed six pieces to the Royal College Of Art’s annual Secrets postcard art project.
Johnny Moke died of a heart attack in Mallorca on April 28.
The Look Presents’ new Priceless collection from rock couturier Antony Price is spearheading the 80s men’s wear revival.
Available in-store and online from May 14, Priceless S/S 09 is the second range to spring from the partnership between Antony and our label The Look Presents.
Interviewed in the Financial Times, Antony says the 80s influence feels right for now.
“There is a touch of old Hollywood and, with a recession dictating that any money spent is spent well, it ticks a lot of boxes,” Antony explains.
“But there are two sides to the 1980s: a trashy, neon look, which appeals to younger generations, and a more grown-up, opulent look, which requires poise to pull off.”
Combining electric tones and sun-washed shades with Antony’s trademark elegant and sharp tailoring, the range of suits, shirts, ties, waistcoats and t-shirts draws on his close working relationship with such era-defining performers as Roxy Music and Duran Duran, as outlined in Chapter 17 of THE LOOK.
“I wanted to capture the lounge lizard/glam look and convey the feel of a long, hot summer,” says Antony, whose debut collaboration with The Look Presents in A/W 08 proved such a success that the new collection is also being stocked in Topman New York.
Double-breasted jackets, pleated trousers, lightweight cotton suits, short-sleeved shirts and cap-sleeved tops summon 40s Hollywood tough-guys such as Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, while tight sharkskin and taffeta suits in electric green and vivid purple transpose Soul Brother 60s style via Bryan Ferry in the 80s to the present day.
Meanwhile, over at SHOWStudio there is an excellent career resume, including footage from Antony’s extraordinary 80s catwalk shows, a profile and never-before seen sketches, samples and original artwork.
