//Front cover, Elemental, The Earth, Rare Vinyl, 2016. Design: Ian Harris//
Ian Harris is one of those London characters who turns up at various stages in the capital’s post-war pop culture narrative.
Indefatigable Ian Harris + The Earth: Pop culture maverick’s 60s rock roots come to light
Jan 10th, 2016
New map in the New Year – Punk London: In The City 1975-78
Nov 26th, 2015
//Front cover, Punk London: In The City 1975-78, Herb Lester Associates/Paul Gorman, 2016. Design: Mike Haddad//
I am collaborating with Herb Lester Associates on a new map – Punk London: In The City 1975-78 will be published in the New Year as a celebration of the movement which swept the capital 40 years ago and resonates today as an attitude throughout the world.
I’ve picked Shop for i-D’s list of legendary London stores
Nov 9th, 2015
Asked by i-D’s Stuart Brumfitt to chose a favourite London fashion outlet I plumped for Shop, which was run by Pippa Brooks and Max Karie for a decade from the mid-90s in Soho’s Brewer Street (I mistakenly referred to it being at number 5 – as you can see in the photo below it was at number 4).
//Shop in the early 00s. Photo: Pippa Brooks//
Read my reasons and the rest of London’s Legendary Stores – which includes contributions from Nicola Formichetti, Stephen Jones and Mandi Lennard – here.
‘The second nastiest little man I have ever met’ – John Deakin: Under The Influence + The Lure Of Soho
Mar 31st, 2014
//Deakin drinking, 1960s. John Deakin, courtesy Robin Muir//
//The cover of the new book features this 50s portrait of author JP Donleavy//
“The second nastiest little man I have ever met” – Barbara Hutton
“He was a member of photography’s unhappiest minority whose members, while doubting its status as art, sometimes prove better than anyone else that there is no doubt about it” – Bruce Bernard
The documentary portraiture of British fashion photographer John Deakin from the 1940s to his death in the early 70s is poised for a fresh round of appraisal with next week’s opening of the exhibition Under The Influence at London’s Photographers’ Gallery.
This coincides with the publication of Robin Muir’s companion book of the same title.
//Girl In Cafe, late 1950s. (c) John Deakin, The John Deakin Archive 2013//
//Tony Abbro of Abbro & Varriano, newsagents, 48 Old Compton Street, Soho, 1961. (c) John Deakin, The John Deakin Archive 2013//
Muir is Deakin’s foremost proponent, responsible for 2002’s A Maverick Eye. This collected Deakin’s so-called “street photography” in London and on the Continent compiled during bouts of employment for British Vogue. As the title suggests, the new book focuses on the inhabitants of the stamping ground most associated with Deakin’s lush life: Soho.
On Deakin’s death in May 1972, his friend and subject Bruce Bernard rescued what comprises Deakin’s body of work in this field from a set of tatty cardboard boxes under the bed in his Berwick Street flat.
Susie Bubble on Shop, Posh, Shopgirl + The Look’s first edition
Dec 6th, 2013
//Susie Bubble pays tribute to Shop, The World According To…, Shop At Maison Bertaux, Posh, Shopgirl//
Rifling through her memories of Pippa Brooks and Max Karie’s Soho boutique Shop (which later mutated into The World According To… and then shifted base to Shop At Maison Bertaux), fashion blogger Susie Bubble has nice things to say about me and my work and includes in her selection of images the cover of the first edition of The Look.
This featured Libby Peder’s photograph of Pippa and James Dearlove, her musical collaborator in Posh, All About Eve Babitz and Shopgirl.
It was as Shopgirl that Pippa and James played the launch party, which was held across the road from Shop at the club Astral and featured DJ sets by others in the book, including Jeff Dexter, Count Indigo, Dan Donovan + Don Letts and Jay Strongman.
//2001 invite to the party launching the first edition of The Look//
Read about that eventful night on THE LOOK blog.
Read Susie Bubble’s post Shopped-Out here.
I got to know Pippa through Shop and Posh, who I saw live a few times in the 90s. Sadly I missed this performance at Wembley Stadium on the same bill as Bon Jovi (is it me or is Pippa absolutely bricking it when she leans down to take a slug of water?):
The Peter Small connection: George O’Dowd at Street Theatre, The Regal + The Foundry
Jun 19th, 2013
//George O'Dowd in Street Theatre, 12 Ganton Street, central London, 1978. Photo (c): Boy George Collection//
I’ve been acting as a consultant to artist Lucy Harrison on her latest site specific project Carnaby Echoes, which focuses on the culturally fertile area of central London adjacent to Soho.
With the starting point of the opening of Murray’s Club in Beak Street in 1913, Harrison is mounting her artistic response to 100 years of musical history with archival material and fresh interviews with some of the area’s leading lights.
Photography: Soho Pam by Carla Borel
Jan 23rd, 2013
Regulars on both sides of various Soho bars having been mourning the familiar figure the vast majority of us knew simply as Pam.
This portrait by photographer Carla Borel captures Pam’s charm, sweetness and light. And she’s in her element, outside The French.
Alastair Choat, landlord of The Coach & Horses, is hosting the wake for Pam after the funeral next Wednesday (January 30) from 3pm.
Read the obituary of Soho Pam here; at the time of writing this had been shared online more than 1,000 times within less than 24 hours of posting.
View Borel’s exemplary portfolio here.
The Look Of London: An illustrated guide to the city’s most influential fashion spots 1950-2000
Oct 10th, 2012
Tomorrow (October 11) is the publication date of The Look Of London, my map collaboration with the pre-eminent modern guide-makers Herb Lester Associates.
“This map is a reminder that London, with all its individuality and character, is still very exciting,” writes Paul Smith in the foreword; he opened at 44 Floral Street WC2 in 1979.
John Stephen: Progenitor of a custom-built design movement
Oct 5th, 2012
“One day, ‘Carnaby Street’ could rank with ‘Bauhaus’ as a descriptive phrase for a design style and design legend.”
Ken and Kate Baynes, Design, August 1966.
Today is the seventh anniversary of Westminster Council’s dedication of a plaque in Carnaby Street to the late fashion retailer John Stephen, the 60s media darling dubbed “The £1m Mod” for his entrepreneurial success and flamboyant lifestyle (houses in Cannes and Milan, a white Alsatian named Prince who dined with him at his regular table at Mirabelle).
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