Paul Gorman is…

Angie Bowie, Freddie Burretti, City Lights Studio, Ola Hudson, Kansai Yamamoto: My essay on the important factors in David Bowie’s style changes 1972-76 now live on SHOWStudio

Mar 25th, 2016

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My essay on David Bowie’s style changes 1972-76 is now on Oooh Fashion!, SHOWStudio’s current celebration of the late performer which also includes rare footage of Nick Knight’s photo-shoots for the 1993 album Black Tie White Noise and the 2003 British Vogue session of Kate Moss in Bowie stagewear.

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//Still from film of Nick Knight’s December 2002 London Black Tie White Noise shoot on SHOWStudio’s David Bowie: Oooh Fashion!//

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//Kate Moss in the Life On Mars Freddie Burretti suit from the film of the 2003 British Vogue shoot, also on David Bowie: Oooh Fashion!//

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Inside the mind of a fashion pioneer: Freddie Hornik and his pop culture treasure trove scrapbook in new issue of GQ Style

Mar 24th, 2016
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//”Old clothes are a short cut to style”, Freddie Hornik quoted by Drusila Beyfus and photographed by John Patrick for Finding Your Style: Male, published in The Daily Telegraph Magazine, June 13, 1969//

Book cover copy

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The new issue of British GQ Style features an essay by me about the late Freddie Hornik, the man responsible for exporting Britain’s dandy peacock look around the world in the 70s.

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Fabulousness: Rarely-seen footage of Kansai Yamamoto’s game-changing 1971 King’s Road catwalk show

Mar 19th, 2016

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“It was a spectacular coup de théâtre – Kansai’s models came on moving. They leapt, ran, whirled like dervishes, danced, flung out their arms so that the brilliant colours meshed and merged into a kaleidoscopic cartoon of colour. Kansai himself, black-clothed and masked, moved across the stage like a Samurai warrior, tearing off layers and layers of clothes, stripping down the beautiful, pyramidal outer garments, right down to the vests and body paint. Kansai’s clothes épatent les couturiers.”

Harpers & Queen, July 1971

As fuzzy as they are, the two precious video clips at the end of this post convey the game-changing nature of  Kansai Yamamoto’s theatrical introduction of avant-garde Japanese fashion design to these shores at the dawn of the 70s.

They also reveal the extent to which the late David Bowie subsequently drew on Yamamoto’s flamboyance and daring when presenting Ziggy Stardust on stage.

Several of the designs were worn by Bowie in performance during live promotion, in particular of the Aladdin Sane album, and he also adopted the sleight-of-hand layered costume reveals, the emphatic postures of the models and even the flame-red hair colouring as seen on the huge wig worn in the first excerpt below.

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Laurie Cunningham: Back in the Sunday Times with a major biography and a blue plaque on the way

Mar 13th, 2016
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//Kavanagh’s piece on Cunningham in Style today//

I’m really pleased for writer/photography editor Dermot Kavanagh. His tireless championing of the late soulboy footballer Laurie Cunningham is paying off with a major piece in today’s Sunday Times’ Style magazine and news that there is to be a blue plaque marking the sportsman’s North London birthplace.

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Chris Spedding: Unsung hero of Seventies style from Alkasura + Granny Takes A Trip to Let It Rock, Sex + Seditionaries

Mar 13th, 2016
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//In Let It Rock Rock ‘N Roll Lives Chuck Berry T-shirt, 1975. Photo: Ian Dickson/Getty Images//

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//Also 1975 – pink pegs from Sex. Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images//

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//At home in London, 1978. Photo: Fin Costello/Getty Images//

Guitarist Chris Spedding at a Nico show at CBGB, February 1979.

//At a Nico show at CBGB, February 1979. Photo: Ebet Roberts/Getty Images//

Guitarist Chris Spedding is one of the unsung heroes of Seventies style.

I’ve been a fan of his music and look since 1974, when I acquired Jab It In Yore Eye. This was the second album by Sharks, formed by Spedding with other survivors of the early 70s music scene after leaving jazz-rock outfit Nucleus and gigging with Jack Bruce.

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Jah Wobble’s soundtrack for The Conformist: Big Youth, Blake, Buzzcocks, Joni, Miles, Stooges + much, much more

Mar 7th, 2016

by Thomas Phillips, oil on canvas, 1807243376_469804379707907_1177265336_o-1
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//Clockwise from top left: William Blake; Jah Wobble; King Tubby; Miles Davis; The Stooges; Jimi Hendrix Experience//

An essential element of the current group exhibition The Conformist is the companion soundtrack selected by Jah Wobble.

This blends Wobble’s take on William Blake’s Tyger, Tyger (from the great 1996 album The Inspiration Of William Blake) with tracks to be expected from one of the world’s greatest dub, jazz and soul fiends – including King Tubby & Augustus Pablo, Big Youth, Miles Davis and the Isley Brothers – and some surprises, such as Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi.
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Available now: Limited edition prints of two breathtaking David Parkinson works

Mar 4th, 2016

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David Parkinson
The Continental Bentley, Club International, Volume 3, No 5, 1974
Photo satin print poster
Ed. 20 + 5 AP
Printed 2016
£90 VAT INCLUSIVE

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David Parkinson
Untitled
Entry for final year project, photography course, Regent Street Polytechnic, 1970
Photo satin print poster
Ed. 20 + 5 AP
Printed 2016
£90 VAT INCLUSIVE

“David Parkinson’s sensuous, gritty photographs challenge the viewer to conflate sex with advertising”
Maisie Skidmore, Another Magazine

Two breathtaking works by the late fashion photographer David Parkinson are being made available in a special limited edition to coincide with The Conformist, the exhibition currently staged at Mayfair’s Belmacz Gallery.

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‘Truly unusual…mighty and utterly unabashed’: Rave reviews for The Conformist + an interview about the Punk London map for Huck magazine

Mar 3rd, 2016

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The Conformist – artist Paul Kindersley’s group show about British non-conformity at Mayfair’s jewellry/art space Belmacz to which I contributed – is garnering rave reviews.

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Ted Polhemus: More street style delights posted on his digital archive

Mar 2nd, 2016
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//The extraordinary Leigh Bowery, London, early 90s. Photo: Ted Polhemus//

Anthropologist Ted Polhemus has uploaded a wealth of new images from his extensive and valuable street style archive onto his website.

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She’s A Punk Rocker UK : An antidote to male musings on 1976 and all that

Mar 2nd, 2016

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You would literally paint the news on your t-shirt that day and became part of the news, part of the progress with your artwork and your music…the women in punk were doing that; their style was a demonstration of their visual art, about what they were, where they were at and what they believed in.

Caroline Coon, She’s A Punk Rocker UK

She’s A Punk Rocker UK – Zillah Minx’s 2010 celebration of British female non-conformity – is a fantastic antidote to the current male musings on 1976 and all that.

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