Inside the mind of a fashion pioneer: Freddie Hornik and his pop culture treasure trove scrapbook in new issue of GQ Style
//”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//
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.
Hornik was a trained tailor who had worked at London rock hangout The Speakeasy before managing Dandie Fashions in Chelsea. When he acquired the boutique Granny Takes A Trip from founders Sheila Cohen and Nigel Waymouth in 1969, Hornik engineered the installation of Americans Marty Breslau and Gene Krell at 488 King’s Road and forged ahead with partner branches in New York and Los Angeles which attracted the international glitterati.
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Elton John with a purchase from Granny’s on Sunset, LA. Photo: Roger Klein. No reproduction without permission//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Snapshot of Granny’s, Sunset, LA. Photo: Roger Klein. No reproduction without permission//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Roger Klein with a customer in Granny’s on Doheny, Beverly Hills, LA, Photo: Roger Klein. No reproduction without permission//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Miles Davis in patchwork boots in John LiDonni and Richie Onigbene’s New York Granny’s outlet, 1970//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Cover shot of Rod Stewart in Granny’s suit, Rolling Stone, June 21, 1973//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Customer in Granny’s on Doheny. Photo: Roger Klein. No reproduction without permission//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Interview with Hornik in the Telegraph Magazine’s 1969 feature//
//From Hornik’s scrapbook: Granny’s King’s Road outlet looking down-at-heel in 1970 not long before the front half of the Dodge ’47 was removed by council order. No reproduction without permission//
A lot of detail and background info for the piece came from talent agent Roger Klein, who managed the LA outlets as a young man and has become Hornik’s champion since his death in February 2009.
//From my notebook on the day I met Hornik and Klein at Groucho, December 2008. On the right are Hornik’s signature and the version Klein was encouraged to work on in the event that creditors came knocking at the Granny’s LA outlets//
Klein also took many of the photographs in the scrapbook Hornik maintained for 40-odd years. Thanks are also due to Hornik’s cousin Alex Jarrett, who entrusted the scrapbook to my care a couple of years back.
Buy GQ Style S/S 16 here.