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.

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

//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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Tags: Angie Bowie, Black Tie White Noise, Boy George, British Vogue, Daniella Parmar, David Live, Dylan Jones, FReddie Burretti, GQ UK, Hedi Slimane, Jeff Pine, Kansai Yamamoto, Kate Moss, Nick Knight, Ola Hudson, Saint Laurent, Showstudio, Station To Station, Thin White Duke, Tim Blanks, Victoria Broackes, Young Americans, Ziggy Stardust

“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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Tags: Aladdin Sane, Boston 151, British Vogue, Chris Snow, Diana Crawshaw, Joe Strummer, John Paul, Kansai Yamamoto, Kate Moss, Michael Chow, Mr Freedom, Nick Knight, Oooh Fashion!, Paradise Garage, Sex Pistols, Showstudio, Terence Donovan, The Great Gear Trading Company, The Strand, Tom Salter, Tommy Roberts, Trevor myles, Ziggy Stardust

//David Bowie recording the Diamond Dogs LP at Olympic Studios, Barnes, south-west London, January 1974 during his residency in Chelsea’s Oakley Street. Photo © Kate Simon//

//Malcolm McLaren and Gerry Goldstein in front of the Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die facade, 430 King’s Road, London, summer 1973. © Malcolm McLaren Estate//

//Malcolm McLaren in Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die designs, Chelsea, London, from New Musical Express, April 6, 1974 . Photo: © Pennie Smith//

It is a little known fact that David Bowie was an occasional visitor to 430 King’s Road when it was operating as Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die.

This manifestation of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s revolutionary boutique  – which paid design tribute to the fetishistic studded leather attire of Britain’s early 60s Ton Up Boys and rockers and sold the cult clothing associated with 40s mobsters and Latino zoot suit rioters – succeeded the 50s outlet Let It Rock in the early spring of 1973, as noted at the time by the fashion writer Catherine Tennant in British Vogue.

//From British Vogue, April 1, 1973//

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Tags: British Vogue, Catherine Tennant, David Bowie, David Parkinson, Diamond Dogs, Glen Matlock, Kate Simon, Let It Rock, Nick Kent, NME, Oakley Street, Pennie Smith., SEX, Sex Pistols, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die

//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.

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Tags: A Maverick Eye, Abbro & Varriano, Art/Books, Berwick Street, British Vogue, Bruce Bernard, Cambridge Circus, Dean Street, Jeffrey Bernard, John Deakin, JP Donleavy, Photographers Gallery, Robin Muir, Tony Abbro, Under The Influence