A viewing of Jes Benstock’s fab doc A British Guide To Showing Off occasions this opportunity to dig out the London Belles feature from a 1973 issue of shortlived free magazine West One.

Above is milliner Diane Logan in one of her outfits as contestant Rita Ritz in the 1973 Alternative Miss World.

Logan – wife of sculptor Peter, mother of fashion illustrator Blue and sister-in-law of AMW host & hostess Andrew – is wearing a satin bathing suit with one of her own hats (from Logan’s Chiltern Street shop) and sandals from Tommy Roberts’ Covent Garden boutique City Lights Studio.

Another London Belle was Vivienne Westwood in an early media appearance wearing a Let It Rock striped suit, ankle boots, patterned stockings and an adapted Chuck Berry t-shirt from 430 King’s Road’s incarnation as Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die.

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Tags: Alternative Miss World, Andrew Logan, Biba, Blue Logan, Chuck Berry, City Lights Studio, Diane Logan, Frederick Freed, Fulham Road, Jean Howell, Jes Benstock, Laurita, Let It Rock, Louise Doktor, Mary, Models 1, No One To Love Me, Peter Logan, Sha-Weez, Shelley Martin, Society for Cutting Up Men, Suzi Quatro, The British Guide To Showing Off, Tommy Roberts, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Valerie Solanas, Vivienne Westwood, West 1, Zandra Rhodes

Can’t beat a bit of Chuck for a frolic.

Watch him move.

I saw him live a year or so later at The Rainbow. He played a 35-minute set and brought on his daughter for the lovey-dovey finale. It may have been South Of The Border.

When the Teds realised he had vamoosed rather than play an encore they tore up the place.

Twenty-odd years later I was in the green room for an edition of The David Letterman Show which featured him and was shot in London. What struck me was Berry’s bearing and the agile grace with which he moved among the throng of well-wishers and fans.

That and the fact he was wearing the same pair of yellow Lionels I’d seen on him at the Rainbow…

Tags: Chuck Berry, Let It Rock, The David L:etterman Show, The Finsbury Park Rainbow