Paul Gorman is…

Promo curio: Diana Crawshaw and the Granny Takes A Trip Dodge in Tim Rose clip

Aug 19th, 2014
dianagranny's

//Still from Long Haired Boy: Diana Crawshaw outside 488 King’s Road, 1969//

Diana Crawshaw – who designed for such boutiques as Mr Freedom and Paradise Garage – has contacted me about an appearance she made in an early pop promo clip: Piers Bedford’s short for the 1968 single Long Haired Boy by American singer-songwriter Tim Rose.

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Electric Colour Company: Blueberry Hill – London’s shortest-lived boutique – and the customised Ford Fairlane 500

Apr 29th, 2014
R, C & D, 1971

//Electric Colour Company’s Roderic Stokes and David Smith with Carol Davey at Blueberry Hill, 91 King’s Road, London, 1970//

Here are a couple of images relating to late 60s/early 70s British design studio Electric Colour Company; I’m writing a magazine feature about their exceptional body of work which ran from signage, custom-built furniture and shop designs (notably Mr Freedom, Paradise Garage and City Lights Studio) to lighting modules, display objects, interior decoration, murals, custom cars and fashion accessories.

In November 1970 the King’s Road boutique Blueberry Hill was launched with a comprehensive fit-out – reported at a substantial-for-those-days £3,000 – by the ECC team of Andrew Greaves, Jeffrey Pine, David Smith and Roderic Stokes.

70

//By the time this coverage appeared in the February 1971 issue of Design magazine, Blueberry Hill had been closed for several weeks//

Despite the extraordinary nature of the shop design – which included cloud-form light fittings in neon strip  and a timber counter with spray-on brickwork finish resembling a well-head – Blueberry Hill closed after just six weeks when the landlords opted to replace it with a more bankable betting shop.

I & D & Fairlane, 1970

//Irene Smith and Dinah Adams with the ECC-customised Ford Fairlane 500, 1970//

Full-Page  ad.  'TIME OUT' 1970

//Advert, Time Out, 1970//

The other photograph shows ECC fellow travellers Dinah Adams – who designed clothes for Mr Freedom, Paradise Garage and Granny Takes A Trip – and Irene Smith with the customised Ford Fairlane which also appeared in the East End company’s advertising.

I’ll give the nod when my piece on Electric Colour Company is nearing publication.

Visit the ECC site here.

Thanks to Andrew Greaves for the photographs.

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When Kilburn + The High Roads played the King’s Road Theatre 1974: Ian Dury in Let It Rock ‘Alan Ladd’ suit + feather tie and Sue and Simon Haynes’ extraordinary Tower Bridge stage set

Apr 12th, 2013

//Keith Lucas and Ian Dury onstage at the Kings Road Theatre, November 1974. Photo: Simon Haynes Collection//

As these rarely seen photographs show, when the subject of my last book the late Tommy Roberts took over management of Kilburn & The High Roads he sought to elevate them from the pub-rock scene by upping the visual ante on every front.

//From left: Lucas, Dury, David Rohoman, Charlie Sinclair and Davey Payne//

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Photography: David Reed’s portrait of Tommy Roberts + John Paul, 1971

Jul 10th, 2012

Thanks to photographer David Reed for this portrait of Tommy Roberts and John  Paul in much satin finery in the office hallway above their Mr Freedom boutique at 20 Kensington Church Street in 1971.

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Mr Freedom + Kleptomania in Vogue and on the BBC as Tommy Roberts takes to the airwaves

Jun 19th, 2012
Mr Freedom loveheart knickerbocker pinafore in sporting archive shots, Vogue June 2012

//Mr Freedom 1971 design in archive selection, Vogue UK, June 2012.//

Ahead of Tommy Roberts’ appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek and London Live 94.9’s Robert Elms Show tomorrow, there has been a flurry of media mentions of the mould-breaking boutiques with which he was involved.

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“Serious tailoring”: Derek Morten

Dec 3rd, 2011
Derek Morton, Paul Smith Japan A/W2011

//Paul Smith Collection, A/W 2011.//

Thanks to Julian Morey for alerting me to these splendid photographs of Paul Smith designer Derek Morten in clothes from the company’s autumn/winter 2011 collection.

Morten has worked with Smith since the mid-70s and is currently head of the label’s menswear division for Japan.

Derek Morton Paul Smith Japan A/W 2011.

//Paul Smith Collection, A/W 2011.//

A thoroughly nice chap, Morten is also self-deprecating and reserved, as I discovered when I interviewed him recently for the Tommy Roberts book (he designed menswear for Roberts’ extraordinary Covent Garden outlet City Lights Studio).

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Photoshoot for the Tommy Roberts book: Mr Freedom winged boots, City Lights Studio suit, Practical Styling carrier bag, Jane Wealleans’ fabric print and much much more

Nov 19th, 2011
Tommy Roberts book photoshoot: Jane Wealleans print fabric

//Swathe with repeat print of American footballers, Jane Wealleans for Mr Freedom, 1970.//

Tommy Roberts book photoshoot: Jane Wealleans American footballer print on swathe of brown crepe.

//Jane Wealleans print on brown crepe.//

Here’s a sneak iPhone peak from yesterday’s photoshoot for my forthcoming book about Tommy Roberts.

Tommy’s son and accomplished photographer/cameraman Keith set up a studio in a room at his furniture emporium Two Columbia Road and shot around 50-plus garments and artefacts to go with the 300-odd images already planned for the book.

I snapped these on my phone in downtime; forgive the quality – hopefully they convey the flavour of the exercise.

Keith photographed a cornucopia of goodies, including two pairs of Mr Freedom’s famous winged boots, a carrier bag for Tommy’s 80s shop Practical Styling, a suit from his 70s boutique City Lights Studio (lent to us by another design hero Lloyd Johnson) and much more besides.

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Club’s crowd-pulling cars (+ a chopper)

Feb 17th, 2011

This feature on five owners of interesting automobiles comes from a time long before the banalities of Top Gear.

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430 over six decades

Jan 25th, 2011