//Interior, 430 King's Road, Chelsea, May 1971. Note coconut matting, shack-style dressing room doors, trompe de l'oeil gate painted on stockroom door... and fake tiger. Photography: David Parkinson.//

I first wrote about Electric Colour Company – the design studio formed in the East End by four fine art students in the late 60s – in The Look and then in more detail here.

//Amid the singlets, printed sweatshirts and appliqued denim, a bamboo cage housed birds of paradise, suspended from the matting covered ceiling.//

In my view, ECC deserves much greater recognition for executing some very clever work in the field of retail design and interiors in the period 1969-1973.

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Tags: Andrew Greaves, Blueberry Hill, City Lights Studio, Electric Colour Company, Let It Rock, Paradise Garage, Seditionaries, SEX, Time Out, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Trevor myles, Worlds End

//Sex assistant Jordan, Gallery International, Vol 1, no 4.//

It’s unlikely that cities will shake or nations start to rock under the impact of Malcolm McLaren’s sexual revolution. A few people might die though.

Malcolm McLaren, at 30, is a mixture of entrepreneurial cultist, sexual evangelist, businessman, artist, fetishist and political philosopher; a psychotic visionary in the ephemeral subculture of the fashion world.

David May, Gallery International Vol 1 no 4.

In November 1975 – by which time his charges the Sex Pistols had just embarked on live performances – Malcolm McLaren was interviewed by journalist David May at 430 King’s Road, then in full bloom as radical retail venture SEX.

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Tags: Alan Jones, Bob Guccione, Cambridge Rapist, Chelsea Arts Club, David May, Forum, Gallery International, Hendon, Jeremy Thorpe, Jo Buckley, Jordan, Len Richmond, Let It Rock, Michael Collins, Michael Roberts, MIddlesex Polytechnic, Naked Cowboys, New English Library, Ravensbourne College, SEX, Sex Pistols, Simon Barker, The Economist, The Sunday Times, Time Out, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die

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

These are exterior shots of the incarnations of 430 King’s Road since the early 60s.

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Tags: Bill Fuller, Carol derry, Hung On You, Jane Ormsby-Gore, Let It Rock, Malcolm McLaren, Michael Rainey, Mr Freedom, Paradise Garage, Peter York, Seditionaries, SEX, The 430 Boutique, Tommy Roberts, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Trevor myles, Vivienne Westwood, Worlds End