Fashion Faces

John Stevens though was a whole different ball game!
A tough gay young mover and shaker he had read the signs
and signals sent by the emerging UK Mod Movement, and
he was quick to act on it! Within two years he had a string
of ultra hip small boutiques (all under different names) in
Carnaby Street in London’s Soho! Which became the island
of ultra cool, for the Mod Generation! Not only the young
Mod Faces and Tickets, but also all the cool new bands
that went on to change the world, from The Beatles to The
Stones, The Who, The Small Faces, The Kinks, indeed
everyone who was hip young beautiful and happening!
The Cool Look of these bands was an integral part of the
music, indeed you could not (and cannot) separate the
LOOK, from the SOUND! Perhaps the coolest dressers
of them all were The Who and The Small Faces, with their
more or less ‘authentic’ Mod Look! However as 65/66 came
around, and the new ultra hip post Mary Quant Chelsea
Boutiques like the mind blowingly ultra cool Hung On You
and Granny Takes a Trip, opened up, and Psychedelia came
in! Twiggy & Marianne Faithful were the iconic dream girls!
The Beatles & The Stones, became the true Zengangsters
of Style!
IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT
TO REMEMBER THAT FASHION
IN THE 60’S AND 70’S
WAS ALL ABOUT LONDON!
Hair had become longer fashion had become totally
androgynous and more flamboyant (very important point!)
and the pungent aroma of ‘exotic cheroots’ was definitely in
the air! The best illustration of ‘the look’ is to look at images
of Brian Jones, founder member of the Stones who went on
to die so tragically young! Brian Jones (and his girlfriend
Anita Pallenberg) perhaps more than anyone personifies the
brilliant ‘Psychedelic Mod Dandy’ Look of the 60s!
This of course was an entirely androgynous look,
and boys and girls would swap and wear each
others clothes at will! Also one has to remember
how skinny all the Brits were then!
Post War UK had reared a generation of hip skinny
beautiful people reared on the austerity and food
rationing of the war! Today’s terminal overweight/
obese culture simply did not exist!
As the sixties gave way to the seventies David
Bowie and more than anyone else Roxy Music,
created the next cultural revolution of style!
And it is very important to remember that in all
these periods I refer to, Fashion Designers and
Pop Stars, functioned as one single integrated
subculture! Most of them came from Art College
Backgrounds, and most knew each other!
The early to mid 70s was principally about three
shops/designers: Biba in Kensington, Alkasura
in Chelsea, and Mr Freedom, also in Chelsea!
There were many other great designers, the
late great genius of Ossie Clarke for example,
however it was Biba, Alkasura and Mr Freedom
that personify the era!
It is also important to remember that Fashion in
the 60s and 70s was all about London! Paris was
considered incredibly dated, as was Italy, and
the USA did not feature at all, indeed American
fledgling hipsters flooded into London to buy
there clothes (and music).
As the 70s wore on a new vibe came in! A harder
edge appeared, driven and created almost
entirely from London based art colleges ‘Punk’
howled its way onto the streets of London (and
around the world). In reality ‘Punk’ was an ‘Art
Movement,’ a ‘Performance Art Installation,’
‘Revolt Into Style’, and it utterly and completely
altered and subverted the whole concept and
idea of fashion!
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JAN 2014 | http://fashionfacesmag.com