Drainpipes, flares, double breasted, single breasted, blouson, button down, waisted, polo necked, raglan, mullet, mini, maxi, shoulder pads, see through, high waisted, hipster, low slung, button through, denim, fairisle, corduroy, floral, chino, knitted, kipper, loafers, checked, stripped, kickers, desert boots, baseball.
We like to think that fashion is a way of signaling our individuality but actually we are just joining a tribe to communicate our membership. As you become older you begin to understand that fashion is a recurring theme and all the clothes you threw out 15 years ago are now back in fashion rediscovered by a younger set. The artists Gilbert & George overcame this tricky problem back in the late 60s by establishing a dress code that they have never deviated from...
Above Gilbert & George in the 70s and bottom today
I’ve always had a bit of a love hate thing with fashion and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly everyone falls into line with a new style. And styles come thick and fast these days thanks to the web with its many fashion blogs like The Satorialst…
Above The Sartorialist - from blog to book form
Take for example the current trend of wearing jackets, shirts and jumpers two sizes too small…
I’ve nicknamed it the Norman Wisdom look…
Norman was well ahead of the fashion game back in the 1950s
It got me thinking about all the fashion phases over the past 60 years and I remembered that from around the mid 70s, the D&AD annual used to photograph the juries, often in full length, not just the mug shots they feature these days. So I rummaged through my stack of old annuals and hey presto. Take a look at these fashion statements 30 years on…
Above some of the fashionable D&AD design and advertising fraternity from 1976 to 1979
Yes it can be deeply embarrassing after the event. But it doesn’t stop us from being seduced the moment a new mode of dress hits the scene.
My own default fashion preference is classic Ivy League, first discovered in the 60s. Then I lapsed into the flowered wasted shirt and crushed velvet, hipster flares era. In the late 70s I reverted back to Ivy again only to veer off in the 80s to the baggy, structure-less Armani period with those front pleated roomy trousers topped off with a voluminous shirts. All are now languishing in an Oxfam shop somewhere.
This is me judging the 1984 D&AD entries kitted out head to toe in Ivy League...
all courtesy of J.Simons, then in Covent Garden now relocated in Marylebone. And it is this style that I will probably stay with, as I am not wasting any more money on passing fads (famous last words). Or maybe I have just become boring?
One last note on this fashion thing. In 1988 a very young Fernando Gutiérrez was working as my assistant. Even then he was a snappy dresser. On one particular day he had a very forlorn look. “What’s the matter?” I asked. He pointed to the front of his no longer pristine, white Paul Smith shirt. There was a horrid splat of roitering ink, and permanent at that. So it got my mind thinking about how to overcome this little problem. Eureka! I set a competition for some fashion students at St Martins. Having briefed 20 odd enthusiastic students on stories of the many ink splattered shirts, skirts and jackets, I asked them to reinvent the studio smock. Off they went. Elle magazine heard about it and featured the winning creations from the students. This photograph...
taken by Terry O’Neil, appeared Elle's with the following caption…
I had a job lot of the winning jacket design made and virtually everyone at Carroll, Dempsey & Thirkell wore them…
This shot was taken in 1988 at the company’s then home at Brownlow Mews in London’s Bloomsbury. I am 7th from the left and Fernando Gutiérrez is 2nd from the right all clean and dandy.
Fernando Gutiérrez modeling an early prototype in 1988
At that time I was working on a project that involved the painter and sculptor, Allen Jones. He was so taken by the jacket that I gave him one. There I was thinking that I really had been responsible for the reworking of the old studio smock now to be use by a bonifidi artist in the privacy of his studio. Not a bit of it. 6 months later I ran into Jones at a Tate function. And what was he wearing? You guessed it.
For any of you interested in the Ivy look visit J. Simons here.
Happy Birthday
Ed X
Posted by: Editor | July 25, 2011 at 11:09 PM
Norman Wisdom look - brilliant!
Posted by: Gerry Simons | July 27, 2011 at 10:53 PM
Great job done. Appreciate it.
Posted by: ipad magazines | August 05, 2011 at 07:36 AM
Mike
Phil Sayer and I did the shots on the steps of a Royal Park (highly illegal apparently!), as I was in the process of being arrested by the park police I wispered to Phil 'keep shooting!' and we got the last group done.
Love B Webb
Posted by: Brian Webb | August 18, 2011 at 05:25 PM
Stick to Ivy Mike and you'll never put a foot wrong. God bless Johnny Simons and all who wear the natural shoulder!
Posted by: Johan G | October 15, 2012 at 09:56 AM