british boutique movement

Fulham Road Boutiques

1970s, Boston-151, british boutique movement, Carlos Arias, Early Bird, Gundrun Boston, hollywood clothes shop, Illustrations, Jacqui Smale, jean muir, Kaffe Fassett, laura ashley, Lillian Delevoryas, michael chow, missoni, Valerie Goad, Vintage Adverts, Vogue
Early Bird, 20 Park Walk, has long velvet dresses, ruched sleeves, frilly cuffs, or hooded. All washable, 15gns (£15.75).

The only Earlybird pieces I have encountered don’t really warrant such a sexy illustration, but it’s always nice to flesh out a lesser known boutique label when you can! The advert accompanies a feature on boutiques in the Fulham Road, with a lovely lengthy description of both Laura Ashley and Boston-151 amongst others.

You can begin on the outskirts of Brompton Village, just past Habitat, with the best of fashion, then move on for miles—literally—past spaghetti, spaghetti, hamburgers, junk and tortoises, the Chelsea Supporters’ Club and Fulham Broadway, until you arrive at Pollyanna’s excellent children’s clothes, 660; The East & West Superette, at 694, continental groceries; Fulham Surplus Stores, 686, bargains like army surplus arctic fleecy coat linings at £5.

Clothes you really want to own: Laura Ashley, 157, a big barn of remarkably low-priced things—Jacqui Smale’s demure print dresses, fine white tucked camisole petticoats, or nightdresses, shirts, print and plain velveteen and corduroy in colours of cloudy blue, dull purple, faded rose made into baggy knickerbockers, capes, shirts.

Boston-151, 151, is Gundrun Boston’s new beautiful clothes place, “filled with all the things I’d like to buy and never can find”. The functional chic workshop design is by Michael Chow. big lacquered tin central changing room, black mirror, clothes easy to look at and get at, a sewing lady sewing away instead of window dressing. Watch for: incredible hand-sewn clothes by Carlos Arias, his peasant print silk and cotton shirts, panne velvet ones too with tasselled ribbons, Mohammedan bloomers and boleros, soft dishcloth crochet dresses inset with Ibiza embroidery. These have clinging tops and flowing skirts and you tie yourself in (he practically never uses zips). There are Turkish mixed prints of marvellous cut, caftans made from rare Edwardian and Twenties fabrics. Kaffe Fassett’s macrame work, wool and string chokers and belts, old stones, ivory elephants threaded in,
hours of work. Boston & Kaffe’s subtle patterned knits, kimonos, sweaters, skirts; Chloe and Jean Muir. Lillian Delevoryas’ picture patchworked clothes. Linen shepherd smocks and jackets with velvet binding. Crochet cloche hats and ties where almost every stitch changes colour. Sexy seamless sweaters. Missoni knitted things from Milan, T-shirts, skirts and trousers so light you can wear several at once, and Kaffe Fassett evolves their colour schemes so you can imagine how lovely they are. Classic tailored trousers. Brown string butchers’ bags. Linen duffle bags stencilled with Boston-151 and made up in the workshops at Wormwood Scrubs. Valerie Goad, 185-7, has grown. She has 30 designs and more of best dresses, midi and long, shirts that match skirts and knickerbockers. There are Liberty wools, plain and print velvets and voile. Everything can be made to measure for a few guineas more, dresses, for instance, are from 19 gns (£19.95). Rene Aubrey, 122, 370 4745, hairdresser, has just opened a men’s salon next door. Early Bird, 20 Park Walk, has long velvet dresses, ruched sleeves, frilly cuffs, or hooded. All washable, 15 gns (£15.75).

Dean Rogers, 60, is a new man’s shop, with excellent-fitting trousers, velvets, tweed, cashmere, home-spun knitting, good belts and shirts. They open until 10.30 pm. Piero de Monzi, 70, is a double-fronted elegant shop with classic French and Italian clothes for men and women. Shirts from 5 gns (15.25) in delicate prints, exuberant Ken Scott prints, plain voiles, fine jerseys. Daniel Hechter suede and fleece greatcoats. Belts from 4 gns (£4.20), weighty affairs of hide and snake and brass. Suits, jackets, trousers, in bird’s eye tweed, velvet, gabardine, denim. Italian shoes, 16 gns (116.80). Next month an early spring fall of languid V de V clothes, moons, stars, wavy bands and boats knitted in. One partner, Alain Mertens, has opened the DM Gallery next door, 72, with Paolozzi, Hockney, multiple multiples, chic Italian design as in the perfect transistor. Imogens, 274, is ethnic: Palestinian embroidered wedding dresses, Kurtas, burnooses, shawls, belts, Israeli glass, Middle Eastern rugs and trinkets.

Afew months ago Kjeld Jacobsen opened Danish Silver Designs at 84. He’s a goldsmith turned business man, the jewellery shown comes from about 10 workshops in Den-mark and has a nordic coolness—strange pale stones, precise curves and spirals, 80 per cent in silver, a little gold. Special orders are dealt with by Jens Torp who can be seen at work through a window in the back of the showroom; this keeps the customers happy while they wait. Prices from £24100. Opposite the Queen’s Elm pub is that smart new block. There’s Alistair Colvin, 116, decorator and antique dealer, a drawing-room-sized shop, bizarre and interesting pieces. Zarach, 110. They’re the Sander Mirror Company, with elegant modern design grafted on. Downstairs there’s a new mirror showroom, looking glass in fifteen shades, antiqued, smoky, marbled, tortoiseshell, almost any effect -you could wish for, from £3 per square foot. Upstairs, with David Hicks black and white carpet, royal tartan blue walls, are beautifully designed things from Italy like Perspex ice buckets, boxes, clocks, spot lamps; status bibelots, work by Ciancimino, Billy McCarty, Tony Stubbin, Jon Bannen-berg, all Hicks carpets of course. Look out for the Italian gong chair. Rubber stretched on a round chrome frame and comfortable.

Travelling on to the heart of the Fulham Road, Charles Quinlan, 309, does upholstery work, recaning, polishing, loose covers and curtains. Tulleys, 289, have everything and endless windows of second-hand furniture, pale ranks of calico-covered sofas and chairs. Humpherson, 186, are the builders’ merchants who have a three-floor showhouse of bathrooms and kitchens. Solarbo, 230, make pelmets, curtain rails, cupboards, sliding doors, louvred doors (made to measure for no extra cost, and in do-it-yourself kits), a flexible shelf and drawer storage system with clear plastic or white wire baskets. Jonathan Minns, 1a Hollywood Road, a few feet off the Fulham Road, is a fascinating machinery shop, industrial and scientific antiquities, model ships, traction engines, locomotives like Birmingham Piddlers, extraordinary machines for extraordinary work like stitching army tents in Poona. All serious stuff and remarkably pleasing to look at. If Mr Minns isn’t driving traction engines at 6 mph through the countryside, or setting up museums with his new company Industrial Originals, he’ll be in the shop to explain it all. Hollywood [a.k.a The Hollywood Clothes Shop], 10 Hollywood Road, has ravishing thirties and forties clothes. From here down to Stamford Bridge are small nests of antique shops. Among the most interesting: Goldsworthy, 346, for a pair of gilded Siamese umbrellas. Stephen Long, 348, with painted bamboo, doll’s house furniture, tapestry bell pulls, bits of this and that, biscuit tins, patchwork quilts, books on bezique and cribbage, all the charming funny household paraphernalia of the past 150 years. Arthur Brown, 392-400, has everything. Perce Rye, 495, has Invincible Motor Policies.

And go back to Finchs, 190, for a drink, to find the village nucleus of excellent food shops and eating places. Hazel’s, 172, sell the finest fruits and vegetables. There are specialists in kebabs, ice-creams, pizzas, traditional English fare (as in Hungry Horse, 196). If you don’t wish to queue for hours outside The Great American Disaster, 325, for the greatest hamburgers and milkshakes this side of the Atlantic, then try the new Parsons Café Royal & Old Spaghetti Factory, 311: spaghetti, choice of six sauces, garlic, bread and salad for 9s (45p).

Text by Antonia Williams.

Scanned from Vogue, February 1971.

New Suede Shoes

1970s, alkasura, british boutique movement, hans feurer, Inspirational Images, king's road, let it rock, Malcolm McLaren, manolo blahnik, pat cleveland, Screaming Lord Sutch, stirling cooper, sunday times magazine, Valerie Wade, vivienne westwood, zapata
Satin dresses, £8 from Let It Rock, 430 King’s Road, London SW3. Suede shoes with crepe heels, £17.75 (with green dress) and £17.50 (with black dress), both by Zapata, 49 Old Church Street, London SW3. Screaming Lord Sutch dresses by Let It Rock: 12in.-bottomed jean drains, £2.50; Lurex shirt, £3.95; waistcoat, £3.95. Full skirt and off-the-shoulder blouse (right), £8 and £5 from Alkasura, King’s Road, London SW3. Fifties stilettos and wide belt, £2 and £2.40; silver heart locket, £4.10.

If fashion revivals keep accelerating at the current rate, last year’s hot-pants are going to be a cult by the end of the decade. Who would have dreamed that a Fifties teenager’s wardrobe would be back in fashion by his late twenties? In 1958 Teddy Boys were practically extinct now crowds of Teds and Rockers cram the Fishmongers Arms at Wood Green to hear rock groups like Screaming Lord Sutch and the Houseshakers (above). There are now an estimated 20,000 revivalist Teddy Boys in England, and the drainpipe-trouser trade is booming. These pictures show some of the clothes that you’ve only just managed to forget.

A new and influential shop in the King’s Road is run by an original Ted called Malcolm McLaren. Walking into Let It Rock is like walking into a flashback from the Fifties. James Dean and Elvis posters line the walls; period showcases are filled with hair-cream, plastic combs and sweetheart lockets; the juke-box belts out some of the best rock ever recorded, and the clothes on sale would be a credit to Gene Vincent, Presley, Eddie Cochran or anyone else who made the recordings. Boxes of 45s and old fan magazines litter the floor next to genuine valve radios with a three-month guarantee.

Designers like Stirling Cooper and Mr Freedom have been manufacturing Fifties-inspired clothes for some time, but Let It Rock is the only shop selling the real thing. This particular revival is so premature that there is still a large amount of the original stock around; dirndl skirts, stiletto-heeled winkle-pickers, cotton sweaters and plastic jewellery, not to mention 12in. drainpipe trousers and jeans, bootlace ties, luminous socks and blue suede shoes. This is the only place where Teds can buy off-the-peg ‘drapes’ — their mid-thigh Edwardian velvet-trimmed jackets. The phenomenon of Let It Rock is that it is situated in the heart of Chelsea, which Teds regard as ‘enemy territory’; now they’re selling to the newly converted ‘natives’.

The clothes in Let It Rock are inspired by two groups, the Teddy Boys (and girls) and Rockers (and birds). According to McLaren, Teds like the updated rock styles, whereas the Rockers, especially the girls, prefer ‘strong’ ideas like the characteristic shaggy mohair sweater-dresses and winklepicker boots. ‘Chelsea people’ go more for the authentic stuff . . . if you endorse a revival, you might as well get the real thing Fashion can thank the Fifties for some of the most unglamorous and unflattering clothes we ever knew. That is what makes their unmodified rebirth so difficult to understand.

I’m not sure I can say much more about Vivienne Westwood’s body of work which hasn’t already been said. I always think the best quality in a designer is idiosyncrasy, and Westwood had that by the truckload. Her work didn’t stagnate, but it often referenced her own past and continued to translate the wider cultural past into her own language – and yet never tried to be anybody else. Given my magazine collection covers mainly the Sixties and Seventies, I thought it best to celebrate her by doing what I do best, which is trying to go back and show you the starting point for the things we just take for granted decades later. The origins of what she’s best known for are ultimately in the Teddy Boy revival of the early Seventies and her work for ‘Let It Rock’ with Malcolm McLaren, and this captures that early spark – despite the fact that they don’t mention her at all.

I’ve also been meaning to scan this for a while so, now seemed like a good time. I mean, Pat Cleveland and Screaming Lord Sutch photographed by Hans Feurer? What more could you ask for?

Report by Valerie Wade.

Photographed by Hans Feurer.

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, May 14th 1972.

Top left : short fringed dress, £7, from Let It Rock. Bottom left: short mohair dress, £12. Black winklepicker boots, £12. Centre top: V-necked cotton sweater in Fifties fabric, £2; genuine pearlised belt, £2.50; all from Let It Rock. Above: black jean drains, £2.50, and luminous socks, 30p; both from Let It Rock. Off-the-shoulder sweater, £3.95, Stirling Cooper Shop, Peter Robinson, Oxford Street, Vl. Tartan shoes, £16.50, Zapata, 49 Old Clurch Street, SW3. Right: crepe skirt, £6, Let. It Rock. Scarf, 35p, at Woolworth’s

A Peek at the Boutique: Howie

1970s, Boutiques, british boutique movement, harpers and queen, Howie, Howie Diffusion, Mensday, menswear, Mrs Howie, Steve Campbell

‘Casual clothes for men.’ The phrase used to mean T-shirts and jeans. But since Paul Howie opened his shop at 352 Fulham Road, SW10, the phrase has taken on a new meaning: ‘soft, comfy, easy-to-wear looks; clothes that you can just put on and look good in without trying’. That says it all. Nearly all the clothes are exclusive to Howie, but Paul (in the picture) wears a light brown tie-belted raincoat by Deardon & Fay; £68.

Photographed by Steve Campbell.

Scanned from Harpers and Queen, November 1974.

Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It

1970s, british boutique movement, Cars, Great Gear Trading Co, Inspirational Images, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

Superb advert for the MG Midget, photographed in front of The Great Gear Market at 85 Kings Road. Some of the best photos of boutiques have popped up, inadvertently, in adverts. From my archive there is Che Guevara in an Opel advert and Quorum for cigarettes.

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, 7th May 1972.

Cathee Dahmen in Gurney Slade

1970s, Annette Green, british boutique movement, Cathee Dahmen, Chelsea Antiques Market, Gurney Slade, Inspirational Images, kensington market, Vogue

Visiting London friends, and working for Vogue’s June issue, Cathy [sic] Dahmen took a turn around the square wearing delicious soft chamois leather smock shirt and laced shorts, above, £12 and £7, and wraparound dressing-gown coat and trousers, left,. £30, £20. From Gurney Slade, who have a brand new stall in the Kensington Super Store and the Chelsea Market. They make to order, too.

Photographed by Annette Green.

Scanned from Vogue, April 1971.

Beauty from Biba

19 magazine, 1970s, barbara hulanicki, Barbara Hulanicki, beauty, biba, british boutique movement, hair, Hair and make-up, Make-up

As with everything Biba creates, its newly opened Beauty Parlour in the Kensington store hits that striking note of sparkling originality.

It has 19’s stamp of approval. because it is a genuine beauty parlour, in the true, old-fashioned sense of the word. The Parlour welcomes you into a relaxed, spacious and luxurious, ‘Thirties’ world of cream and black decor, bedecked with dark green palms. It is the brain-child of Barbara Hulaniki— Biba’s creator—and Regis, a brilliant and inventive make-up artist and hairdresser.

Before Regis showed us around, we asked him to tell us about his past.

Looking every bit as dashing as Valentino himself. he said: “Call me a man with no past. Although I trained and worked in many leading salons, I don’t want to be attached to anything I’ve done before or The Parlour to be compared with others.”

The Parlour offers the services of a modern establishment (from haircutting to leg waxing) which it executes in a novel way. Here you are not a number with a gown—you are treated as an individual with individual needs. In true Biba tradition, on arrival, you are fitted out with a fabulous gown—either a long black satin one (if you are having your hair done), a black velour robe (for the guys) or a super black towelling robe (if you are going into the beauty room). Even the hair nets are pretty— black and silky.


The seating is so cleverly designed in the curved and pillared room that one client hardly sees another and, although each hairdresser—and there are three, plus Regis— has his own ‘corner’, all the involved treatments, such as tinting, bleaching, high-lighting and perming. are done in private cubicles.

Biba carries every conceivable shade of hair colouring and hasn’t just confined The Parlour to all the well-known branded names. Regis virtually combed the earth to find special formulas and effects.

Henna treatments are very popular and Biba uses several varieties—Black Henna, for dark heads; Neutral Henna, for blondes; Henna Wax for dry, split hair; ordinary henna, for a rich, red glow and a special henna, which can be used with a perm—normally you cannot perm hair which has henna on it. (Henna treatment costs from £6: tinting from £6.50; perming from £10.) Regis has fixed ideas concerning shampoo.

“A good shampoo is the most important step in the whole process. because if you use a bad one. then you can forget about doing an original style. Dull, horrible hair can never look good, however hard you try.”

Biba has 17 kinds of shampoo to choose from, ranging from ‘Almond’ and ‘Strawberry’ to ‘Henna Gloss’ shampoo, which doesn’t actually colour the hair but, with constant use, produces marvellous red lights. There are also three biological shampoos: one for greasy hair, one for dry and one for dandruff sufferers. (A shampoo and set costs £3, no matter which shampoo you need to use.)

Other Biba specialities are the after-washing, pre-setting goodies. Regis’ favourite is the Champagne Rinse, which gives a remarkable gloss and softness. The Henna Conditioner is good and there are Frictions, too, which are spirit-based hair perfumes, to make your hair smell beautiful, as well as look good. (Frictions are something mothers and grandmothers know all about. but which had disappeared from our lives—until now.) These cost 50p. each, and you can choose from ‘Orchid’, `Fougere., ‘Eau de Cologne’, ‘Passionate’ and ‘Gardenia’.


Blow-drying is virtually non-existent at Biba.

“We want girls to look truly groomed and feminine again.” said Regis. He believes in the old-style training and he and his staff use rollers (but not heated ones), Marcel Wave tongs, wave clips. small tongs and irons, and do lots of exacting pin-curling.


The Beauty Room is run by a very efficient lady and practically anything is done. There are treatments to help acne problems; waxing to remove unwanted hair; massage including a deep-back massage. with an infra-red lamp; spot reducing with Slendertone and eye treatments, which include eyebrow shaping, eyelash dyeing and the application of Permanent lashes. (This costs £4. and replacements later on cost 10p. a lash.)

The manicures and pedicures are superb. If it is just a plain one you want, then, of course, they will oblige. But if you want something for a special occasion then they can do fantastic combinations of colours, patterns and designs on nails and toes, too, if required. (Ordinary manicures cost £1: the special kind. £2.50.)

As far as make-up is concerned. Regis will create a fantastic new look for you and will advise on form-ulas, colours and applica-tion. (Cost £5.)

The Parlour opens at 11am., on weekdays, and last appointments are at 6.30pm. On Saturdays. opening time is 9.30am. and last appointments are at 4pm.

It’s sobering to remember that about seven months after this article appeared, Biba was closed forever.

Photographer(s) uncredited.

Scanned from 19 Magazine, February 1975.

Smart Things

19 magazine, alice pollock, british boutique movement, Digby Howard, Harri Peccinotti, Inspirational Images, manolo blahnik, ossie clark, quorum, sheridan barnett, Vintage Editorials, zapata

A 19 SPECIAL PREVIEW OF AN EXCITING DESIGNER’S COLLECTION

Sheridan Barnett, pictured above, is the young designer who gave Coopers such a good look and who has now joined the Quorum label, with Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock. At twenty-six, he has established himself as the most exciting designer in London, with a fabulous first collection for Quorum that left them clapping in the aisles. Women’s Wear Daily, the fashion bible of America, devoted an entire double-page spread to his collection, previously unheard of for an English designer. He designs with his girlfriend, a ballet dancer, in mind, and ladies like Grace Coddington, model Eija and Liza Minnelli: “Girls who are individual and chic, interesting, attractive and with oomph . .” and likes them to look alluring, classy and sexy. At the moment, his clothes are expensive but we are hopeful that, later on, they will be available in the cheaper Radley range as Ossie Clark’s clothes are. Meanwhile look out for similar lines.

My slightly belated tribute to the great Sheridan Barnett, who died in November. He is one of those many British designers of the time whose work doesn’t really get the attention he deserves; as you can see here his tailoring was exquisite.

All clothes by Sheridan Barnett at Quorum.

Shoes by Zapata. Hats by Digby Howard.

Hair by Ricci Burns.

Photographed by Harri Peccinotti.

Scanned from 19 Magazine, September 1973.

Sylvie Winter in Sweetheart

1970s, Boutiques, british boutique movement, mr freedom, Sweetheart, Vogue

German actress Sylvie Winters (sic) seems to be the new mood of Munich. She buys her clothes from Sweetheart, Leopoldstrasse 54, in the Schwabing/Chelsea district. Sweetheart is run by its two designers; amongst wall-sized posters and giant-sized carrot tins they sell fantasy chiffons and pop satin zip suits.

Sounds like the German version of Mr Freedom! It’s always fascinating to see how far and wide the boutique trend had spread, I just wish there were more photos of the interior.

Photographed by Pat York.

Scanned from Vogue (‘Vogue’s Own Boutique’), September 1971.

Piero de Monzi

1970s, Boutiques, british boutique movement, Cerruti, Chloe, Piero de Monzi, Vintage Adverts, Vogue
Clothes by Chloe and Cerruti at Piero de Monzi. Painting by Robert Cottingham from the DM Gallery. Furniture and Fendi luggage at Condotti.

Advert for the Piero de Monzi boutique in Fulham Road.

Scanned from Vogue, April 15th 1975.

Victoria Tennant (and Afghan)

1960s, british boutique movement, Kenneth Vard, patrick lichfield, Victoria Tennant, Vogue

Victoria Tennant, an Afghan hound and a jacket of real patent leather, caramel brown and shiny. She is a drama student at the Central School. The jacket, 39 gns, was made with wide lapels and a belt, by a new boutique, Kenneth Vard, 90 Marylebone High Street, W.1, who makes anything in any colour and any suede or leather.

Photographed by Patrick Lichfield.

Scanned from Vogue, May 1969.