Thanks to artist Paul Kindersley for alerting me to the fact that images from an audacious photo-shoot by the late photographer David Parkinson were featured in an early 70s issue of Paul Raymond’s adult magazine Men Only.
From Men Only, Vol 36, No 8, 1971
Kindersley is a fellow afficionado of the tacky delights of adult publishing in the so-called permissive age; last week I showed him Parkinson’s ouevre, which includes the images of a male friend and fashion designer Dinah Adams on the seafront at Eastbourne on England’s south coast in 1971.
Kindersley immediately recognised them as having illustrated an article predicting violent youth cults in the 80s and 90s in the August 1971 edition of Men Only.
The models were styled by Parkinson in clothes from Trevor Myles’ Paradise Garage – then at 430 Kings Road – and also from his collection.
From Men Only, Vol 36, No 8, 1971
The tough looks offered an alternative to glam and prefigured the styles to emanate from the premises in Chelsea’s World’s End after they were taken over by Malcolm McLaren a few months later.
From Men Only, Vol 36, No 8, 1971
Leopard print jeans on the racks at Paradise Garage, 430 Kings Road, west London, summer 1971. From a photograph by David Parkinson.
From Men Only, Vol 36, No 8, 1971
Transparencies. David Parkinson.
A Parkinson Eastbourne shot was among exhibits I sourced for Glam! The Performance of Style, which opened at Tate Liverpool in 2013 before touring continental Europe.
A matter of months after the Eastbourne images were taken, Raymond launched Club International as a thinking man’s magazine, with content including a regular fashion section edited by Parkinson, while Men Only stuck to soft-porn.
Top, centre- Framed Parkinson image in Glam! The Performance Of Style at Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria, 2013. Photo- Andrei Luca
Visit Paul Kindersley’s site here.
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