Outside 430 King’s Road (from left) summer 1971: Unknown, assistant Lisa Petersen, manager Roly Poltock, designer Diana Crawshaw and founder Trevor Myles. Photograph: Julian Allason.
Harpers & Queen ran this photograph of the short-lived but significant World’s End boutique Paradise Garage in the Shopping Bazaar section of the September 1971 issue.
Paradise Garage operator Trevor Myles opened the pioneering store with fellow former Mr Freedom staffers Diana Crawshaw and Chris Snow in May that year.
For the photograph Crawshaw wore a child’s satin Red Sox jacket and trousers of her own design in black canvas with red and emerald green satin piped seams.
“How absolutely fantastic to see this; it’s a real find!” says Crawshaw, who adds that she came up with the idea of bamboo lettering for the shop’s logo and t-shirt. “Roly was the manager and my boyfriend at the time. He now lives in Venice, where he started off building gondolas and now designs and builds solar-powered boats which he sails down various rivers all over Europe.”
The forward mix of used denim and workwear with Hawaiian shirts, cheong-sams and animal print separates within a quasi-Americana environment realised by design team Electric Colour Company attracted media attention.
As illustrated here, there was a degree of bemusement at the notion of consumer demand for pre-worn denim, workwear and second-hand garments. Myles, meanwhile, recognised it as an indicator of fashion’s engagement with the street: “[It’s] all very earthy. I’m a very earthy type.”
Myles: “All very earthy.”
Crawshaw: “Absolutely fantastic! A real find!”
Within a couple of months of Julian Allason taking the photograph, Myles’ marriage to Petersen was signalling a loss of interest in the outlet. While the couple were on honeymoon, Poltock’s successor Bradley Mendelsohn offered the back part of the shop to Malcolm McLaren, and within a few weeks he, his friend Patrick Casey and partner Vivienne Westwood had converted the entire site at 430 King’s Road into 50s retro outlet Let It Rock.
Of course, Westwood still occupies the premises via her Worlds End outlet.
Read how Myles started the pre-worn denim explosion here.
Watch Diana Crawshaw return to 430 King’s Road to talk about Paradise Garage here.
Read about Electric Colour Company’s design achievements here.
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