Sixties London Fashion Boutiques

My dissertation was all about London's fashion boutiques in the late 50s and 60s. They may just look like funny little shops now, but their approach to visual merchandising and customer service was revolutionary at the time. I wish there were more colour photos of the boutiques but you can see a lot of the boutiques in colour in this video.

Carnaby Street

Bazaar

Owned by Mary Quant, Alexander Plunket-Greene & Archie McNair, King's Road

Biba
Owned by Barbara Hulanicki & Stephen Fitz-Simons, Kensington

Granny Takes a Trip
Owned by Nigel Waymouth, King's Road

Hung On You
Owned by Michael Rainey, King's Road

The Shop

Male W.1.
Owned by John Stephen, Carnaby Street

Apple Boutique
Owned by The Beatles, Baker Street

I was Lord Kitchener's Valet
Owned by Ian Fisk, Portobello Road

Foale & Tuffin
Owned by Marion Foale & Sally Tuffin

Top Gear
Owned by James Wedge & Pat Booth, King's Road

Bus Stop
Owned by Lee Bender

In Biba

I promised I'd do a post on this book, so here it is!

My dissertation supervisor lent it to me when she heard I was looking at London boutiques. It's all about the story of Biba, an influential London boutique in the sixties. She got it at the V&A museum in London, it was a limited run of 400 copies! It's an amazing book, the cover is screen printed and every page inside is illustrated beautifully.

In Gear

Can't remember exactly how I came across this at first but this video pretty much sums up my entire dissertation. It's a short item for a newsreel about shopping in London, produced in 1967.



I love that it goes in to so many shops, I've been having trouble finding photos of the interiors of the boutiques.

I took some screenshots but they're very blurry.











My favourite part of the video is where this guy finishes serving a customer, walks away...

...and starts to DANCE!
Suddenly they're in a dance club?


This girl with the blue dress, orange tights and silver shoes is amazing. I want to be her...