Showing posts with label style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label style. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2011

Rebel Rebel


You know Joan Jett - it's nearly impossible not to. She was a founding member of all-girl teen rock band the Runaways ("Cherry Bomb," "Queens of Noise") and then went on to have a successful solo career with the Blackhearts ("Bad Reputation," "I Love Rock 'n' Roll). She's freakin' awesome. In the Runaways days, from 1975 to 1979, she established herself as a punk-rock style icon, sporting other band tees (Sex Pistols, Ramones, Cheap Trick), leather, glitter, platform boots, and Converse. She accessorized with more leather, light chains, rings, and shockingly- a pocket knife that she always had with her. Her hairstyle -similar to Cherie Currie's platinum-y 'do- was almost a mullet. There was much less business in the front, and the party in the back wasn't wispy or long, but short and choppy. In '75 it was a light brown, but by '76 she had dyed her hair black. She kept her eyebrows super thin and when she wore make-up, she went all out on her eyes.
Joan on her style: "My style? It's probably a mixture of a lot of different things. But when I was a kid — when I was starting in the Runaways or just before the Runaways — I used to go to a club in Los Angeles called Rodney's English Disco. They played all the British glitter singles that were coming out of England that, at the time, American kids never got to hear. Things like T. Rex or "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie and Gary Glitter, Suzi Quatro, the Sweet, a lot of bands American kids never heard and still aren't really familiar with. It's a lot of heavy drums, handclaps, big choruses, that sort of three-minute very catchy rock 'n' roll stuff. The music really turned me on; I would listen to the records and learn how to play guitar to these singles. But the style also turned me on, lots of big platform boots and flashy clothes, lots of satin — really actually kind of horrible, when I think back on it. Now, I've got my high-priced leather look and my street leather look, and I don't know if you can tell the difference. I pretty much bum around in jeans and a T-shirt most of the time, and onstage, leather pants and latex tops mostly, just clean, simple lines. I like to be hot onstage, so the latex helps keep me a little warm."









































(Photos from Brad Elterman, Fanpop, and F*** Yeah Joan! Title from "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie.)

This is the first in a series I plan to do on '70s stylistas. So, what do ya think?

Monday, May 2, 2011

Granny Takes A Trip


 Granny Takes a Trip was a boutique that opened in February 1966 at 488 Kings Road in Chelsea, London by Nigel Waymouth, Sheila Cohen, and John Pearse. It has been called the "first psychedelic boutique in the 'Swinging London' in the 1960s." It started out as an outlet for Sheila's collection of antique clothing, and morphed into a hangout for the rich and famous as well as a place to buy fabulous clothes. Taking the gaudy upholstery, lace and brightly patterned wall coverings that typified geriatric chic, designers twisted them into messed-up takes on the tailoring tradition. The shop became known for its changing facade. In 1966 it featured giant portraits of Native American chiefs Low Dog and Kicking Bear. In 1967 the entire front was painted with a giant pop-art face of Jean Harlow ('30s movie starlet), the best known version of the boutique. That was later replaced by an actual 1948 Dodge saloon car which appeared to crash out from the window and onto the forecourt, painted black and gold then completely yellow. "One should either be a work of art or wear a work  of art" was written over the door. At first, the ambiance was a mixture of New Orleans bordello and futuristic fantasy. Marbled patterns papered the walls, with rails carrying an assortment of brightly-colored clothes. Lace curtains draped the doorway of its single change room, and a beaded glass curtain hung over the entrance at the top of steps, which led on into the shop. In the back room, an Art Deco Wurlitzer blasted out a selection of music. By 1969 though, Nigel Waymouth was more interested in art and music, and John Pearse went into theatre. Freddie Hornik, a fashion entrepreneur, bought the business. He, Gene Krall, and Marty Breslau "dandified" the shop, attracting customers like Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and Keith Richards. Branches were opened in New York and Los Angeles and sold to Elton John, Keith Moon and Mick Jagger. These were closed in 1973 when it was acquired yet again by Glen Palmer who moved the location to the Sunset Strip. That closed in the early '80s.


The Animals




Back of the Beatles' Revolver

The Rolling Stones' Between The Buttons
George Harrison's blazer





Pink Floyd
Jim Morrison
Joe Cocker's Woodstock boots

Ossie Clark
John Pearse, co-founder
Nigel Waymouth, co-founder


Inside the boutique:


Iggy the Eskimo











Sheila Cohen, supplier of clothes
Artist Patrick Procktor










Dinah Adams


Freddie Hornik

Kurt Cobain - vintage in the '90s
(Photos- The Look, Women of the Beatles, random online auctions, scans from Boutique and Radical Rags, and screen caps from 60's Fashion and Granny Takes a Trip on BBC British Style Genius.)