The Neat Surrender
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NOTES NOTES THE NEAT 1941 Terylene SURRENDER Tougher and more resilient than nylon, the first commercial polyester Andy Thomas meets John Simons, fibre was patented by British pioneer of the mod aesthetic chemists John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant for the Calico Printers’ Association. ‘It may only have been a small shop dressed men of his neighbourhood. was a real eye opener for me. Of around 80% of the male market – named by Simons after Rod 1958 tucked away in what was at that time ‘Back then everyone went to bespoke course you also had Ronnie’s and from thugs to presidents.’ Harrington: a character played by a rather quiet corner of Covent tailors and the East End was full of The Flamingo and other little jazz Inspired by both American and Ryan O’Neal in a soap opera called Spandex Garden, but John Simons’ clothes them, places like Alfred Myers and clubs like The Florida, there were so European tailoring – but wanting to Peyton Place. ‘I went to see A polyether-polyurea copolymer shop became the fulcrum of a whole Millers,’ he recalls. It wasn’t long many places like that. At 16, I was provide something fresh for London’s Baracuta (the company who made invented by Joseph Shivers for kind of scene,’ writes JP Gaul in The before John was being measured up like a piece of blotting paper soaking young modernists – Simons opened the G9) and asked if I could see DuPont. An acronym of ‘expands’ Ivy Look. ‘Men of all backgrounds at his first tailors. ‘I got a shirt made in all this new music, style and art. his first shop, Clothesville, in 1963, their export stuff,’ recalls Simons. due to its elasticity, it is also known came together to get hold of the very for my Bar Mitzvah by Ron And soon us young guys into all this next door to the Hackney Empire. ‘There was this guy called John as Lycra in certain markets, best of traditional American style, Hitchins,’ he says. ‘He was a stuff were being called modernists,’ ‘The first pieces were inspired by a Beddingfield who was a great jazz including the UK, Brazil, Australia Oxford cloth, button-down popovers he recalls. ‘We were buying all the short corduroy coat by Burberry – drummer working there. He would and Israel. from Troy Guild, soft, finely tailored modern jazz records coming out of but with a button-down collar,’ he take the slight seconds and put natural shoulder jackets from Linet, ‘YOU’D GET THE America and seeing all the covers says. ‘We followed it with these them aside for us at really low the G9 blouson… it was all there.’ BARROW BOYS NEXT TO with people like Miles Davis, Chet reefer jackets. It was basically things prices. And all this was informing It was 1981 and JP Gaul was doing Baker and Jimmy Smith – all looking that we wanted to wear.’ the new mod culture that had been 1973 what in-the-know modernists had THE LANDED GENTRY’ extremely stylish. In Soho, you’d see After the success of the Hackney created by then.’ In 1969 he opened been doing since the Sixties: all these young Italian waiters who store, he opened another Clothesville his first West End store, The Squire Kevlar searching the rails of John Simons’ were really well dressed. So these in Walthamstow, but it was in South Shop on Brewer Street, followed A para-aramid introduced by shop to feed their Ivy League habit. barrow-boy-turned-sculptor and were all expressions of modernism West London that Simons really two years later by The Village Gate DuPont, with outstanding strength- And nearly 40 years on from that cutting-edge shirt designer… so a coming from America and Europe.’ made his name. In the summer of on Old Compton Street. to-weight properties, used in body mod revival, John Simons’ latest real New Wave individual.’ Central to the modernists’ style 1965, at the height of the mod By the late Seventies the mod armour, sports equipment and the store on London’s Chiltern Street is Simons would soon be meeting aesthetic was the Ivy League look movement, Simons opened The Ivy revival had created a new interest in aerospace industry. equally revered by men who know other alluring London characters that would seep into the public’s Shop – inspired by his trips to New the old Ivy League styles. In a new their Wingtips from their Weejuns. when he started working in the West consciousness through film stars like York. ‘I was buying all the clearance documentary on John Simons, The Brought up in Hackney, East End as an apprentice window dresser Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and lines over there,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t Neat Offensive, Paul Weller recalls London, John Simons’ passion for at Cecil Gee on Charing Cross Road. Anthony Perkins. ‘I first became too hard to get hold of this stuff at a first going to the J. Simons’ store on 2002 clothes began at an early age. ‘My ‘The man who gave England the aware of the Ivy League style around decent price as I was the only one Covent Garden’s Russell Street: ‘It dad had several brothers – and I new stylish Continental look,’ in the the age of 15 when I started looking from England doing it.’ was interesting for me to find stuff PLA remember when I was about 11 or 12 words of Paul Anderson in Mods: in the windows of Austin’s shop on Haspel seersucker jackets, Bass that I hadn’t seen for such a long Confusingly a polymer and not a them going to Europe and bringing The New Religion, Cecil Gee opened Shaftesbury Avenue,’ says Simons. ‘I Weejuns loafers, Oxford shirts by time.’ The film, which also features poly acid, Polylactic acid is now these lovely clothes back with them,’ up a whole new world to the young started to yearn for a shirt like the Lion of Troy or Sero buttondowns long-time admirers Kevin Rowland, one of the most popular manmade he says, sitting under a row of East Ender. ‘You had people like American ones I saw. And as a with the perfect roll – The Ivy Shop Robert Elms, and GQ editor Dylan materials on earth. Derived from Pendleton board shirts and J. Keydge Ronnie Scott coming in buying his youngster this whole silhouette just dressed the sharpest mods from Jones, is a fitting tribute to Simons’ renewable resources such as corn Ivy Slack jackets in the Marylebone stuff,’ says Simons. ‘Soho was such became really hip to me.’ across London. ‘Although we were 60 years in retail. starch or sugarcane, it is store he now runs with his son Paul. an amazing place then, full of ‘In America, Ivy League was an originally an Ivy League shop, we ‘Whether I’ve still got the same biodegradable and used in 3D The year was 1952 – and Simons brilliant artists, photographers and egalitarian tradition and a rigid became a pivot point for the mods,’ passion now I’m not sure… but I printing, injection moulding and would spend the weekends at his musicians. If you went to a jazz club format of dress. And they did it in an says Simons. There was one item that can pull it out when I need to,’ says medical implants. family’s barbershop on the Kingsland like Cy Laurie’s, you’d get the barrow incredible way. Everyone wore it. came to become most associated with Simons. ‘It’s always inside me.’ Road, Dalston, watching the sharply boys next to the landed gentry, so it Around 1959, the Ivy shape held MARTIN EMILY the shop: the Harrington G9 jacket, johnsimons.co.uk 42 43.