WHAT WE WORE

Here's me in Ellesmere Port in 1984. Channel Four has just started and I'm wearing dyed Adidas Trimm Trab with split bleached jeans, a Ben Sherman under a crew neck sweater, the remains of a wedge haircut and no genitals. The dog was called Frisky and I still miss her.

This photo was taken at the University of East Anglia in 1977.

I’m on my 1958 Triumph 500 Tiger and my friend Pat (right) is on his Kawasaki KH500 Triple Cylinder 2 stroke. I bought my clothes in a motorbike shop and I am wearing my dad’s Aviator sunglasses. He was a pilot with the RAF and I used to “borrow” them all the time, until I became a pilot myself and got my own pair.

This photo was taken in my bedroom when I lived with my mother in Bury, just experimenting with my photo gear.

I was about 20 years old then and I had a Triumph Benneville 650 (one of top bikes of the time) The combat jacket was probably part of the gear I was issued with when I joined the TA, couldn't afford a leather jacket.

When I was in the TA about 1968, this was when the regiment was the Lancashire Fusiliers. as an aside I tried to join the regular army, I'd signed up for REME and all I needed was a medical. Unfortunately about a year before I'd had a motorcycle accident and had a spleenectomy, so they wouldn't accept me, but the TA was OK. As it happens I was taken ill on weekend exercise and had to have an emergency op!!!

This was taken at Hollingworth lake (Littleborough) with colleagues that all worked in the laboratories at Transparent Paper in Bury, we were more than colleagues we were friends and went out together drinking etc. I ended up marrying the girl on the far left, still with her today (2013)

In the routine laboratory at Transparent Paper, standing L to R, Jan Zuc, Nigel O'Garr(Nog), me, Paul Hughes, Steven Atkinson (Ackers), sitting Geoff Stretch. It was like a big club we had a social club we used to go to at lunchtime for a game of snooker or a game or a game of table tennis. Playing jokes on each other… a good time!

I failed to get the trend right. I took hemlines up by hand as I was always a bit short! Always hurriedly taken up because I wanted to go out that evening. Later on I was a Beatnick, and then to acceptable dress but still keeping my own style.

I failed at being a mod, pleated skirt and winkle pickers with heels - and very neat hair, but my hair never looked quite as neat as I would have liked.

Hippy changing to more acceptable but still a bit offbeat. I never looked like anyone else, I had cheap clothes, as I never had any money!

The Beatnik look was  dyed t-shirts, shrunken/bleached/slashed jeans (looked like you had been painting the house) and mid length skirt Amy Winehouse hairstyle - half a beehive with the rest down. I wore black tights with holes - which was fashionable if you were a beatnik, wore moccasins with jeans or skirt with a little black heeled shoe.

In the late 60s/early 70s I wore - knee length brown maxi wool skirt, very Bonnie and Clyde. I used to wear it with boots or a Biba shirt, at the time Biba was very cheap too.

We were incredibly innocent but my parents read an article about people having sex in the garden/drugs and my dad forbade me to go but we never knew about that. We often went to Wimbledon Palais, a dancehall, with big lights, no particular style - live music - some Mods and some non-Mods. We got accused of being Beatniks by some lads, we spent so long trying to look like Mods! 

In Soho, we went to Ad Lib a couple of times but it was very elite and hard to get in. We managed to get in with a regular - very exciting!

Also went to The Pheasantry, famous posh place that people like Twiggy went to but we only went a few times but we were very impressed.

We used to stroll along the Kings Road and hope people would come and talk to you but no one ever did!

In the late 70s’s I changed my hair to platinum after being a warm reddish blonde, that was a big change because I started to have more sex appeal after that! I remember getting a blue linen dress with a keyhole back, to me was very daring at the time.

I found a pair of 6 inch round toe beige stiletto and was delighted, you couldn't get them anywhere (only in film star shops) and I wore them with shiny lycra jeans or my turquoise Fred Perry dress. The shoes used to get caught in the escalator if I wasn't quick off the mark.

I was eighteen at the time, and by 1992 the Glam Metal look of 1990 was well and truly gone. Grunge was doing a great job of hoovering up all the debris Glam metal had left behind, informing, converting and directing youth culture that stood in its path, a bit like Punk. I was well and truly sucked in, I didn’t resist, Nirvana ruled.

Rundown backdrops for your band pics were a must, looking scruffy and down and out was a bonus, it was all so D.I.Y. In this picture I was intent on finding the right backdrop to create a punky scene, the graffiti in a Manchester backstreet was perfect, along with the first release version of this iconic Nirvana T-shirt. Displaying a long ponytail down the back of my leather jacket separated me from the trendy short hair brigade. A  black bobble hat with the bobble ripped out completed the look, this was before they were known as ‘Beanie hats’, wouldn’t of known where to buy one from back then. The hat had belonged to my mates’ sister that had somehow ended up living on the dashboard of his grubby orange K Reg Volvo that he used for his gardening business.

These are pages from my diary of 1999, when I was in my final year of school. The outfit in the photos is an example of a 16-year-old me mixing sportswear and formalwear. I’m still wearing black men’s overcoats with Nike caps! This was a typical school outfit. I always wanted to dress smart. While the other kids were wearing football manager coats, I wore a formal coat from Next bought with my own pocket money. I also had a handbag instead of a backpack. I always had good trainers though. 

Claire was born in Alexandria in Egypt, her family were Italian, she’s an Italian expat from Egypt, so she grew up learning French, which is why she spoke with a French accent. But when she moved to London she fell in love with an American man who’s surname was De Rouen, but he was fully American and he had previously had a different surname that was something like De Rainer, and he didn’t like it so he changed it to De Rouen because he thought it sounded chic.

So she ended up with a French surname and a French accent and she spoke French, it’s typical of her.

She set up the CDR shop in 2005. She went to art school as well and then she started working at the ICA in the bookshop and then after a while she was really good at that and she moved to The Photographers Gallery doing just the postcards there and she was so good at it that she ended up doing the books.

This is from an exhibition in the Exit Gallery, but yeah its just full of sexy ladies, pretty much naked sexy ladies. But she was very dark, she had a very darkly sexy mind I think.

I guess there was a saucy element to her being in Soho - because the person that connected her with the landlord of this building was Bob Carlos Clarke, who was a great admirer of hers. So she always loved his pictures and he loved her and he knew that she was unhappy when Zwemmers was brought by Shipley. Because there was a long rivalry between Shipley and Zwemmers and then she was really unhappy and Bob Carlos Clarke told the landlord of this building about Claire and said you should give her a space to open a shop and that’s what happened.

Obviously his pictures are very overtly sexual and that’s what he loves doing. Maybe being in Soho just nurtured her love of that or maybe she already had it I don’t know - and photography was really strong in this area. When St Martin’s was on the street it used to be much more creative and was much more happening in terms of exhibitions and it was only about 7 years ago that St Martins was on the street.

Text and image courtesy of  - Lucy Kumara Moore

This has to be one of my favourite photos. Taken after a hard days work at Tea time but without the chocolate Imperial biscuits!!!

Relaxing during a Ski holiday to Val Disere, I still have that scarf - somewhere, it was a 2 week holiday and stayed at the Hotel Khandahar with a lawyer from Australia who I later went to stay with in 1998 in Brisbane Queensland where I explored with him the Sunshine coast.

Ancient but thoroughly reliable Toyota jeep with me behind the wheel at one of our stations.

Although I passed out or graduated in 1978 - I returned there to complete my returning officers course - polo necks were the in thing then.

A collection of photo’s, top left is an us on an exercise with Said Sareera with Johny Monteith (Black Watch) Then they caught a snake. Below: Me at the lavish Headquarters Officers Mess at HQ SAF. We had no electronic devices at all, so when stationed away at the border there was very little contact with the outside world at times a bit lonely, we did though have an ancient video player and was able to watch the only one James Bond film over and over again. I think it was The Man with The Golden Gun!

We played cricket and here are part of the team that enabled us to have so much fun in a rather harsh environment. All great characters, just look at George Martins’ belly! So to clothing, mainly loose fitting trousers and shirts then when relaxing just a pair of shorts. While on camp, life was a routine - A run at about 7am, followed by breakfast then to the office to work until lunch time. That was it for the day , we explored the local area walking snorkelling in the nearby sea - crystal clear huge turtles, sea horses, and masses of multicoloured tropical fish. Playing tennis or cricket and going for walks with lots of swimming and sun bathing.

That’s me in Kenya with the ever popular Nike shorts and sandals that were hand made for me in Oman, I have no idea where the hat came from!

Then below is my first ski trip  to Andorra in March (very sunny at that time of the season) Wearing what was known as Racing Trousers given to me by a friend who worked in Lillywhites.

Below that is a quiet drink with my old mate Andy Beattie (who emigrated to Australia and rumour has it he may be back in UK) dress of the day was corduroy trousers brogue shoes and double cuff shirts - at the house that I used to live in at Port Lympne Estate in 1982.

I took this picture in ‘92, ‘93 when I was in college at Thames Valley uni. It’s Mark Anthony, Isaac/Alistair, Sodeye, Tom and someone’s older brother. We used to go to bars on the Kings Rd and then head to crazy Larry’s near Chelsea, Subterrania, The Wag and Slow Motion at Mazimus. The boys didn’t always get into the clubs, and never in a group, so we girls used to pair up (whether we were pairs or not) to get everyone in. We wore old Levis, leather flight jackets and secretly listened to the Smiths and New Model Army, but it was more fun to dance to soul and funk.

This may have been in the toilets of Subterrania, exact memories may have been compromised. We also went to canal Brasserie on Kensal Rd, Woody’s in Wood Field Rd and the Cobden.

In a club somewhere in Harlesden in the 90′s.

On my way to Raw at YMCA, I had arrived in London from Germany in the early 90′s to study Design and Media Management and found the London club scene invigorating and intoxicating, free uninhibited and unhinged, full of interesting people and love! Best years of my life!

Myself and Patrick, the mid 90’s were the best! Big hat from High St Ken market, hot pant catsuits from Hyper Hyper, platform boots from Buffalo and Woolford tights that did not run when someone’s cigarette burnt a hole in it. We went to Raw at the YMCA Tottenham Court Road, Ben and Andy and Seb Fontaine were DJing. We also went to Jceni in Mayfair and in the second half of the 90′s to Bar Rumba on a Monday Turmoil’s, Bagley’s and many other places I cannot remember. Babes in Toyland was my favourite, though I remember that sinking feeling when it got to 3am and the night was going to end…

Five friends in Silver Place, Soho in January 1981, stopping to have a quick pose in mainly 1960's revival gear, Sta- press trousers and bandmans jackets, while on a Soho shopping trip.

After thirty five years you would expect change. Silver place encapsulates the changing face of Soho, then its was grubby with its cobblers and sandwich shops, now its all bunting and flower baskets with hair and beauty salons. 

We spent a lot of time in Bar Italia, you didn’t have all those coffee bars that you have now, there was a lot more pubs. You’d meet at pubs and then there were very expensive restaurants. You did not go to Soho House in that day and age.

When I was sort of 17, I started getting into a sort of 1950’s vibe. I used to do this big quiff with my hair, I would section off a piece on the top of my head, back comb it and roll it over and the sides were pulled up very tight with an enormous amount of Elnett hair spray was involved in it and it had to be very perfect and just so, and I would do a perfect Channel base and red lipstick and a black flick - lots of black eyeliner.  I had quite strong eyebrows anyway so those stayed anyway.

Sometimes I would do a scarf and tie that as a hair band kind of thing - and then if I wasn’t going to do the quiff my other look was to scrap my hair back very very tight with big gold earrings which looking at the photos now is vaguely Latino but at the time I think it was a very hip hop look. I think it was more of a Mary J Blige kind of thing.

Everyone would go to Scala Cinema. This is me in front of the Jukebox. It wasn’t late night London in those days, so you’d come out of the club, I think the clubs would shut at 1 or 2, and you’d couldn’t get the train home - if you were lucky you’d get the night bus but you couldn’t get the train home so you had to wait until 6/7 in the morning unless you went to Scala cinema which did all nighters. So everyone went to the Scala cinema and watched John Waters movies and David Cronenberg films and listen to the jukebox which had Joy Division, Magazine, The Slits…

Soho: As a teenager I’d hang out and then when it turned to nighttime the Soho streets got really interesting cos all the weirdos and business men perverts would come out. You’d wander through the red light district and just look at all these amazing window displays of naked bodies which you couldn’t see normally.I had this friend called Bowie Teresa and she looked exactly like David Bowie and she was amazing. I met her at a party. And then she goes ‘meet me in Soho at midnight and I’m gonna take you to this place where all the weirdos and all the freaks go’ and I’m like ‘yeah alright’ and I just thought ‘I wonder what she’s doing around Soho late every night?’… anyway she took me to Billy’s and it was fantastic. They were playing Kraftwerk and Gina X and it was brilliant and there were all these people dressed up like David Bowie and people who you’d recognise from later on like Boy George and Marylin. So that was my first taste of proper night clubbing. 

The MUD club (opened January 1983) that was Philip Salon’s second Club - he was an original punk rocker and new romantic and part of the Bromley Contingent who were the punk rock cognoscenti - fans of the Sex Pistols like Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol - they all went on to do stuff - Philip was one of those but he was out and gay. The Mud club was the place to go in the early 80s. When it opened it was about 200 people and then it ended up being at Busby’s which was about a thousand people and then it went to Bagleys which was about 2000 people but that was much later, that was in the late 80s. But in the early days, 1983/84, it went from about 200 to 1000 quite quickly. You had to dress up to get in, and sometimes Phillip would make people take their clothes off and put their trousers wrapped around their head if they wanted to come in. In the punk and post-punk days you’d save up for a leather jacket, it would take ages to save up for that, or you’d get one for your birthday if you were lucky. I could never afford designer stuff and no one young wore it anyway (Sex/Seditionaries/Worlds End being an exception) so you got clothes mainly from charity shops. We were lucky to be given stuff now and then. A lot of people went to The Army Surplus Store on Warren Street and obviously people would customise stuff and make their own things - like Tracey’s made her t-shirt here ‘taramasalata party’ god knows what that means [laughing]. Oh! It was actually named after the wild Taramasalta parties we had at our shared flat after the Mud closed [more laughing].

At Planet’s in 1981 or 82 Philip Salon’s first club: Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow - maybe a year or two after the Blitz Kids thing so you can see its moved over to the Vivienne Westwood pirate look and also there’s a bit of Rockabilly coming in. People liked to progress - obviously some people like to just stay the same - but you know people were always looking for the next thing. I remember when the pirate look came out - one I couldn’t afford it, two I remember thinking ‘aw...everyone’s wearing it now and I don’t wanna be a sheep’ so I never wore it. I regret not having some now.

But there was a little bit of a herd mentality for some people, there was a core of the same people, but it was always increasing. Every year was like a new generation, and everyone would look down at the new ones and go ‘who are these kids?’ - and those kids would grow up to be fabulous as well. At Busby’s - where the MUD Club used to be - it was a venue that wasn’t really on our radar until Phillip Salon did the MUD Club there and suddenly everyone wanted to do things at Busby’s and bands would wanna play there. This was actually taken at a Monochrome set gig at Busby’s (which was in Charing Cross Rd) - the Monochrome set - they had ex members from Adam and the Ants when Adam and the Ants were still an underground punk band before they went ‘pop’ and got all the hits. So it’s quite a cliquey crowd of post punkers at this time, who grew up with Bowie, listening to Bowie when they were kids at school, and still listening to him at this time.

This was 1987 and I am outside 34 Wardour Street. I am wearing leather shorts, letter gloves a big bomber jacket and very rare Stephen Sprouse tights with winkle pickers from Hyper Hyper. I was living in London for the summer.

I remember this outfit because of the response that J. G. Ballard had to it later on. I was invited to the suburbs of Shepperton by another friend. I got drunk with some middle aged people at their dinner party and they mentioned JG Ballard , whom I was a huge fan of, and they insisted on drunkenly driving me over to his house and deposited me on his doorstep, and then sped off. I then had to make conversation with Mr. Ballard who was really nice.