Mr Freedom:
Tommy Roberts - British Design Hero
Andrew Bunney speaks to Paul Gorman on Tommy Roberts
12 10/15 UP
text: Andrew Bunney translation: Mayumi Horiguchi
Tommy Roberts owned and operated a number of fashion and design stores in London.
These stores went far beyond clothing to create a spirit for an era and become a significant part of pop-culture.
Fresh from for the recent launch of his new book, Mr Freedom: Tommy Roberts - British Design Hero,
I spoke with Paul to talk about the importance of Tommy Roberts to us all.
- Andrew Bunney（ A ） :
- How did this book come about?
- Paul Gorman（ P ） :
- I’ve known Tommy for a number of years, I had covered him pretty extensively in both editions of my book ‘The Look’ and he has always struck me as being worthy of far more than a chapter. I trained in the old school of journalism, and with only a few exceptions I’ve always been disappointed with the details on these characters, which are important to our lives. The way in which he has expressed this kind of nimbleness in terms of design really needed reflecting in it’s own book. Coincidentally we started talking a few years ago and it came out of that.
- A :
- What attracts you to a character like Tommy Roberts?
- P :
- I’m very interested in people who in my view don’t get their due recognition – they are the interesting characters because they are able to fast track vanguard ideas into the mainstream. If you look at Tommy in 1971, he’s interviewed in The Times, The Guardian, by the fashion doyen, at the same time as he’s sort of the ‘cheeky chappy’ Mr. Freedom, on page 3 of the Daily Mirror, in tabloids. So that’s a very fascinating character who needs to be examined and set in the context of his times, and in the context to other people.
- A :
- What were the times?
- P :
- From the mid-sixties, 1966, when he first opened the shop Kleptomania, right through ‘till today with the shop, Two Columbia Road, now run by his son.
- A :
- If you go back the opening of Kleptomania, what else would one have seen around at that time?
- P :
- It’s an interesting year, ‘66, that’s the year when the album took over from the single and the whole idea of rock aristocracy came through. It’s the same year when Granny Takes a Trip opened, just before that was the shop ‘Hung On You’. These were very dandy, peacock, psychedelia stores, and here comes Tommy with a background of basically collecting stuff. He comes from South East London, his dad used to go to auction houses, and so he opens this place in Kingly Street, near Carnaby Street, and it’s selling Militaria, Edwardiana, Victoriana, those kind of uniforms, even penny farthings. It’s that whole look which turns up on Sergeant Peppers, so he’s right there back then.
- A :
- Was he producing his own clothing?
- P :
- He starts commissioning new designs when he starts running out of stock - which is one of the great histories of street-wear. So then there’s people like Rae Spencer-Cullen (aka Miss Mouse), who was commissioned by them to make gold Lurex dresses, dresses out of paper, and he’s becoming what the Italians call a ‘design editor’. He’s got a great eye, he went to Goldsmiths, and he knows his visuals very well, a great retailer, and a great person at creating environments - which boutiques basically were, weren’t they?
- A :
- So it was a destination back then?
- P :
- We’ve lost it now but during that period it was retail as an experience outside of a consumer thing. You went there to hang out, to absorb it. So from Kleptomania, as soon as that went mainstream, as soon as Carnaby Street was paved and you got busloads of tourists coming down, Tommy got out and he moved to Chelsea. World’s End in particular was very conducive and took over a new store at 430 Kings Road.
- A :
- How were people dressing around the Kings Road at that time?
- P :
- In the Kings Road it was the height of the ‘dandy peacock’ thing, which became more mainstream with people like ‘Dandie Fashions’ run by John Crittle in the middle of Kings Road, and then you had ‘Countdown’ and ‘Top Gear’, and a lot were about that peacock-rock thing. Brian Jones was hanging out there, tight fitting but flared trousers, macho, but slightly androgynous stuff too. Ossie Clark and Alice Pollock making this very ethereal rustic, romantic stuff.
- A :
- And the new store?
- P :
- The new store became Mr. Freedom, made with his partner Trevor Myles. It was all about Pop Art, all about fun, all about Americana, and very much like you do now, they would go to manufacturers of 50’s gear, and they would get brothel creepers but get them to make them in blue and red suede, they had Lurex socks, drape suits made… At this point he said ‘it was like me, slightly brash, slightly vulgar’. It was bright colours, purples, and contrasts. They made a t-shirt, with material from the sportswear manufacturer Gymphlex in red and put a yellow star in the front of it. He saw a whole aesthetic come out of that. It had all of those elements.
- A :
- They were offering a ‘look’?
- P :
- The stuff that became really associated with showbiz in the ‘70s with Showaddywaddy, really came out of Mr. Freedom. Liquorice Allsorts tops, baseball suits in blue and red velvet, sexy, colourful and bright. Everything happens very quickly, he’s only at 430 Kings Road for a short period of time, leaves, and then takes over a former restaurant a four storey building in Kensington Church Street with a new backer, which he turned into a clothing department store. They were selling Kids wear, and it had a restaurant in the basement. The design of the store was by Jon Wealleans, his wife Jane Wealleans his wife was a textiles designer and he recruited some really out there designers who were quite often fresh out of college, so you had Jim O'Connor who came up with the winged boots, and a range of incredible clothes. A stream of fantasy, out of the ordinary, strange and wild clothes coming through...
