SEX was a boutique run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 King's Road, London in the 1970’s, whose fashion clothes heavily influenced the punk movement aesthetics.

Contents 1 Early history 2 History 3 Famous shop assistants 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early history

In October 1971 Malcolm McLaren and his art-school friend Patrick Casey opened a small stall in the back room of a shop called Paradise Garage at 430 King's Road in London's Chelsea district. Customers could purchase original rock & roll vinyl records, magazines, clothing and memorabilia from the 1950s. McLaren and Casey went around in person to established record companies and asked what was to be had in their back catalogues.

Trevor Myles (who ran Paradise Garage), relinquished the premises to McLaren and Casey. The partners renamed it Let It Rock and stocked up with second-hand and new Teddy Boy clothes designed by McLaren's school teacher girlfriend Vivienne Westwood. The shop-front corrugated iron frontage was painted black, and the stores name was picked out in pink letters. The interior was given stylish period details, such as "Odeon" wallpapers. Bespoke, tailored jackets (called drapes), skin-tight trousers, and thick soled shoes called "brothel creepers" were the mainstays. Let It Rock was noticed by the international press, and reviews appeared in the London Evening Standard, certain Japanese magazines, and perhaps more importantly - in context - in Rolling Stone.

In 1972 the outlet was once again changing its direction. Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die was restocked with clothing evoking the more recent, early 60s "rocker" fashions. In 1974 the shop closed down, and underwent a refurbishment soon to reappear as the rebranded SEX boutique.

[edit] History

The facade icluded a 4 ft sign of 4 ft pink foam rubber letters read “SEX”. The interior was covered with graffiti from the SCUM Manifesto and chickenwire. Rubber curtains covered the walls and red carpet was put in.

SEX sold fetish and bondage gear as well as original fashion styles that would later become punk. Famously, the Sex Pistols auditioned Johnny Rotten in the shop.[1] At this time SEX was the only boutique of its kind in the world. By 1977 when British punk rock developed a mass following, there were imitators including BOY (also in the King's Road). SEX customers included The Sex Pistols - whose line-up was created in the store, sometime assistant Chrissie Hynde, Adam Ant, Marco Pirroni, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and the rest of the Bromley Contingent.

The store's designs played with taboos and sexuality, and included T-shirts bearing images of the Cambridge Rapist Peter Cook, semi-naked cowboys, a trompe de l'oueil image of bare breasts, pornographic texts from a book by the beat author Alexander Trocchi.

Among the designs were clear plastic-pocketed jeans, zippered tops and the Anarchy shirt which used stock from the 60s manufacturer Wemblex. These were bleached and dyed shirts and adorned with silk Karl Marx patches and anarchist slogans.

In December 1976, 430 King's Road was renamed Seditionaries, and ultimately went out of business under that banner in September 1980. During the last week of trading there was a massive sale, and leftover lots of stock from SEX was sold off. Some stock was given to Steph Raynor at BOY for them to sell as Westwood wanted to move on from a purely "punk" ethos. The screens for their original design t-shirts were given to BOY, and the deal was for BOY to pay Westwood a percentage of the sales. Raynor made some small changes were made to the t-shirt designs.(citation needed)

In late 1980 430 King's Road re-opened as World's End. The building was designed by McLaren and Westwood and realised by Roger Boulton to resemble a mixture of the Olde Curiosity Shoppe and an 18th century galleon. The facade was installed with a large clock which spun backwards with the floor raked at an angle. McLaren and Westwood launched the first of a series of collections from the outlet at the beginning of 1981 and collaborated for a further three years. World's End remains open as part of Vivienne Westwood's successful global fashion empire.

[edit] Famous shop assistants

Many people related with the punk scene worked at the shop in one way or another. The most well-remembered shop assistant may be Jordan (Pamela Rooke), who worked for a long time there, and whose provocative clothes entertained costumers. Glen Matlock and Chrissie Hynde, as well as Sid Vicious also worked there.

[edit] See also

• SEX: Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die A compilation album of songs on their Jukebox.

[edit] References

1. The Look: Adventures in rock & pop fashion by Paul Gorman. Publisher: London, Adelita Ltd, 2006 ISBN 978-0955201707
2. England's Dreaming Sex Pistols and Punk Rock by Jon Savage. Publisher: London, Faber & Faber Ltd, 1991 ISBN 9780571139750
3. Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon. Publisher: Picador, 1995 ISBN 0-312-11883-X.
4. SEX & SEDITIONARIES by PunkPistol. Publisher First Edition, 2006. ISBN 10-0955464307 ISBN 13-978-0955464300

[edit] External links

• The Look blog Blog of definitive style text The Look.
• Only anarchists are pretty Photos and information.Closed as of 11/08.
• Sex & Seditionaries Clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren circa 1975-1979.
• Punk Pistol Seditionaries tribute site to clothing designed by Westwood & McLaren.
• Punk Pirate 1981 Clothing line designed by Westwood and McLaren. (previously punkpirate.com - no longer accessible)