Fashion
The Beatles' Apple Boutique
Alt text: From left: Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. They are all wearing multicolored military-style jackets, just like the ones on the Sergeant Pepper album cover.
Although it was not the Beatles' first trip to India, their February 1968 venture was the most fruitful (their first was merely passing through Calcutta in between tours in 1964, where they initially became inspired by Eastern sounds), as they experienced a spiritual reawakening by learning about Eastern deities, transcendental meditation, and the methods of yogis. Being the biggest band in the world, they needed time to get away from the chaos of the American and British music scenes. Around the same time, they founded Apple Corps, a corporation that mainly oversaw their self-started record company. They opened a variety of short-lived businesses, including Apple Boutique, that featured colorful garments inspired by the sights of India and the flourishing youth counterculture of London. (Banerji, Dasgupta)
"The kaftan story is rather interesting. Kaftans started off in 1967 when the Beatles had been to India. I used to go to Derry and Toms department store to buy Indian bedspreads, and had an old Jewish tailor make them all up [into kaftans]…it was the first time we got into manufacturing." — Robert Orbach, employee on Carnaby Street during the Swinging Sixties
Models wearing Apple Boutique designs
Alt text: Three models stand together in colorful clothes made by Apple Boutique. A psychedelic painting is in the background.
Street view of Apple Boutique in London
Alt text: The corner of the Beatles' Apple Boutique in London on Baker Street. There is a colorful psychedelic mural painted on the side of the building.
The Military Jacket: Imperialist or Anti-Establishment?
"Lord Kitchener's sold racks of tunics, there were boas, those old fox stoles, second hand fur coats, pith helmets, Victorian dresses, bits of Victorian furniture, general junk, some good and some bad. Some people liked wearing secondhand clothes but at first it wasn't that busy. Then, over a period of time, clothes started to take over from the furniture. Eric Clapton was the first one to buy a military jacket early in 1966 when Cream's first album came out. I'm sitting there one morning and in walked John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Cynthia Lennon. And I didn't know whether I was hallucinating…but it was real. And Mick Jagger bought a red Grenadier guardsman drummer's jacket, probably for about £4-5. They all came from Moss Bros and British Army Surplus. In 1966 it was only fifty or so years from Victorian times, when we had an empire. We used to buy fur coats by the bale…we had to throw quite a lot away. So Mick Jagger bought this tunic and wore it on Ready Steady Go when the Stones closed the show by performing 'Paint it Black.' The next morning there was a line of about 100 people wanting to buy this tunic… and we sold everything in the shop by lunchtime." — Robert Orbach
Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones
Alt text: English rock singer Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones wearing an antique Imperial military jacket from I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, a store in London in the 1960s.
I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet advertisement
Some famous customers at I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, the popular military jacket shop on Carnaby Street in London, were Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend (The Who), John Lennon (The Beatles), Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, Cream), David Bowie, and Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin).
Alt text: From left: English musicians David Bowie, John Lennon, and Mick Jagger all pose on an advertisement for I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, a popular antique store in London in the 1960s.
Jimi Hendrix of the Jimi Hendrix Experience
Although Hendrix is an American musician, his two bandmates in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, were English. Hendrix first experience mainstream success for his music in England. America fed directly from the English social trends because American consumers thought they were "cool." When English musicians reintroduced Americans to their own native blues music, as well as world music, U.S. music market accepted it with open arms.
Alt text: American guitarist Jimi Hendrix walking in the streets of London in the 1960s, wearing an antique Imperial military jacket from I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet.
"Second hand furniture, old houses, old clothes…Oh God, those vast, whitewashed rooms with bare floorboards and a mattress in the corner with an Indian coverlet on it…The pure asceticism of the late sixties." — Angela Carter, novelist
Zandra Rhodes
Alt text: A woman with pink hair, blue eyeshadow, pink lipstick, chunky gold jewelry, and a yellow floral top laughs. This woman is Zandra Rhodes, an innovative English fashion designer who rose to prominence in the 1960s.
Dame Zandra Rhodes is an English fashion designer known for her colorful textiles and patterns, and overall eccentricity in her designs. She has dressed everyone from rock royalty (Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Marc Bolan) and to actual royalty (Princess Diana). She was born in Kent, England and attended the Royal College of Art on a scholarship. Her first solo collection received attention from both the British and American fashion market, landing in retailers and department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks and becoming one of the most influential designers on the London scene in the late '60s and early '70s. She infused motifs from North American Indian, Japanese flowers, calligraphy, and shells into her clothes as well. Rhodes incorporated safety pins ten years before Versace did, and revolutionized techniques in layering, smocking, and shirring. Her pieces are dramatic, bold, and statements in their own rite. She founded the Fashion and Textile Museum in London in 2003, and in her first exhibit, she called upon her relationships with designers from Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Valentino, and Giorgio Armani to participate.
Zandra Rhodes with models backstage at a runway show
Alt text: A short woman with pink hair and a black floral kimono-like garment inspects the dresses of four models.
Brian May of Queen
Alt text: A tall man with dark, curly hair and a white silk floral-printed kimono plays the guitar on stage. The man is guitarist Brian May of the band Queen.
Freddie Mercury of Queen
Alt text: A man with medium-length dark hair poses in a white pleated tunic. The man is Freddie Mercury, the vocalist of the band Queen.
Marc Bolan of T. Rex
Alt text: A man with medium-length dark curly hair and a loose green patterned top plays the guitar and sings in front of an audience. The man is Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex.
In her many fashion "pilgrimages" to India over the years, Rhodes found substantial inspiration from the traditional culture's beaded details, colorful textiles, drapey fabrics, unique patterns, and weaving and block printing techniques. On the specific trip documented below, she found many devoted women who helped her achieve her creative vision while abroad; they washed fabrics in the Ganges River and wove fabrics on large looms. Rhodes is attracted to India because "it is a culture that has not been dominated by the west. You are compelled to fit in with what is around you, which means you really do experience other things." In the picture with the models shown above, Rhodes took heavy inspiration from garments like those seen on the women in the photos below. (The Guardian)
Alt text: Seven women wash colorful textiles in a river.
Alt text: Two women weaving threads on a large loom.