a patent violation: “Cut on the Cross—Patent Violation,” Men’s Wear, March 4, 1971. Tommy models his Bermuda shorts in a news spot in Men’s Wear, February 18, 1971.
A new Andy Warhol exhibition: Warhol exhibition catalogue (London: Tate Gallery, 1971).
“world of death and flowers”: Andrew Causey, “Warhol’s World of Death and Flowers,” The Illustrated London News, March 6, 1971.
suicide thwarted by a low tide: In “Rock on Tommy,” The Independent on Sunday, March 5, 2006, Stuart Husband quotes Tommy as saying, “I had a vague idea of drowning myself, but the tide was out.” The provenance of this quote is not entirely clear; I was unable to find it anywhere else.
a hospital microphone so sensitive: Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (London: Hamlyn, 2004), 174.
“The group is over”: John Lennon, interview with Jann S. Wenner, “Lennon Remembers, Part One,” Rolling Stone, January 21, 1971.
“We paled visibly and our jaws slackened a bit”: Paul McCartney, quoted in The Beatles Anthology (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002), 347.
“monument to psychedelia”: Richard Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-Ins, the Screw Ups…The Sixties (London, Bloomsbury, 1995), 1.
all in a single issue: Oz No. 26, February 1970.
“bare-chested long-hair”: Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake, 180.
“It will look way out”: Ibid., 172–73.
“Some of us at Oz are feeling old”: Oz No. 26, February 1970.
“On my left knelt Berti”: Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake, 204. All details of the backyard scene, including David behind his tripod, come from this source.
police raided the Oz offices: An excellent overview of the Oz trial appears in Barry Miles, London Calling: A Countercultural History of London Since 1945 (New York: Atlantic Books, 2011), 299–309.
“The five charges against the three men”: “Carnival Atmosphere Outside Court for Start of Oz Trial,” The Times, June 23, 1971.
“obscene court room dramas”: Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake, 224.
“a touch of reefer madness in the dock”: Ibid., 1.
“Neither do I”: Judge Michael Argyle, QC, quoted in “Carnival Atmosphere Outside Court for Start of Oz Trial.”
“Gobbling, going down”: George Melly, quoted in Miles, London Calling, 302–303.
“It couldn’t be about the alleged pornography”: George Melly, quoted in Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake, 295.
“Festival of Light”: Amy C. Whipple, “Speaking for Whom? The 1971 Festival of Light and the Search for the ‘Silent Majority,’ ” Contemporary British History 24 (2010), 319–39.
“Operation Rupert”: Lucy Robinson, Gay Men and the Left in Post-War Britain: How the Personal Got Political (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), 72. Details of the GLF rally assault come from here.
Reverend Father Fuck: Miles, London Calling, 305–306.
“Roast pig, roast pig, roast pig”: Neville, Hippie Hippie Shake, 3.
“It’s like 1940 here”…“gonna be America’s”: Ray Coleman, Lennon: The Definitive Biography (New York: HarperPerennial, 1992), 565–66.
“the Rome of today”: Ibid., 566.
EIGHT: PICCADILLY TOM
Interviews with: Peter Brown, Carol Drinkwater, Rupert Lycett Green, David Grigg, Joseph Morgan, John Reid, Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, Neil Sedaka, Edward Sexton, Joan Sexton, Christopher Tarling.
“It seems that at the moment we are in a transitional stage”: Karl Dallas, speaking in “Towards 2001: Fashion Marketing,” Tailor & Cutter, March 26, 1971. The panel consisted of Karl Dallas, Barry Grigg, Gordon Deighton, Eric Joy, and Tommy Nutter. All quotes in this section come from the transcript, which is extremely long and discursive. For clarity, I have condensed and edited, though I have not changed any direct quotes or altered the meaning of the discussion.
An irascible, brilliant craftsman: My understanding of Eric Joy is due to Rupert Lycett Green, who worked with him at Blades. Further evidence of his tetchy nature can be found in Jonathan Aitken, The Young Meteors (New York: Atheneum, 1967), 265: “This country has got just as many stuck-up and snobbish young people as it ever had,” Joy said. “Look at me. If ever there was a bloke who ought to be a beneficiary of the classless society it’s me…Whenever anyone starts telling me about the classless society, I just crease up.”
up to nine hours at a stretch: “Blackouts Will Total Nine Hours Daily,” The Guardian, February 16, 1972. The details about trains, banks, and milk deliveries also come from here.
“little notette”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, February 17, 1972. DN. The featured notes come from this letter.
“She became very tanned”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, undated, c. August 1972. DN.
“Hope you are working hard”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, January 1973. DN.
“Not much trade”: Ibid.
“If you have any ideas”: Ibid.
“Do we have to mention that?”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, “Who Needs Shows When You’re Your Own Shop Window?” Evening Standard, March 21, 1973.
he was named to the annual World’s Best Dressed List: Stanley Costin, “Tommy Nutter—New Boy in Savile Row,” Men’s Wear, January 27, 1972.
“label”…“status symbol”: Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, “You Too Can Win at Clothesmanship…,” Evening Standard, February 23, 1972.
“far too flashy”…“look like Andy Capp”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Aileen Doherty, “Gentleman Jackson!,” Daily Mail, December 17, 1984. Tommy mentions the rhinestones in Alan Cartnal, “A Return to Male Glamour,” Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1975.
“It was a big job”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Aileen Doherty, “Gentleman Jackson!”
“I was rather upset”: Tommy Nutter, interviewed on My Kind of Music, BBC Radio Brighton, September 20, 1980. Elton appeared as Donald Duck in Central Park on September 13, 1980. Bob Mackie was responsible for the costume.
“All of a sudden Jagger just walked up”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Cartnal, “A Return to Male Glamour.”
Jagger elbowed his way through a mosh pit: The most vivid account of the Jagger wedding is “Mick Jagger Rocks His Own Wedding Reception in Saint-Tropez,” Rolling Stone, June 10, 1971.
Bianca wore white Yves Saint Laurent: Bianca Jagger describes her own wedding dress in “Bianca Jagger Remembers Yves Saint Laurent,” The Guardian, December 14, 2008.
“Jagger look”: Austin Reed press release surveying Tommy’s career and achievements, March 1979. DN.
“When I first said I wanted to go to Tommy”: Bianca Jagger, quoted in Molly Parkin, “Sparkling Bianca,” The Sunday Times, August 27, 1972.
numerous fittings: Ibid.
an eighth of an inch shorter: Tommy notes this in Robert Colacello, “Tommy Nutter, the Tailor,” Interview, August 1973.
“It was part of my liberation”: Jagger, “Bianca Jagger Remembers Yves Saint Laurent.”
“just like a man’s”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Nutter’s New Man,” The Yorkshire Post, April 28, 1982.
She took Tommy’s own jacket: Tommy Nutter, My Kind of Music interview.
“We’ve been making some lovely clothes”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, undated, c. August 1972. DN.
at the Oval watching a cricket match: Photograph in the Hulton Archive, Getty Images, #2633097.
“discussing life”: “Eye,” Women’s Wear Daily, November 16, 1972.
“I can’t stand by her”: Marina Schiano, quoted in Rosemary Kent, “Eye View: Camping Out,” Women’s Wear Daily, November 13, 1972. Bianca’s attire at the art exhibition is also noted here.
“Bianca arrives at a Vogue studio”: Anthony Scaduto, Mick Jagger: Everybody’s Lucifer (New York: David McKay Compa
ny, Inc., 1974), 371.
“I certainly don’t want too many”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Nutters Attract Women’s Press to the Row,” Men’s Wear, September 7, 1972.
“harder to please”…“around the place”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Felicity Green, “Tailor Made for Joan,” Daily Mirror, October 3, 1972. See also Prudence Glynn, “The Construction Business,” The Times, November 21, 1972, in which Tommy is quoted as saying: “Bill Blass, the American designer, complained that last time he was in, the shop was full of women.”
“Every young boy’s dream”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Tommy Nutter, Tailor to the Famous,” Honey, December 1975. He credits this phone call with putting him “on the road to fame” in John Hemsley, “The £500 Suit That Made Me Look Fat!,” The Reading Chronicle, January 6, 1979.
“She’s so magical”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Colacello, “Tommy Nutter, the Tailor.”
“Bianca has been around this week”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, August 14, 1975. DN.
Bianca Jagger dangling off his arm: Aileen Mehle, “Suzy Says,” syndicated society column, April 21, 1973. Mehle gives a guest list and says Peter paid for it all. Further aesthetic details (the bouffant hairdos, etc.) come from several photographs of the party. DN.
all of them were stolen: Timothy Everest recounts the story in Stuart Husband, “Rock on Tommy,” The Independent on Sunday, March 5, 2006.
NINE: LIBERTINES
Interviews with: Peter Brown, Jimmy Clark, Simon Doonan, Carol Drinkwater, David Grigg, Lady Fiona Montagu, Joseph Morgan, David Nutter, Edward Sexton, Joan Sexton, Christopher Tarling.
“Dear David”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, undated, c. April 1973. TN.
junkies and homeless camps: A vivid picture of the East Village circa 1971 is painted in Ada Calhoun, St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016), 165–89.
$2 “contribution”: David could not recall the exact amount. This detail (and several others) comes from Tim Lawrence, Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004), 1.
“Once you walked into the Loft”: David Mancuso, quoted in Tim Lawrence, “Love Saves the Day: David Mancuso and the Loft,” Placed, 2007 (www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2014/1/4/love-saves-the-day-david-mancuso-and-the-loft-placed-2007). Accessed September 9, 2016. To understand the original Loft, I consulted several sources beyond David Nutter’s vivid memory. Another interview with Mancuso was conducted at the Red Bull Music Academy on June 10, 2016. A good oral history taking in the Loft is Lisa Robinson, “Boogie Nights,” Vanity Fair, January 6, 2010. A writer who goes by “Apollo” has produced an excellent and extensive personal history, “House Music 101,” which is archived online (www.livingart.com/raving/articles/housemusic101-07.htm). Accessed September 10, 2016. “Issue 7” deals directly with the Loft.
male models posing with a transgender Puerto Rican dancer: Michael Gross, Focus (New York: Atria Books, 2016), 204–205. Gross’s chapter on Bill King is one of the few comprehensive biographical examinations that exist on the photographer. Another is Stephen Fried, “Fashion’s Dark King,” Vanity Fair, August 1994. However, David Nutter questions the accuracy of some of Fried’s claims.
“became a different, much less nice person”: Erica Crome, quoted in Gross, Focus, 206.
there was always the Sanctuary: I cross-checked David’s memories of gay clubs in the early 1970s with several sources. For the Sanctuary, see Bill Brewster, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (New York: Grove Press, 2014), 142–45. For the Tenth Floor, see Lawrence, Love Saves the Day, 75–81. A good source for archived memories of clubs that would otherwise be forgotten is www.disco-disco.com. Accessed December 2, 2016.
“discotheque pour monsieur”: “Small Talk,” Interview, July 1973.
“I’m here promoting my name”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Robert Colacello, “Tommy Nutter the Tailor,” Interview, August 1973.
“a mix of everything”: Ibid. Tommy also discusses the new style in “Nutter’s New Phase,” Men’s Wear, November 25, 1977. In notes for an unwritten autobiography, Tommy cites The Sting and The Great Gatsby (released in 1973 and 1974 respectively) as influences on this evolving style. DN.
“I suppose they’ll shove me”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Colacello, “Tommy Nutter the Tailor.” All quotes and details from the Colacello interview come from here.
the Continental Baths: A fascinating firsthand account of what the baths were like in their heyday is Richard Goldstein’s “A Night at the Continental Baths,” New York, September 17, 1973. Tommy had visited just two months prior.
watching soap operas: Tommy notes this in Colacello, “Tommy Nutter the Tailor.” David Grigg bought him the wine each day as part of his shop duties.
sweaters purchased at the Chelsea Antiques Fair: Tommy mentions this in “Tommy Nutter,” Style, May 23, 1970.
Ian McKellen in the pages of Vogue: Vogue, July 1973.
eight-week stage spectacular: Cilla Black, What’s It All About? (London: Ebury Press, 2003), 212.
“in a world being overtaken by blue denim”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Walter Logan, “Letter from London Notes a Revolution” (syndicated article), August 11, 1973. DN.
“I know people can’t believe it”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, “Who Needs Shows When You’re Your Own Shop Window?” Evening Standard, March 14, 1973.
“Perhaps, if clothing is an indicator of national spirit”: “British Tailoring Died a Bit (But Not Totally) with the End of Swinging London,” Financial Post, May 12, 1973.
“I felt it only right to compose a few lines”: Edward Sexton to David Nutter, letter, January 1974. DN. Reproduced with permission from Mr. Sexton.
a time-honored practice for Savile Row: Walter Logan, “English Tailoring Firm Moves to U.S. Market” (syndicated article), March 31, 1974.
“It overlooks the sea”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, October 9, 1973. DN. Tommy seems to have located this flat as early as May 1973, according to a letter that month from Christopher Tarling to David Nutter: “Tommy’s going to buy a flat in Brighton. He’s seen one he likes and he’s trying at the moment to get a mortgage.” Edward claims he helped Tommy secure the mortgage.
“I love it”: Tommy Nutter, interviewed on My Kind of Music, BBC Radio Brighton, September 20, 1980.
threatened rent increase: “Savile Row Cut-Up over Rising Rents,” The Evening News, September 9, 1974.
Brighton had been a refuge for queer people: A good starting point for the queer history of Brighton is Rose Collis, The New Encyclopedia of Brighton (Brighton: Brighton & Hove City Libraries, 2012). In 1989, a group of local gays and lesbians also founded “Brighton Ourstory” to collect and preserve material about the town’s LGBTQ past. Unfortunately, the initiative closed, though some of the history is still available online (www.brightonourstory.co.uk). Accessed June 3, 2016.
could not have cared less about the trial: “The first thing he did when we started dating was to give me a book about the trial,” said Lady Montagu. “But I wasn’t interested in his sex life—I was far more worried that he had so much energy and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up with him. I think part of the reason he married me was that I was non-judgmental, and he ALSO thought I’d be good for Beaulieu.” See Wendy Leigh, “Lady Montagu of Beaulieu: I Had Three Nervous Breakdowns Trying to Run My Estate,” The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/period-property/11993816/Lady-Montagu-of-Beaulieu-I-had-three-nervous-breakdowns-trying-to-run-my-estate.html). Accessed November 14, 2015.
“men and girls came and went”: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Scribner, 2004), 32.
a habit of flouting social hierarchies: Lord Montagu, quoting Peter Wildeblood, owns up to and discusses this personal
ity quirk in his Wheels Within Wheels: An Unconventional Life (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000), 99.
Their matching Nutters suits: Details about the suits come from the Beaulieu archive (National Motor Museum), which still has them in storage. The archive also supplied me with an undated clipping about the ball from the Daily Mirror. Lady Fiona Montagu loved her suit so much she would continue to wear it intermittently for decades, disguising moth holes with sticking plaster and white chalk.
a schedule of the night’s festivities: Carol Drinkwater has kept the black matchbook.
disqualified from the Charleston competition: Nigel Dempster, “Great Gatsby! What This Quartet (And I) Did at the Weekend,” Daily Mail, October 21, 1974.
“A lasting memory for all of us”: Ibid.
TEN: MUSCLE QUEENS AND MOZART RECORDS
Interviews with: Peter Brown, Tom Gilbey, David Grigg, Bertram Keeter, Tony King, Joseph Morgan, David Nutter, John Reid, Jackie Rogers, Edward Sexton, Joan Sexton.
signed the lease on a loft of his own: According to his diary, David signed on September 9, 1974.
“We thought we’d do a number”: John Lennon, quoted in David Buckley, Elton: The Biography (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2007), 178.
guests like Uri Geller: Ibid.
once been occupied by Valentino: David describes it as the “Valentino building” in his diary, as does Prudence Glynn in “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” The Times, January 25, 1975.
“Peacock Revolution”…“a remnant sale”: Hardy Clarke, “The Year of the Drainpipe,” The Evening News, January 9, 1975.
“moderation will return to men’s fashion”: Rupert Lycett Green, quoted in Ibid.
“Fashion doesn’t exist”: Michael Fish, quoted in Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, The Day of the Peacock: Style for Men 1963–1973 (London: V&A Publishing, 2011), 136.
a trio of shows premiering simultaneously: A copy of the opening reception invitation is held by David Nutter.
brown suit with beige rolled lapels: Erma Bombeck, “Suited for a Gallery,” At Wit’s End (syndicated gossip column), March 20, 1975. A small note on the exhibition can also be found in the Daily News Record, January 29, 1975. A picture of Tommy at the gallery, taken a few days after the reception, is held by Getty in the New York Post Archive (#532198470).
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