Headline Trip

Adam Kimmel goes west for spring '10, roping Marlboro Man photographer Jim Krantz into shooting his look book. [WWD]

Despite bankruptcy, Christian Lacroix forges ahead with a couture show on July 7. Couture, daahleen! [The Cut]

Patricia Field can't follow Vivienne Westwood's "mind-process." [The Advocate]

Guy Trebay improves model and race relations backstage in Milan. [NY Times]

Billy Eichner thinks that Black Eyed Pea should change his name to Will.i.am.probably.gay. [Facebook]

Priest and drag queen bursts out of the closet with a hit dance single. [On Top]

Father Anthony, aka Big Mama Capretta

Headline Trip

Following Burberry last week, today it was announced that Matthew Williamson will return to London Fashion Week in September, celebrating LFW's 25th anniversary, after seven years in New York.

John Galliano, too, will show his Christian Dior couture collection at the Dior salon on Avenue Montaigne for the first time in ten years. [WWD]

Forgetting who's modeled in her collections, Vivienne Westwood asked "Who is Daisy Lowe?" at her son's art opening. But really, who can keep track? [The Sun]

Apparently Forbes can. They've counted down the highest paid models in the last year. Even without Victoria's Secret, Gisele scores an easy win. [Forbes]

What better time than retirement (yes, people, it's true) for a monograph on Maison Martin Margiela? Conceived as a work of art—with an embroidered white-linen cover, ribbon markers, twelve booklets and silver ink—it drops in October. [Rizzoli]

Giedre Dukauskaite, Lithuanian model and face of Prada, heads to Women agency.

Giedre Dukauskaite

Awkward Bound

Go west this spring with prairie prints, dusty hobo overalls and your most ill-fitting Sunday best.

photography & styling Louis Park
art director Ann Kim
make-up Iwa Park using Mac Pro
hair Kunio Kohzaki using Therapi
models Jessica @ Select, Amber @ Select,
Roma @ Select, Chris T @ Premier, Patrick @ Storm
location London, England
thanks Neo2


left: top Paul Smith, pants Form / middle: sweater Fred Perry, pants Qasimi / right: scarf H&M, top Fred Perry, pants Edward Sexton
left: top Fred Perry, coat Eley Kishimoto, belt Beyond Retro, bangles H&M / shirt Adidas Originals, trench Burberry Prorsum, jacket Qasimi


left: shirt & jacket Merc, vest Vivienne Westwood, pants Diesel, tie Paul Smith / middle: dress Eley Kishimoto / right: dress SteveJ&YoniP
left: shirt Paul Smith, jacket Prada, pants Merc, bow tie Beyond Retro / top Fred Perry, trench Prada, hat Beyond Retro, necklace Burberry Prorsum


left: top Luella / right: dress Vivienne Westwood


polo Fred Perry, dress Reem, blazer Y-3
left: dress Paul Smith, cardigan Fred Perry, shoes Beyond Retro / middle: scarf & apron Beyond Retro, dress Vivienne Westwood, shoes Paul Smith / right: shirt Merc, track pants Adidas Originals, overalls Diesel, shoes Beyond Retro


jacket Qasimi, shoes Prada, bow tie Paul Smith
left: shirt Paul Smith, top Fred Perry, outside top Y-3, pants Merc, hat Paul Smith / right: polo & t-shirt Prada, top shirt Merc, pants Fred Perry, belts Beyond Retro

Never Too Old for Macaroons

Pamela Anderson, the busty 42-year-old femme fatale, pranced around Vivienne Westwood's catwalk in a tutu, proving that the notion of over-the-hill is over-the-hill. There's also been a runway revival of sorts for a couple of veteran models. Erin Wasson may have RVCA, but she also walked for Balmain, and mother of two Liya Kebede opened for Balenciaga. And let's not forget those Louis Vuitton ads with Madonna. Oh, cougars.

Otherwise, Bernhard Willhelm's collection was one part greatest hits, one part more of the same. If you haven't picked up a piecey Willhelm tartan plaid dress yet, don't worry, there are plenty more to come for fall. There were also gold, life-size banana barrettes and sheer multi-colored hoods topping an array of dip-dyed tunics and argyle knits.

Like many Paris designers, Romeo Gigli spun the idea of menswear for his first collection for Io Ipse Idem: angular shoulders on blazers, impeccable men's suiting and beautifully tailored coats, many with a swing to them that the models accentuated in their dance-like presentation. We came, we saw, we coveted. And the towers of macaroons, strawberries and kumquats were a nice touch.

—Bee-Shyuan Chang

London Fashion Week: Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood's oft-rambled mantra, “Women are always trying to be men—they are not men, they are women,” rang out from every spackled pore at her Red Label's fall '09 collection tonight at the Olympia in Hammersmith. You couldn't get more womanly; her naughty schoolgirl ensembles were the living embodiment of the male fantasy female.

Ex-Rolling Stone wife Jo Wood swaggered down the runway as a domineering headmistress in a three-piece trouser suit, her womanly shape guiding a gaggle of young, lithe models. Aptly dressed as her abiding students, they were split into a kind of school caste system. The paler of the waifs had gothy kohl eyes and hair dyed black, while goody-goody Swots practiced their pony steps in smart blazers, old-school tie-stripes and hiked-up minis (these are, of course, Westwood schoolgirls). The sporty set wore striped school scarves and unruly hair that said they smoke cigarettes in the girl's bathroom and send inappropriate notes to boys in math class.

Though a little costumey at times, the collection earned high marks by casting women not as lingerie-clad kittens, but self-assured, self-made types, with strong shapes, blood reds, leather and lots of structure, the buzzword of the week. One journalist, spying stiff, starched collars and exaggerated shoulders, turned to fellow front-rowers and purred, “Architectural, I knew it."

Part of the success lies in the fact that these sartorial nymphs were not necessarily women as they actually are, but women as we want them to be, much like Pamela Anderson, Westwood’s new muse and the face of her spring campaign—apparently because she digs her “irony." Backstage, Anderson bounced around in the same sheer blouse that made her nipples seem like saucers in Juergen Teller's print ads, billing and cooing with the orange-haired dame, saying, “Yesterday I was pornography, now I'm considered art.” Isn't it ironic?

—Hynam Kendall




Vivienne Westwood

New York Fashion Week: Day 1

Mary Poppins must have been the honorary muse to kick off Fashion Week because yesterday was one blustery day.

It was also a day of international male debuts, most notably Jurgen Oeltjenbruns, who returned to the American menswear scene with a well-tailored collection inspired by cold-weather uniforms. Those Germans always know how to keep toasty.


Jurgen Oeltjenbruns

Next was the debut women's line from Bibhu Mohapatra, formerly of J. Mendel and originally from India. A highlight from the collection was a hand-loomed peacock feather coat that this dandy wanted to rip off the model and strut out the door with. Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo did the styling, resulting in a calm and cool 20s' sensibility.


Bibhu Mohapatra

Finally, former Bill Blass designer Prabal Gurung sent out a stunning collection that turned out the ladies in the house—as well as some of the menz, who were giving snaps and "Gurl betta wurk!" shout-outs. One of them, our fave drag queen Brandy Wine, was the first to speak to Prabal when Bill Blass folded, telling him to keep the momentum going and launch his own line. Ta da!

Dinner was supposed to be a break from the fashion pack, but when Linda Wells and Jon Bon Jovi rolled into The Little Owl, all eyes were on the center table.

Oh, and you heard it hear first. Kesner, New York's swankest new men's store, will be carrying Westwood Man for fall, the only place in the U.S. to carry the line. Here's hoping the recession has lifted by September!

—Cator Sparks

London Fashion Week: Vivienne Westwood

Hynam Kendall...

When Vivienne Westwood—all five foot nothing of her—attended the London premiere of Sex and The City, made it to the 20-minute mark, then stormed out scoffing, “I thought this was supposed to be a movie about fashion,” she raised many an eyebrow in the business. Sure, her credence and reputation in the industry are as solid as the mannequins that wear her ruffled vintage-inspired pieces so well, but it gave her detractors the ammunition they needed should the London showing of her Red Label not measure up.

So was the most anticipated show of London Fashion Week the disappointment Sarah Jessica Parker and SATC's producers likely hoped for? Of course not. This is the Grande Dame of British fashion. Grays, blues and pinks blended beautifully, gold—lots of gold, just like Gucci predicted—was tempered by light-colored accessories, hats and visors were worn off the face and, yes, florals sprouted everywhere, though thankfully not in the form of Marks & Spencer picnicwear for the office midlifer. There were also suits tailored with the season’s favored boyfriend-pegged pant legs. The audacious, didactic and theatrical show got every trend right, even as the pieces fell off the lithe frames of Deyn, Chung et al.

But who cares about the clothes? Back in the world of tabloid journalism, it's the celeb quota that gets the column inches, and much like the sartorial savvy on show, Vivienne didn’t disappoint. That skinny little teenager from Harry Potter who'll soon wear Chanel with the best of them sat beside scenesters and Bob Geldoff offspring Pixie and Peaches. Erin O'Connor pulled mid-market model Mylene Class away from autograph hunters. And—in the most crucial of celeb sightings this season—a well-manned Dita Von Teese got her people to ask a journalist to move so that she may take his seat. Vivienne seems to have created the very thing she wanted all those months ago: a dramatic show about fashion.

Punk Private Eye

More detective work from Haidee Findlay-Levin...

As I suspected, the controversy surrounding Malcolm McLaren and Simon Easton [first reported here in April, then again in July] has really blown up in the press, with furious attacks from Malcolm McLaren against alleged con artist Simon Easton, followed by equally vitriolic and somewhat inconsistent retaliations. There is not only the matter of Seditionaries' provenance and punk's legacy, but huge sums of money have exchanged hands in the selling of these artifacts, threats of legal action have been hurled and now established institutions such as Sotheby’s, Christie's and the Met appear concerned with the authenticity of their collections. For the sake of simplicity, I thought it best to actually show you the differences between authentic McLaren/Westwood pieces from the '70s and fakes sold to Damien Hirst by Easton, or loaned to him for consideration, alongside notes from McLaren himself. These photos are all from Hirst's office. (By the way, if you're as intrigued by all of this as much as we are, Paul Gorman is an established authority on this period and these clothes. Check out his very informative blog.)

Click images to enlarge...



AUTHENTIC:
This Anarchy Shirt is a 1960's vintage Wemblex shirt that McLaren & Westwood customized. When McLaren couldn't personally wear out the lot of 50 vintage shirts they'd bought, they decided to customize the remaining 30-40 shirts and sell them in their store at 430 Kings Road. The result was called the "Anarchy Shirt" because the slogans refer to the Anarchist movements in Europe. McLaren was a student during the 1968 French student revolts, which framed his critique.

- The cut is short and square.
- The collar is rounded and has a pin through it, a popular style in the 60s.
- Parts of the shirt have been turned inside out, showing the interior pinstripe print only on the collar, shoulders, facing, cuff and bottom edging of the shirt as a key element McLaren & Westwood created was to make clothes look "wrong." The rest of the shirt is plain.
- The label is a faded original Seditionaries label.
- The color is reddish.
- The patch is a portrait of Karl Marx. Only his portrait was ever used because McLaren and Westwood liked his beard, and because he was a writer of ideas, and not a politician. It was his book that started the Socialist and workers movements in the 19th Century. He also lived in London at one point.
- Slogans are all written in neat handwriting using a twig on dyed patches which had not fully dried. All slogans refer to the Anarchist movement, i.e. "A bas de Coca Cola" (popular French anti-American graffiti), "Only Anarchists are Pretty" and "Buenaventura Durruti and the Black Hand Gang" (anarchists in the Spanish Civil War).
- Buttons have been replaced with simple studs.
- Stenciling on sleeve is in small type.
- Stripes and washes of color are hand-painted onto the shirt.
- The back of shirt does not have patches or other detailing, only simple washes of color.




FAKE:
- This shirt has the wrong spelling in the slogan. It says "Buanoven... durutti..." instead of "Buenaventura Durutti"
- It has poor handwriting
- The colors and buttons are wrong.
- The label is not white with black type.
- The slogan "God Save the Queen" was never used on this shirt, which had nothing to do with the Sex Pistols.
- Says McLaren: "We never put anything on the back. There's nothing more gross than that! The shirt was never meant to be a sandwich board. We didn't treat people like that. There were, believe it or not, even within the punk anti-fashion aesthetic, a certain sartorial elegance. So much on the original was considered, whereas this is a mishmash."




FAKE:
- This has the wrong color completely, and it has no stripes.
- The cut is different.
- The collar is pointed, not round.
- It has epaulettes and strange black buttons.
- The slogan is wrong. "Fuck the Rich Up the Arse" was a slogan used on the Oliver Twist Dickens T-shirts, but never on the Anarchy shirt, which was connected to anarchic movements in Spain, France and elsewhere.
- The patch has the portrait of the wrong man, Lenin.




FAKE:
- McLaren calls this shirt "absurd." He & Westwood never made any prints with American Express. It was not a card that was so common at the time. Also, the cut of shirt is totally contemporary.


Finally, here are more recent developments...
- Westwood and her son with McLaren, Joe Corre, have given their support in stopping Easton's activities.
- In an email from Damien Hirst to McLaren, Murray Fenton was confused with Murray Blewett, a former Westwood employee. Fenton, who openly manufactures reproductions, believes that some of the shirts that were bought from him were tampered with and, unbeknownst to him, passed off as authentic. Murray Fenton is not, in any way, in cahoots with Simon Easton.
- Testimony has come to light from someone who bought a fake from Easton online, argued with him about its authenticity and eventually got his money back, but not before concluding Easton is ignorant of the subject. Another person bought an alleged fake from Easton and is still waiting to be reimbursed. Meanwhile, he has sent the item to a London reporter.
- Paul Gorman, a major authority on Seditionaries, has looked at the Hirst clothes and testified they are all fakes.
- Examples from the Met exhibit Anglomania are said to be potentially fake. The Met has been contacted and said they will investigate.
- Someone at the vintage store Resurrection had a bad run-in with Easton, apparently considering doing an exhibit of his "collection" until it was realized the clothes were fake.
- Easton keeps pretending there are clothes McLaren doesn't know about because of licenses, etc. Sure, St. Marks place is filled with fakes, but that is not what Easton is selling to collectors and museums. In his postings on eBay, he claims the clothes to be not only "original" and "circa 1977" but that he is the only dealer "affiliated" with McLaren, the only dealer who has sold to the Met, and the only dealer to have his clothes photographed in Vogue.

And so the saga continues....

The Punk Plot Thickens

Haidee Findlay-Levin puts her detective hat back on...

In the first week of July, about three months after I posted a blog on this website concerning the selling of fake Seditionaries clothing, originally made by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, I got a note from the editor saying that the suspected con artist, Simon Easton, had at last responded to his attempts to get his side of the story prior to publication. Naturally, Mr. Easton was none too pleased with what I had uncovered, and put out his own statement in an attempt to discredit me, my writing, my academic credentials, my knowledge of fashion history and what had gone down in general. But what I wrote was a story told to me by Malcolm McLaren himself. No one likes the messenger, however, and I had clearly touched a nerve.

We wanted to post the response from Mr. Easton, but we also wanted to get a response from Malcolm (or Damien Hirst, who also claims he was a victim of the con), confirming the facts of the story that I had been told. I decided to send Malcolm the response and to keep him informed. Away on a project, he responded a couple of weeks later, furious and eager to justify and confirm the story, absolutely.

In the interim, I learned that eBay had removed Mr. Easton’s listings and warned customers against any further transactions with him. I also received email exchanges between Malcolm and Damien regarding the matter, in addition to a series of emails between Malcolm and Rizzoli. It seems that Mr. Easton, who had self-published a book on Seditionaries that carried a foreword by Malcolm, had apparently pitched the book to the reputable book publisher, which was about to republish it, or a form of it, and possibly had an exhibition in the works as well. Malcolm was furious that Mr. Easton, whom he says misled him into writing the foreword for a book that he now believed was 80% fake, was further using his name to establish himself as an authority and important collector of original Seditionaries. Malcolm was also surprised that Rizzoli, along with himself, Damien, a slew of vintage dealers, and even auction houses and museums, had apparently been duped by Mr. Easton, whom Malcolm feels is not only discrediting the provenance of the original work, but also profiting from it.

Malcolm contacted Damien to discuss the matter further. He recalled being shown at least three garbage bags of clothes that Damien bought directly from Mr. Easton, as well as from Sotheby’s—all fake, according to Malcolm. He was first alarmed by the sheer quantity of it. How could so much of the stuff still exist, considering these were originally 50's and 60's clothes found in thrift stores and then personally customized by Malcolm and Vivienne out of their bathroom and kitchen with rudimentary and experimental techniques involving stamps, bleach, ink and potato cuts borrowed from their child. These pieces were never part of a large-scale operation, nor were they couture gowns to be preserved for eternity; they were clothes made and worn by punks, most likely to the bitter end.

This was reiterated to me again last weekend by Malcolm himself. Mr. Easton claims that this was not the case, and that many more clothes were made after Malcolm separated from Vivienne, and sold for many years at Boy London, a store on Carnaby Street. While this is certainly true, and I remember them well, these clothes were distinctly different from the originals and they all carried the Boy London label rather than the Seditionaries label. To Malcolm, not only were the labels cause for alarm, but the fabrics, thread and ink were noticeably different from those used in the 70s. Then there was Malcolm’s impression that the questionable pieces seemed to be by the hand of more than one person.

In Mr. Easton’s press release, he claims that he is not being sued by Damien Hirst, but that he is suing the artist. Yet in the email exchange between Malcolm and Damien, it's clear that although Damien had set out to sue Mr. Easton, he was advised to drop the case by his lawyers, concerned that they in fact had no case without Vivienne’s testimony. By withdrawing, under British law, Damien is under an automatic gag order and won't be able to bring the case to court again. Malcolm, on the other hand, is determined to retain the provenance of a legacy created by himself and Vivienne Westwood, as well as stop anyone who attempts to rewrite their history.

Over the last few days, I have seen and spoken to Malcolm several times and he is taking the matter very seriously. He has left no stone unturned in putting an end to Mr. Easton’s operation. He has contacted various members of the press, notifying them of the alleged scam. He says he has also contacted the Met (which has had dealings with Mr. Easton in the past, verified in a New York Times article prior to the Anglomania show), the V&A (which Malcolm believes owns several fakes) and other institutions and auction houses. Further, he has recently found several people who say they were approached by Mr. Easton to help make alleged fakes, one of whom agreed to be involved, one who did not, but who still has the relevant correspondence.

Only yesterday Malcolm received a call from Christie's requesting that he come in, at their expense, to verify the 80 or so pieces that are about go on the block in an upcoming auction. It was their feeling that as a result of the frenzy to separate the authentic from the inauthentic that original pieces could become among the most important and valuable examples of wearable art to date.

So what started off in my first blog as a colorful yet disturbing story of intrigue has had quite the snowball effect. By the end of the week, I'm sure all the gray areas will be fleshed out as more people come forward. I imagine I won’t be the only person absorbed with this scandal, nor the only one writing about it. To date, counterfeits and appropriations have become part of a huge crime syndicate, some say even larger than the drug trade. Ironically, there is a degree of anarchy here: new punks defacing original punk artifacts, allegedly conning the public and public institutions in the process. You heard it here first.

Simon Easton's response, criticizing me, my article and all the information therein...

FIRST EDITION Publishing
Press Release – March 2008
Haidee Findlay-Levin article in “Hint Mag”

An ill informed, factually incorrect and badly written article has appeared under the by-line of Haidee Findlay-Levin on Hint Mag, an internet based fashion-gossip website.

The author of the article refers to ‘SEX & Seditionaries’ the book and has obviously mixed it up with a Japanese book produced by Jun Takahashi which is also referred to in the article. Findlay-Levin describes the cover artwork of ‘SEX & Seditionaries’ as featuring a series of pornographic playing cards. However, this is in fact the cover artwork of the Japanese book. A simple visit to a reputable book shop, by Ms Findlay-Levin, to inspect a copy of ‘SEX & Seditionaries’ would have provided her with a better understanding of the subject and the artwork of the book she purports to criticise in her misguided article.

Regardless of Malcom McLaren’s alleged comments about the ‘SEX & Seditionaries’ book it should be noted that McLaren only agreed to write the introduction to this book after he had viewed over 100 images that were to be included within it. Only once he’d seen the books contents and artwork did he happily agree to write for it.

Ms Findlay-Levin’s article states: “After all, there weren’t many of these clothes made in the first place”. Again this shows her total lack of knowledge on the subject and the way Westwood & McLaren operated in that period. Punk, as a fashion movement, as opposed to the music, lasted from around 1975 to 1980. In addition Westwood and McLaren still produced Seditionaries clothing to order after their shop closed down in 1979, and for a year or so these clothes were also sold through BOY on the King’s Road with a ‘Seditionaries’ label attached. To include the above quote is not only misleading, it is mischievous. After all even McLaren acknowledges he doesn’t know how many of the clothes were produced, and for much of the period he was touring in the USA with the Sex Pistols. Westwood and McLaren were living very separate lives for most of the period.

Again, Ms Findlay-Levin’s scurrilous suggestion: “that the fingerprints of someone young” (the author is 45, indeed went to Central St Martins to get his degree, and has not been back for nearly twenty five years) “and perhaps not one person” is inflammatory. To suggest that someone (anyone) can, at will, enter St Martins and order a few T-shirts from the students shows no understanding of academic life – perhaps this is what Ms Findlay-Levin’s past and suspect journalistic piece are sadly lacking!

Finally, on the article, Ms Findlay-Levin states that calls to the author of ‘SEX & Seditionaries’ have not be returned. I have spoken to the author and he assures me that he has never heard of or ever been approached by Ms Findlay-Levin.

I can comment, with some authority, on the claims made by Ms Findlay-Levin in her article about Damien Hirst. I took Mr Hirst to law, NOT the other way around. This can be substantiated by simply referring to the official UK Court records. Further, I am happy, on request, to supply my solicitor’s contact details to collaborate these facts.

No further comment will be entered into with regard to this article.

Email from Malcolm McLaren to myself following Mr. Easton's response...

Dear Haidee,

This is my response to your recently posted blog about Simon Easton and the Damien Hirst affair. I have subsequently investigated this myself as I personally feel so upset as to what has happened. I am presently writing a new letter to ... those in the media that I know...

I would like very much for you to post my responses so far which I am forwarding you.

Talk to you tonight. Best regards, Malcolm

Statement from Mr. Easton regarding his removal from eBay...

Dear Customers,

I turned on my computer this morning to discover that eBay had suspended my trading account and end all my listings. All they bothered to send me is a standard email which does not clarify what it is that I did wrong so I'm confused.

I fail to understand why nobody at that company bothered to email me first or even pick up the phone - obviously is easier to react like Nazi.

What angers me most is that I have discovered that they have contacted everyone I have sold to in the past and told them not to pay for goods as 'its possible I may not complete the transaction' - obviously I am now a thief! All of you that I have traded with know full well I do my best to offer a good service and I really do not appreciate being treated by a faceless hostile business like I'm an axe murderer.

I'd like to tell eBay to stick their company where the sun don't shine, but obviously trading on eBay is the easiest way to do business with people all round the World.

I shall do my best to get myself 'un-supended' or I may just open another account.

I am very sorry if eBay has alarmed you in any way with their overreaction and immature behaviour...

best wishes,
Simon
www.PunkPistol.com

Letter from Malcolm McLaren to Rizzoli...

From: Office of Malcolm McLaren
Date: July 26, 2008 6:03:01 PM EDT
To: RIZZOLI USA
Subject: IMPORTANT FROM MALCOLM MCLAREN/ Fwd: Simon easton

It has come to my notice that you are intending to publish a book by Mr. Simon A Easton on the Sex and Seditionaries clothing that I designed with Vivienne Westwood back in the 70s. If you go ahead, I insist first of all that you withdraw my name and my essay from such a book. Mr. Easton does not have the right to use this essay beyond the self-published limited edition already released in the UK. I request a confirmation in writing from you regarding this. If I do not hear back from you by close of next Tuesday, July 29, I shall have no alternative but to gain legal advice and then decide on what action to take against both Rizzoli and Simon Easton.

I enclose a letter for your information that I have written to Damien Hirst (the artist) today. It is a shocking indictment of the malpractices of Mr. Simon A Easton and indeed the contents of this book you intend to publish bear that out. John McWhinnie, a book dealer I know that you are aware of, recently told me how Rizzoli were informed by Simon Easton that he won a lawsuit against Damien Hirst. This is entirely untrue.

I would find it remarkable that a publisher of such repute as Rizzoli would publish such a book after knowing all the real and genuine facts. It is your moral duty to inform the public, not misinform.

If you wish to contact me further, don't hesitate to call me as I am in NY until August 1

And finally, emails between Malcolm McLaren and Damien Hirst...

Hi Damien,

I am in New York presently. That little fraud, Simon Easton has raised his ugly head again. I am shocked and confused by the allegations that have come to me via John McWhinnie, a rare book dealer who has been asked to give a party for and on behalf of Simon Easton and his book to be soon published by Rizzoli. A book, I understand and have seen, that contains much of the clothing sold to you. Clothing we both know that pretends to be work and designs by yours truly in partnership with Vivienne Westwood at the time. I am simply furious about this. But I would like to know, did he sue you? Did he win? Was it a question that he demanded these fake clothes back and in turn, you demanded your money back? And is that what he is saying by the fact that he won a lawsuit against you? Can you throw more light on this? I want to take this up with Rizzoli but I need the facts. Bless you. Hope you are well wherever you are.

Best,
Malcolm


Dear Damien

We will certainly not stop until this man is thoroughly exposed as nothing less than a crook. I am at present sending out to all the press that I know to pick up the story.

It is extraordinary to think that a gagging order has been placed on you whilst this rogue has been allowed to continue to ply his trade and rob people of thousands. Not just collectors, but museums, auction houses, shops, and deceive even major and reputable art publishing houses. If that is how the UK justice system works, let's blow it up.

Yes, I think your legal team are an absolute disgrace and you should fire every single one of them. I have never ever thought any English lawyer is worth tuppence. They are cavalier, and never do their job properly.

But we will pick up the fight! That, you can rest assured. You should though, whatever the legal courts say, talk off the record to Tracy Emin asap. and get the message to Vivienne, because it is a thorough disgrace. Don't let these bastards in the UK justice system grind you down. They never did it to me. And I don't believe they should ever do it to someone like yourself.

Best as ever,
Malcolm


Malcolm, yeah I feel really really bad about it, unfortunately my legal team handled it in the wrong way and fucked it up for me, he didn't sue me at all, but your email pretty much spells out what's been going on, I will send you all the clothes if you like, and ill get my office to send you the names and contact addresses of steve at relic and the woman who helps with sothebys, also murry who works with vivian knows simon easton as he used to share a flat with him and he has stuff to say about him. Its a shocking story this business and the balls of the guy coming to you to write something, mental, I hope you work it out man, I'm sorry i can't help you more as my case collapsed as I said and I'm bound by a court agreement to leave it alone but good luck.


HI Damien,
I just received a note from the writer on the Hint blog and Easton's press release. He is obviously used to writing this garbage defending his wares. The style is clear. First and foremost, I was not happy to write for the book because of the jpegs he sent me but because of the other writers who were contributing like Jon Savage, Ted Polhemus. He did send some jpegs of the clothes but they could hardly be used as serious reference as they were tiny images with artwork graphics all over them. I didn't give it much thought at the time and only when I looked at the book, did I realize the truth.

Furthermore, he is trying to create a murky situation between 1979 when Seditionaries closed down and another rather sleazy store on the King's Road called Boy who were for a while trying to copy the clothes and use the label, Seditionaries. That, to the best of my knowledge, and I was still living in London and working with Vivienne for the next 4 years is entirely untrue. However, Vivienne did do things sometimes without my knowledge. But the important point to understand is that clothes made by McLaren/Westwood for their shops ended in 1979. He is trying to pretend that is not true, giving him some loophole in pretense that these clothes may be part of thousands sold through Boy. One thing is clear, the clothes sold to you were clothes made yesterday.

Now we have also discovered that he was an art student at St. Martin's. so we are getting closer to how these clothes were made. But what is really worrisome for me is, the final statement that he took you to law. What does he mean? He certainly doesn't say he won. That is for sure. Which is contrary of course to what he told Rizzoli. Can you let me know more about this fact?

I would much appreciate it.

Best,
Malcolm


Malcolm, I've asked my office to send you everything on monday, I took him to court and when I realised that even with your help I wouldn't be able to prove that the clothes were fake I reached an out of court agreement with him which is legally binding that I could never accuse him again of producing fakes and could never say that the clothes I bought from him were fake. I will send you all the clothes and whatever else you want, one of the guys who recognisaed some of the clothes as being made by him was an old punk called debdon, I paid his taxi fare to come in and see me, and he openly copies the clothes and sells em on camden market as copies, another guy came down from sheffield and he's called murray fenton he makes seditionaries copies too and has some originals and is a big fan and he had a story that punkpistol comissioned him to make copies that he then sold as real, ill get my office to give you everything we've got on monday baby.

Haidee Findlay-Levin puts on her detective hat...

Recently I had a dinner with Malcolm McLaren and his girlfriend Young Kim, as well as Gene Krell, the features editor of Vogue Asia and two other of Malcolm's friends. The conversation was highly entertaining, as it always is in the company of Malcolm or Gene. In fact, I imagine the two of them could be fantastic talk show hosts, jumping from subject to subject, from past to present, regaling everyone with fantastic anecdotes from their rowdy youth.

But one story really stuck with me, so much so that I pressed Malcolm for more details when I saw him again last weekend. Given my current obsession with publishing (increasingly a lost art), I asked about a particular book he had mentioned at dinner, one that showcased one of the most comprehensive collections of the famed Seditionaries collection that he and Vivienne Westwood designed in the mid-1970s. He later showed me the book and it truly is a special object, each garment exquisitely photographed on a flat surface and perfectly curated, from graphic T-shirts to a variety of multi-colored mohair sweaters, Peter Pan-collared shirts, fat ties and, inevitably, bondage trousers. There is no title or text of any kind, just a simple black cotton slipcover and a small edition number printed on the back. Malcolm is naturally pleased with the book and impressed with the vastness of the oeuvre depicted. He couldn’t think of anyone who had bought that many pieces, except possibly Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, who would come together to his and Vivienne's store, SEX, and buy one of each style of their punk and bondage clothing. Though the book's author is uncredited, Malcolm says it was put together with his knowledge and blessing by DJ and sometime streetwear designer Hiroshi Fujiwara, probably in collaboration with Jun Takahashi of Undercover.

Not long ago, Malcolm was asked to write the foreword—and did—to another book, this one compiled and self-published by London-based collector and dealer Simon Easton, who supplies Seditionaries to a variety of vintage stores around the world. He also loaned pieces to the Met's Anglomania exhibit two years ago on the eyebrow-raising condition that he be referred to only as Simon.

Here’s where it gets thick. More recently, Malcolm says he got a call from Damien Hirst, who apparently spent £80,000 on what he thought were original Seditionaries pieces, bought from the very same Simon Easton. Suspicious they may be fakes, Damien showed some of it to London vintage store Relick, renowned for its selection of Westwood, but alas, no confirmation. Damien also asked Kate Moss (I guess famous for wearing the stuff, though hardly an authority on it), but she, too, said she couldn’t be sure. Eventually he called Malcolm and asked him to verify the pieces' authenticity. Malcolm looked at the images he was sent and said he was certain they were not his work, but that they might have been something that Vivienne had created later on or had given permission to her team to rework. Malcolm did, however, feel what he was looking at had the fingerprints of someone young, and perhaps not one person. Damien—naturally furious at the prospect of being conned, whether he could afford to be or not—is talking with his lawyer and wants to use Malcolm's assessment in a lawsuit against Simon.

If fakes are being made, and it hasn't been proven, then it certainly raises questions about the veracity of other pieces coming from Simon. According to Malcolm, the well-regarded New York vintage store What Comes Around Goes Around unwittingly sold such knock-offs, either directly or indirectly from Simon. Which reminds me of an ex-roommate of a friend of mine in London who used to sell vintage Westwood. She had previously worked for Westwood and would keep me entertained with stories and impressions of her. I recall her asking me if I knew the store What Comes Around Goes Around in New York and to vouch for its high standards, which I did—and I do remember her mentioning that there was another man involved. At any rate, if true, it's a shame that such a respected shop could be victimized.

Another regrettable outcome of all of this is that now every Seditionaries credit comes into question. Just last week I was doing research in the London library of Condé Nast and came across an editorial in a current British Vogue featuring punk clothes with this credit: ”from the Seditionaries collection of Simon Easton." Of course I wondered if this were a dupe. After all, there weren’t many of these clothes made in the first place and those who were originally buying them were surely not saving them for posterity, but were rather performing or partying hard in them, as any true anarchist would.

Damien further told Malcolm that there is or was a small ring of Central St Martins students making these copies of Seditionaries, and that they were hired by a man who intimidated them into staying quiet about it. The alleged ringleader? Simon Easton. [Calls to Simon have not been returned.]

To add insult to injury, Malcolm finally received Simon’s self-published book, "Sex and Seditionaries," for which he had written the foreword. According to Malcolm, it's a poor imitation of Fujiwara's limited-edition book, with a cluttered layout and, in place of the black cotton slipcover, an image of pornographic playing cards similar to those sold at SEX. Worst of all, and this is where the mohair wool was really pulled over Malcolm’s eyes, he says it showcases a selection of knock-offs, which now, ironically, appear to be authenticated by him.

This wouldn't be the first time Seditionaries clothes were knocked off—a search on eBay will confirm this. So the next time someone tries to flog original Seditionaries to you, you'll want to do some serious homework first. And if you've already been suckered, I hope you find comfort in knowing you're not alone.

Backstage beauty at Vivienne Westwood...




Photos by Sonny Vandevelde

São Paulo Fashion Week

Vivienne Westwood spoke about her collaboration with Melissa, Brazilian makers of colorful plastic shoes who've previously collaborated with Judy Blame and Alexandre Herchcovitch, and took the opportunity to expound on American exploitation ("We're all going to die if it continues"), the virtues of Barack Obama, her manifesto on art and culture, why we must consume less and the real reason Naomi fell...



And here are the shoes, jelly plastic versions of Westwood classics, in a variety of Smucker's colors...