In the wake of Vivienne Westwood’s death, we explore the eclectic and revolutionary history of Westwood’s iconic London boutique, situated at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea
In October 1986, when asked about the plans for her S/S87 collection, Vivienne Westwood told, “I’m using my shop as a crucible. The stuff that’s in there is what will sell elsewhere… It’s kind of market research…” Westwood and her then partner Malcolm McLaren had opened their first Chelsea-based boutique in 1971, and it operated not only as a testing ground for global sales, but as a location of diverse and famed retail incarnations, selling the uniforms of socio-economic rebellion.
“At the time there were lots of couples that we knew that had shops,” explains Michael Costiff, founder of the famed West End club night Kinky Gerlinky, and who had a café in the Chelsea Antique Market in the early 70s. “Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark were up the road and our friends Jeff and Pam had a shop over Battersea Bridge selling Hawaiian shirts.”
After a month of renovations, the store’s interior had been covered with a spongy womb-like material sourced from the Pentonville Rubber Company, the walls defaced with anarchic and phallic graffiti and displaying whips, chains and puckered rubber skirts. SEX was presided over by the punk icon Jordan, clad in bondage gear and Mondrian style make-up, and Bella Freud, Chrissie Hynde and Alan Jones all worked there as shop assistants.
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