CLOTHES SHOPS, SPECIALIST

Agent Provocateur

Joe Corré helped his mother Vivienne Westwood develop the Westwood business. He met Serena Rees in a nightclub and together they founded the Agent Provocateur lingerie retailing business. They opened their first shop in Soho s Broadwick Street at the end of 1994. Mr Corr provided a dynamic approach that helped drive the business, while Ms Rees had a more finely developed business acumen. The couple were given to rowing with one another. In 2007 they divorced acrimoniously. Agent Provocateur was sold to a private equity firm. Mr Corr remained involved in the business, Ms Rees left it.

Location: 6 Broadwick Street, W1F 8HL (red, purple)

Website: www.agentprovocateur.com

Clerical Vestments

Watts & Company

Location: 7 Tufton Street, SW1P 3QE (orange, purple)

Website: www.wattsandco.com

J. Wippell & Company

Joseph Wippell was a grocer in Exeter at the end of the 18thC. His success led to him developing a drapery business. This became focused on clerical and funereal clienteles. In 1897 the firm opened a shop in London.

Location: 11 Tufton Street, SW1P 3QB (orange, turquoise)

Website: www.wippell.co.uk

The Rev Snapper

The newspaper photographer Peter Dunne (1928-2011) was giving to carrying a clerical dog collar with him. When he felt it to be necessary that he should command more respectability than he enjoyed as a member of the press pack, he would slip it on.

Dennys Brands

Dennys was founded in 1840. The painter Lucien Freud wore chef's checked trousers to work in. He bought them from Dennys Brands.

Location: 62 Berners Street, W1T 3NN (red, purple)

See Also: TAILORS Huntsman

Website: www.dennys.co.uk

Ede & Ravenscroft

The robemakers Ede & Ravenscroft made the robes that were used in 1689 for the coronation of King William III and Queen Mary II.

The business has been selling wigs and gowns to judges and barristers since the 1850s. The supposed purpose of these items is to help maintain respect for authority and status. The Commercial Bar Association has called for their abandonment in Commercial Law cases. In 1993 Lord Chancellor Mackay and Lord Chief Justice Taylor stated that the wigs and gowns would remain in use. The following year the Lord Chief Justice declared that wearing wigs in court was the exclusive preserve of barristers. Some solicitors - who had been appearing as advocates - had been seeking to share the right.

Location: 8 Burlington Gardens, W1S 3ET (purple, blue)

93 Chancery Lane, WC2A 1DU (orange, purple)

Website: www.edeandravenscroft.com www.gownhire.co.uk

Legal

Barristers wear black gowns because they are mourning the death of Queen Anne.

Lewis Leathers

Lewis Leathers manufactures protective clothing for transport and leather jackets. The business was founded in 1892 in Great Portland Street as D. Lewis.

1956 the fashion brand was born.

In the late 1960s they were the first British company to offer coloured leathers.

In 1981 the Isaac family sold the business.

Location: 33 Windmill Street, W1T 2JP (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.lewisleathers.com

Rapha

Rapha is a clothing brand for cyclists. The business was founded in 2004 by Simon Mottram, who previously had been a brand consult for companies such as Chanel and Burberry.

Location: 85 Brewer Street, W1F 9ZN

See Also: BICYCLES

Website: www.rapha.cc www.rapha.cc/cycling/clothing

Rigby & Peller

Rigby & Peller makes women's underwear. The firm was granted a royal warrant in 1960.

Location: 22a Conduit Street, W1S 2XT (purple, grey)

2 Hans Road, SW3 1RX (orange, pink)

13 The King's Road, SW3 4RP (orange, yellow)

John Smedley

John Smedley is a knitwear manufacturing business. It is renowned for its sweaters.

John Smedley was an apprentice of Richard Arkwright. He and Peter Nightingale¹ established the Smedley factory near Matlock in Derbyshire in 1784.

In the 1950s the firm launched the Bobby sweater.

Location: 24 Brook Street, W1K 5DG (red, blue)

55 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LZ (blue, grey)

See Also: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Website: www.johnsmedley.com

¹. A great-uncle of Florence Nightingale.

Ann Summers

Michael Caborn-Waterfield (1930-2016) was the son of a Fleet Air Arm officer. He failed to become a jockey and then to be an actor. However, the war allowed to become a spiv. His income enabled him to indulge in hand-made suits. These led to his being dubbed Dandy Kim . He was a chancer who was largely devoid of ethics. Financial probity never became one of his strong suits. He established himself as the dapper leader of a smart set in Chelsea. For a couple of years he was the lover of the Rank starlet Diana Dors.

In the mid-1950s Dandy Kim was involved with Barbara Warner, the daughter of the Hollywood movie mogul Jack Warner. From the tycoon's home on Cap d Antibes he stole a sum of money as well as some very sensitive documents. A French court convicted him in absentia. In 1960 he was extradited to France. However, he appears to have had some leverage and Warner's lawyer ma tre Suzanne helped to secure his release. He served only one year of his four-year sentence. Following his release, he was able to buy Sedgehill Manor near East Knoyle in Wiltshire.

Caborn-Waterfield wrote a sex manual under the nom-de-plume Terrence Hendrickson. This favourably impressed the influential solicitor Lord Goodman. He proposed that Dandy Kim could set up a business that sold goods aimed at the women s market . In 1970 Caborn-Waterfield opened a sex shop close to Marble Arch that he named Ann Summers. He appreciated that he had acquired too much notoriety to be associated publicly with the venture. Annice Summers, a former girlfriend, agreed to act as a front person. This enabled the business to trade off a naughty-but-nice public image. However, she became concerned about some of the items that the business was selling. Therefore, she resigned from it. Subsequently, she made public who owned it. The shops promptly came to be regarded as seedy. Dandy Kim sold the business to the Gold brothers, who were pornographers. They converted it into a high street chain.

Location: 79 Wardour Street, W1D 6QB

Toye, Kenning & Spencer

Toye, Kenning & Spencer is a firm that supplies uniforms and regalia to freemasons. The firm is descended from an enamelling and thread drawing business that was founded in 1685 by members of the Toye family. They were Huguenots who had fled to England in order to escape persecution in their French homeland.

In 2013 Toye Kenning & Spencer sold its London headquarters. The company continued trading from the West Midlands.

Location: 19-21 Great Queen Street, WC2B 5BE. Former London premises. (red, pink)

Website: https://toye.com

David Backhouse 2024