Fashion History Walk with SWANKY MODES

    Friday 3 April
    As part of the public program at Warehouse Market London edition:

    WAREHOUSE, TEXTUS and Tanveer Ahmed invite you on a fashion history walk from Kentish Town to Camden, led by SWANKY MODES

    Starting at the Torriano Meeting House with a conversation between Judy Dewsbury, Melanie Haberfield, Willie Walters, and Esme Young of SWANKY MODES, the collective will then guide us along Kentish Town High Street and share stories from the area’s changing style scene, finishing at the spot in Camden where their iconic Swanky Modes store once stood.

    If you would like to join, please arrive at the Torriano for 3:15 PM

    The public program at Warehouse Market London edition is curated and hosted by fashion academic TANVEER AHMED and fashion and textile poet LOTTIE MCCRINDELL, the event invites reflection on themes of the marketplace from community and crafting, to retail and consumer culture.


    Free to attend! Hope to see you there

    Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Avenue, NW5 2RX

    Photo taken in the Eagle Public House in1980. The Eagle was next to Swanky Modes at 102-104 Camden Road. The publican Aiden was our favourite landlord and sometimes our protector from unwelcome patrons in the shop. We would hold gatherings there for a drink before an evening out.

    Photo taken in the Eagle Public House in1980. The Eagle was next to Swanky Modes at 102-104 Camden Road. The publican Aiden was our favourite landlord and sometimes our protector from unwelcome patrons in the shop. We would hold gatherings there for a drink before an evening out.

    SWANKY MODES __

    In 1972 St Martins graduates Esme Young and Willie Walters, together with their friend Melanie Langer, opened a small shop, selling their own designs. They designed clothes according to their own aesthetic and used vintage fabrics which were available in limited supplies, often as personal orders.

    They were joined a year later by RCA graduate Judy Dewsbery. Swanky Modes moved to 106 Camden Road in 1974 and continued with small runs of retail designs and collections of quirky accessories.

    In the 1970s, they used form-fitting designs and their clients included Midge Ure, Cher and Grace Jones. They created the Amorphous Dress, which is now part of the V&A collection. The business had started providing wholesale orders on request to other London shops as well as outlets in the UK, Europe and the USA since 1973 and in 1978 Swanky Modes joined “The Individual Clothes Show” which showed in London on a regular seasonal basis.

    Swanky Modes also featured clothes in magazines and newspapers including Vogue, Nova, Honey, 19, ID, The Face, Boulevard, Interview, The Sunday Times, Express, Mail, and the V&A Little Black Dress Book.

    The name Swanky Modes was decided on as an appropriate and humorous oxymoron, which mixed the word ‘Swanky’ which (in 1972) suggested a louche and extravagant persona, with the decorous term ‘Modes’, at that time still the name of provincial high street fashion shops dating from pre WW1.

    SWANKY MODES store, 106 Camden Road, London.

    SWANKY MODES store, 106 Camden Road, London.

    The Individual Clothes Show was a seasonal fashion trade show started by Wendy Booth and Cath Knox in 1978 . The first season’s venue was The Atheneum Hotel in Mayfair. This photo of the original designers was taken by Duffy. Designers : Clare Dudley Hart C+K, Chrissie Walsh, Fred Spurr, Ian Batten, Jaime Ortega, Jennifer Kiernan and Lindsay Taylor, La Verne and Jane, Mary Aldride and Angela Hewitt Now Voyager - Bernie Cook, Reet Petite Shirley Colby-Sally Yeomans, Roy Peach, Swanky Modes (on right).

    The Individual Clothes Show was a seasonal fashion trade show started by Wendy Booth and Cath Knox in 1978 . The first season’s venue was The Atheneum Hotel in Mayfair. This photo of the original designers was taken by Duffy. Designers : Clare Dudley Hart C+K, Chrissie Walsh, Fred Spurr, Ian Batten, Jaime Ortega, Jennifer Kiernan and Lindsay Taylor, La Verne and Jane, Mary Aldride and Angela Hewitt Now Voyager - Bernie Cook, Reet Petite Shirley Colby-Sally Yeomans, Roy Peach, Swanky Modes (on right).

    This photo was taken at the opening of the Mrs Howie Shop (one of the first fashion shops in Covent Garden) in 1977. Swanky Modes were among the young designers stocked by proprietors Lynne Franks and Paul Howie. Judy, Mel, Esme.

    This photo was taken at the opening of the Mrs Howie Shop (one of the first fashion shops in Covent Garden) in 1977. Swanky Modes were among the young designers stocked by proprietors Lynne Franks and Paul Howie. Judy, Mel, Esme.

    Warehouse Market London edition is made with support of Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries Fund NL.