430 King’s Road

430 Kings Road and its incarnations from when Malcolm McLaren and his partner Vivienne Westwood took it over has now assumed legendary proportions in the history and development of punk rock and fashion.

It’s quite simple. Without Let It Rock, Sex and Seditionaries and the clothes sold there, there would be no Sex Pistols and no punk rock. Period!

The journey from 1971 to 1979 is an evolutionary one both in terms of ideas and intent and skill for McLaren & Westwood. For McLaren, it was of rebellion, provocation and clothes as a statement to create a generation gap. McLaren had a love of situationism and was inspired by the Paris Riots of 1968. For him music and rebellion with clothes, rather than politics, was a way to create situations and change attitudes.

Between the two they designed pieces that shocked and innovated, and to this day you could not wear some of them without generating controversy.

Fiercely anti-fashion, they became fashion as their skill and designs evolved. While early pieces were often rough and bespoke, the later ones were beautifully designed and tailored and catwalk ready. They also rebooted the t-shirt as a democratic cheap garment of revolt.

It was the Sex Pistols that brought it all together in fashion, youth and the sound of a generation. The band was formed from people who worked in the shop (Glen Matlock) and people who hung around the shop (Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten). The band became the attitude and visual and aural embodiment of the clothes and the clothes reflected the band in a mutual symbiosis.

Art, fashion and music collide in perfect chaos!

Yes, they absorbed influences and ideas to create the pieces whether it was Jamie Reid and his stunning artwork, Helen Of Troy’s ransom lettering or Jordan’s input but the ethos, execution and intent were theirs.

The shop’s exterior and interior and fittings also reflected the evolution and served as a meeting place for like-minded individuals who would become a key part of the punk scene like Marco Pirroni, Sid Vicious, Soo Catwoman, Siouxsie. Even the workers like Debbie Wilson, and the most famous of all  – the very embodiment of the shop – Jordan (Mooney.)

Like everything it all had to end. McLaren became diverted with the break up of the Sex Pistols and drugs and embezzlement from the shop brought it to its knees. But it survived and evolved into the eighties with Westwood taking an ever-increasing creative role and becoming a recognised haute couture designer but always with strong political beliefs like the environment.

It’s fitting that the clothes they created in later years have become embroiled in forgeries and fake accusations to further the great rock n roll swindle and their son happily burnt millions of pounds worth in the name of art/controversy. Or being a twat – delete as appropriate! Caveat Emptor.

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