London College of Fashion has a range of weird and wonderful items held in its college archive. The archive contains pieces of the college’s history, from its original trade schools at Barrett Street, Shoreditch, Clapham and Cordwainer’s School, as well as some particularly inspiring, special collections.
The special collections include the likes of the Mary Quant Make-up Collection – 30 items of make-up from her 1960s range; Menswear Collections – including suits by Tommy Nutter and Savile Row tailors Hunstman and Henry Poole; and Women’s Dresses – from the 1920s to 1990s given to us by the Korner Family, the Ann Barr Estate, Miss Hester Borron, and Jenifer Rosenberg.
Each academic year I am fortunate enough to choose a selection of pieces from the archive to reside in my office for the year. I thought I would share this process with you in the hope that I will highlight the fascinating items we have hidden away here at LCF.
I usually pick four or five small items to go in my glass cabinet, then a piece of clothing to hang on my wall. Each week I will reveal one of the items I have chosen for this year and a bit of background behind it.
Every year I try to choose a theme on which to base the choice of the items. This year after writing an article for Harper’s Bazaar on the importance of a working uniform, I was thinking about the importance of having an individual, working style, and as my style is usually dominated by black and white, I decided to theme the pieces around ‘monochrome’.
Glass bow ties by Andrew Logan.
Percy Savage Archive: London College of Fashion Archives.
The first item in my cabinet this year were these couple of beauties. These original, quirky bow ties were designed by Andrew Logan but belonged to Percy Savage, whose collection makes up the Percy Savage Archive.
Savage was a flamboyant figure in the world of fashion, and a key figure in the London fashion media during the 1980s having invented himself as the original fashion publicist.
He was a close friend of Christian Dior – who named his iconic scent Eau Sauvage after him – he played a pivotal role in the career of Yves Saint Laurent and launched Mary Quant onto the US fashion scene. Savage also paved the way for London Fashion Week after initially setting up the London Collections fashion shows. He was known for his eccentric style and especially liked unusual ties
These are two of six glass bow ties made by Logan and owned by Savage. Made from glass mosaic set in resin, both are signed by the designer and date to 1997 (white) and 2002 (black). With their sparkle and shine, they look so unique and really stand out amongst all the standard bow ties, I can see why Savage would have liked them. Together I think they form the perfect foundation for my theme!
Hope you like them!
