Tommy Nutter: Rebel On The Row @ Fashion & Textile Museum

By StuartCox Last edited 154 months ago
Tommy Nutter: Rebel On The Row @ Fashion & Textile Museum

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Timothy Everest, who trained with Tommy in Savile Row, going through some of the outfits on display with the media
Timothy Everest, who trained with Tommy in Savile Row, going through some of the outfits on display with the media
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Children and womens' manacquins have been used to display the outfits (even men's jackets were tailored at the waist and the sizes reflect the times)
Children and womens' manacquins have been used to display the outfits (even men's jackets were tailored at the waist and the sizes reflect the times)
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Original front door of the Savile Row premises sourced from salvage specialists, Lassco
Original front door of the Savile Row premises sourced from salvage specialists, Lassco
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The exhibition includes a collection of Photographs from 1968-73 by Justin De Villeneuve
The exhibition includes a collection of Photographs from 1968-73 by Justin De Villeneuve

Savile Row 1969: Tommy Nutter, the maverick tailor, opens his doors.  Described variously as glamorous, charismatic, discreet, eccentric and a man of wit and humour, London's sartorial enfant terrible was a tailoring rebel who dressed the celebrities of the Sixties.

Tommy Nutter's star-studded roster included the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cilla Black (who was also a business partner), Sir Hardy Amies, Lord and Lady Harlech, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, the Duke of Bedford and Sir Roy Strong.

The Fashion and Textile Museum hosted a very special behind the scenes look at a new exhibition of his work, enabling us to view it as it was being built. We also met curators Timothy Everest and Dennis Nothdruft who offered an insight into the staging of an unusual and excellent fashion history lesson.

The entrance to the show will represent traditional pre-1969 Savile Row with discreet front doors, brass plaques and the like, but inside you'll see what happened when Mr Nutter arrived. Exhibition space will include many of the clothes owned and worn by the glitterati of the era, a reconstruction of the actual shop and interactive demonstrations by today's Savile Row tailors in a replica cutting room.

Tommy Nutter: Rebel On The Row opens on 20 May at Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street SE1 3XF. Admission £7 adults, £4 concessions. A series of talks and workshops accompanies the exhibition.

Article and Pictures by Stuart Cox & Angelina South

Last Updated 17 May 2011