The Grasshopper's Gala

Brothers Warren and David Gold began retailing menswear through a stall in Petticoat Lane, London’s oldest and most famous street market. They opened the first Lord John boutique in Carnaby Street in 1963. Carnaby Street was the heart of ‘Swinging London’ in the 1960s. Dozens of competing shops sold highly fashionable, relatively inexpensive clothes to a mixed clientele of actors, day-trippers, teenage Mods and trend-setting pop stars.

The Lord John venture was a success. The boutique soon developed into a lucrative chain. Warren Gold styled himself as a self-made rag-trade king: Rolls Royce, flashy jewellery, not to mention the series of high-profile court cases initiated by rival menswear retailer John Stephen. (The dispute was over the ownership of the name ‘Lord John’.)

Fitted midi-length overcoats were a staple of the fashionable man’s wardrobe from the late 1960s into the early 1970s. This wide-collared, ostentatiously-belted, wool coat draws on denim styling in its use of contrasting top stitching.

V&A