Rupert William Lycett Green (born 24 October 1938) is a British fashion designer known for his contribution to 1960s male fashion through his tailor's shop/boutique Blades in London.

Early life

Lycett Green was born in England, the son of Commander David Cecil Lycett Green RN and Angela Courage (who later married

Ralph Beckett, 3rd Baron Grimthorpe Ralph William Ernest Beckett, 3rd Baron Grimthorpe, Territorial Decoration, TD, Deputy Lieutenant, DL (1891–1963), was a banker and breeder of racehorses. Beckett was son of Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe. He was a partner in the Leeds firm ...

). His grandfather is Sir Edward Lycett Green, 2nd Baronet, and his great-grandfather is

Sir Edward Green, 1st Baronet Sir Edward Green, 1st Baronet (4 March 1831 – 30 March 1923) was an English ironmaster and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1885 and 1892. Green was the son of Edward Green (engineer), a Yorkshire ironmaster wh ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

Blades

In 1962, Lycett Green opened his shop Blades in Dover Street, London, with "high tailoring standards but a young man's view of cut and proportion". The shop's slogan was "for today rather than the memory of yesterday" and they offered high fashion ready-to-wear clothes. In 1965, John Crosby described Lycett Green's clothes as having "an elegance and a sort of look-at-me dash not seen since Edwardian times." In 1965,

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...

, a regular customer of Blades, stated "it's a marvellous combination of

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. S ...

Pizazz and

Savile Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...

". In 1967, Blades moved to

Burlington Gardens Burlington Gardens is a street in central London, on land that was once part of the Burlington Estate. Location The street is immediately to the north of the Royal Academy of Arts and joins Old Bond Street and New Bond Street in the west and ...

, where the shop windows looked down on Savile Row itself. Customers included

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

, the then Marquess of Hartington and the

Earl of St Germans Earl of St Germans, in the County of Cornwall, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that is held by the Eliot family. The title takes its name from the village of St Germans, Cornwall, and the family seat is Port Eliot. The earldom h ...

. Designs by Lycett Green are included in the collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

. One of his evening suits in black velvet was selected by

Patrick Lichfield Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield (25 April 1939 – 11 November 2005) was an English photographer from the Anson family. He inherited the Earldom of Lichfield in 1960 from his paternal grandfather. In his professional practice ...

to represent 1971 in the

Dress of the Year The Dress of the Year is an annual fashion award run by the Fashion Museum, Bath from 1963. Each year since 1963, the Museum has asked a fashion journalist to select a dress or outfit that best represents the most important new ideas in contempor ...

collection at the

Fashion Museum, Bath The Fashion Museum (known before 2007 as the Museum of Costume) is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England. The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection of costumes to the city of Bath in 1963. The ...

, alongside a woman's outfit by Graziella Fontana. Today, the Burlington Gardens premises are occupied by the tailors

Ede & Ravenscroft Ede & Ravenscroft are the oldest tailors in London, established in 1689. They have two London premises, in Chancery Lane and Burlington Gardens, very close to the famous Savile Row. They make, sell and hire out legal gowns and wigs, clerical dr ...

Personal life

Lycett Green was married to the writer

Candida Lycett Green Candida Rose Lycett Green (née Betjeman; 22 September 194219 August 2014) was a British author who wrote sixteen books including ''English Cottages'', ''Goodbye London'', ''The Perfect English House'', ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' and ''The ...

, daughter of the poet John Betjeman, A. N. Wilson, ''Betjeman'' (2007, ), p. 351 until her death on 19 August 2014. They married on 25 May 1963 and had five children. From 1973 to 1987 they owned the country house called Blackland House or Blackland Park, at Blackland near

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs ...

in Wiltshire. According to

Nik Cohn Nik Cohn, also written Nick Cohn (born 1946), is a British writer. Life and career Cohn was born in London, England and brought up in Derry in Northern Ireland, the son of historian Norman Cohn and Russian writer Vera Broido. An incomer to th ...

in 1971, Lycett Green was "very tall and very skinny ... charming, quick with a quote and well equipped with enemies. All in all, he was a columnist's dream."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lycett Green, Rupert Living people British fashion designers People educated at Eton College 1938 births Menswear designers

Early life

Blades

Personal life

See also

References