Thomas Steven Roberts (6 February 1942 – 10 December 2012) was an English designer and fashion entrepreneur who operated prominent independent
retail outlets
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
including
pop art boutique,
Mr Freedom, and the 1980s decorative arts and homewares store, Practical Styling.
In 1969, Roberts was the first fashion business executive to license images from
Walt Disney Productions, Ltd.,
[Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero by Paul Gorman. Publisher: Adelita 2012. ] and in 1972, he was the first fashion retailer to establish an outlet in London's
Covent Garden. Roberts's shops sold designs worn as stagewear by
Jimi Hendrix,
Elton John,
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 ...
and
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
. In the mid-1970s, he was the manager of the
pub rock group
Kilburn & the High Roads fronted by
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...
. Later in life, Roberts promoted sales of collectibles,
artefacts and furniture through London outlets Tom-Tom and Two Columbia Road.
Early life
Roberts was raised in
Forest Hill and
Deptford
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...
, London, UK, and attended
Goldsmiths
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold.
In German, the Goldsmith family name is written Goldschmidt.
Goldsmith may also refer to:
Places
* Goldsmith, Indiana, United States
* Goldsmith, New York, United States, a h ...
Art College. In the early 1960s, he collected antiques and operated
espresso bars.
Boutiques
In 1966, Roberts opened a store called Kleptomania on
Kingly Street
Kingly Street is a street in London's Soho district. It runs north to south from Liberty's and Foubert's Place to Beak Street, in parallel to, and between, Regent Street and Carnaby Street.
It was known as King Street until 1906.
The Bag O'N ...
,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
, with partner Charlie Simpson. The shop sold
Victoriana
Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, pho ...
and military wear. Customers included
Jimi Hendrix and
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
. In 1967, a second Kleptomania store opened on Carnaby Street. Tommy was a natural publicist and to open the Carnaby Street store, he hired a dustcart to go down the street, ridden by the Kleptomania beautiful people.
In 1969, Roberts took over a hippy outlet called
Hung on You
Hung On You was a London fashion boutique, run by the designer Michael Rainey, particularly known for flowery shirts and kipper ties in bold colours. Rainey's customers included the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks and the actor Terence ...
, operated by the fashion designer
Michael Rainey
Michael Sean O'Dare Rainey (21 January 1941 – 29 January 2017) was an Australian-born British fashion designer, best known for his 1960s London boutique, '' Hung On You''.
Early life
He was the son of Sean Rainey and Joyce Marion Wallace (1923†...
at 430
King's Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
in
World's End, Chelsea. With
Trevor Myles Trevor Myles is a British former fashion entrepreneur and designer who ran the Mr Freedom boutique at 430 King's Road, Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 ...
, Roberts reopened the premises as
Mr Freedom with a pop art concept using bright colours and designs by a team including Pamla Motown.
In December 1970, Roberts and Myles moved Mr Freedom to larger premises in
Kensington, selling comic-strip clothes with kitsch homewares and "fun furniture". In the basement was restaurant Mr Feed'Em. In 1971,
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 ...
included Mr Freedom garments in the exhibition Fashion: An Anthology.
After the closure of Mr Freedom in 1972, Roberts opened the boutique City Lights Studio in Covent Garden. Among its customers was David Bowie, who wore a City Lights suit in photographs included in his 1973 album, ''
Pin-Ups
A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model (person), model whose mass produced, mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously ...
''.
Around this time, Roberts provided advice and a lawyer to
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.
Westwood came to public notice when she m ...
and
Malcolm McLaren, who had taken over 430 King's Road and opened a store called Let It Rock.
[
]
Music management
In 1974, Roberts and partner Willy Daly
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
moved into music management, handling the careers of 1960s star Arthur Brown Arthur Brown may refer to:
Entertainment
* Arthur William Brown (1881–1966), Canadian commercial artist
* H. Arthur Brown (1906–1992), American orchestral conductor
* Arthur Brown (musician) (born 1942), English rock singer
* Arthur Brown, ak ...
and the art-rock band Kilburn & The High Roads.
Antiques, furniture and collectibles
In the late 1970s, Roberts operated in the antique trade. In 1981, he and partner Paul Jones opened a homewares and furniture outlet called Practical Styling at Centre Point
Centre Point is a building in Central London, comprising a 34-storey tower; a 9-storey block to the east including shops, offices, retail units and maisonettes; and a linking block between the two at first-floor level. It occupies 101–103 ...
on St. Giles High Street, Central London.
Identified as pioneering "high-tech" design, Practical Styling caught the post-modern spirit of the times as exemplified by Memphis Group
The Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. It was active from 1980 to 1987. The group designed postmodern furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, ceramics, glass and me ...
and fused it with British kitsch and American hardware, selling day-glo
The Day-Glo Color Corp. (also styled as DayGlo) is a privately held American paint and pigments manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1946 by brothers Joseph and Robert Switzer and is currently owned by RPM International. It ...
-coloured metal dustbins, diner crockery, luncheonette fittings and rolls of carousel flooring as well as yellow and black vinyl stools, palette-shaped coffee tables and plastic poodle lamps.
From 1995, Roberts sold original art and design collectibles at his store, Tom-Tom.
In 2001, Roberts opened Two Columbia Road in Hackney, east London, selling contemporary furniture and artefacts. He retired in the middle of the same decade.
Legacy
Design products sold through Roberts's boutiques – in particular Mr Freedom – have become collectible and have appeared at various auctions. Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted in ...
's Mr Freedom jacket was featured in a Christie's popular culture and entertainment sale in June 2011.Paul Gorman
Paul Gorman is a writer whose journalism has appeared in many of the world's leading publications. He has also published several books on art, design, fashion, media and music and curated exhibitions in Europe and the US.
Journalism
From 1978, ...
, published in July 2012.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Tommy
Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
British designers
English businesspeople in retailing
1942 births
2012 deaths
20th-century English businesspeople