John Stephen (28 August 1934 – 1 February 2004), dubbed by the media the £1m Mod and the King Of Carnaby Street, was one of the most important fashion figures of the 1960s. Stephen was the first individual to identify and sell to the young menswear mass market which emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was also the pioneer of the high turnover, disposable fashion ethos of such contemporary operators as Topman. By 1967, Stephen operated a chain of 15 shops on the thoroughfare in central London which he and boyfriend Bill Franks made the epicentre of Swinging London:

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, 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 ...

. "Carnaby is my creation," Stephen said in 1967. "I feel about it the same way Michelangelo felt about the beautiful statues he created."

Career

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Stephen became a welder's

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

on leaving school. He moved to London from Glasgow in 1952 at the age of 18, and worked as a waiter and also for London's first young male boutique, Vince Man Shop in Newburgh Street, central London. In 1956 Stephen opened his own retail outlet in Beak Street but a fire at the premises forced a move in 1957 to 5 Carnaby Street, then an undistinguished narrow parade behind the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many wit ...

. He and Franks made their mark by painting the exterior canary yellow and blaring out pop music, while selling short-runs of such designs as jeans in various colours, simple unlined three button jackets, matelot shirts, Italian knits, etc. This outlet – called His Clothes – was followed by others under Stephen's name or other titles including Domino Male, Mod Male and Male W1. Stephen's fast-turnover approach to design and free-and-easy retail environments with music and attractive young staff was soon emulated by others including

Lord John Lord John was a British men's fashion retailer, which opened its first store at 43 Carnaby Street, London, at the corner with Ganton Street, in 1963. The first Lord John boutique was opened by the brothers Warren, Harold and David Gold in Ca ...

, Take Six, Gear and Mates. Stephen expanded his retail business – including outlets for female customers – with shops in other London locations, including Chelsea, opened a clothing manufacturer in Glasgow and operated franchises in the US and Russia. John Stephen opened the first boutique with women's clothing on Carnaby Street called TreCamp. Stephen's clothes were worn by those at the forefront of the beat boom and

Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...

, including

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray Davies, Ray and Dave Davies, and Pete Quaife. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British ...

, the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

and

The Small Faces Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966. The ba ...

. Such was the popularity of Carnaby Street that it was paved and pedestrianised in 1973. Thereafter it became home to tourist and novelty outlets, as London fashion's centre moved west to Chelsea, with such psychedelic stores as Michael Rainey's Hung On You,

Granny Takes a Trip Granny is a term and nickname for a grandmother, a female grandparent Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexu ...

, Mr Freedom and

Dandie Fashions Dandie Fashions or sometimes referred to as Dandy Fashions was a London fashion boutique founded in 1966. The boutique was established following a chance encounter at the Speakeasy Club between Freddie Hornik and Alan Holston. They later teamed ...

, and Kensington, Biba and

Bus Stop A bus stop is a place where Public transport bus service, buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelter (building), shelters ...

. Stephen's company was publicly floated in 1972 and closed in 1975, when the archive was donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum. In the mid-1970s Stephen imported continental European designs for a new chain of shops, Francisco-M, and represented fashion franchises in the UK, including that for Lanvin. Stephen died in 2004. In his last interview, for Paul Gorman's fashion history ''The Look'', Stephen said, "I was the same age and into pop music, so I gave kids something they could wear to complement that. There was nobody else around doing what I was doing, so I had it all to myself for a long time. Once others started coming through, all they could do was copy me." In 2005, Westminster City Council unveiled a plaque at 1 Carnaby Street to commemorate Stephen's importance to London and his influence over fashion.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen, John 2004 deaths Businesspeople from Glasgow Scottish fashion designers LGBTQ fashion designers Clothing retailers of the United Kingdom Deaths from cancer in England 1934 births

Career

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Further reading

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