Lets get old skool!

Let's take a trip back to the 70's & 80's!

One Sunday a few weeks back some family friends came round for lunch. Their teenage daughter was wearing a BOY sweatshirt.

And then my dad pipes up -

"I've got a pair of BOY trousers in the loft; they're really tight and have zips all over them. I remember when the shop first opened up on the Kings road. We used to go up there all the time. It was next to one of Vivienne Westwood's first shops."

Now I knew my dad used to be a punk but I think this came as quite a shock to the visitors. My dad is ever so quiet and very bald. But on he went to describe his mohican and the rest of it. How BOY back then served to all the punks. I wasn't aware of this now everyone seems to be wearing it? I can't wait to see these trousers when they're brought out of the loft. I wish he still had his mohican but unfortunately he went to get it trimmed one day and the hairdresser messed it up so he just said shave it off. When he got home my nan made him wear a hat inside because she didn't like the fact he had no hair. Yet he was allowed a full multi-colored mohican!

I was interested to hear that my dad used to don the same attire RiRi has brought back to the masses. One slow and empty morning at work I decided to have a look and see what I could find. I found an interview with Stephane Raynor (the founder of BOY London) on the Rolling Stone website where I was able to learn some more about the history.

What was your relationship to Malcolm McLaren in those early days?
Raynor: I went with a few guys and Malcolm down to Kings Road to look at a shop he wanted to open, which soon afterwards became the legendary Let It Rock. I started by selling Fifties clothing to him. The shop itself was amazing. It had Bakerlight radios outside and inside it was like a scene from a Dickens novel with Teddy Boys combing their hair, dwarves, circus freaks and half-naked girls in latex… It was superb.

What led to you officially start the BOY brand?
Raynor: Acme days were over, and it was time to move on up. So we decided we wanted to leave our basement and appear on the Kings Road. We called the new shop BOY and it caused a big reaction as most shops back then were called things like Jean Machine and the staff had afro hair. At the time, people didn't understand it at all, with the Pistols blaring from the stereo and Doc Martins nailed to the walls. It was pure black and chrome decadence. Decades on, it became regarded as "art."

What are some of BOY's most infamous moments?
Raynor: The shop being raided by police on the first day of opening, getting arrested for various offenses, windows being smashed, the enraged public, Sid Vicious coming in wearing high heels and tourists being afraid to come into the shop in case they got spat on. BOY had a great reputation!

[Colleen Nika, Q&A: BOY London on Outfitting the Punk Movement, September 20th 2012, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/thread-count/boy-london-on-outfitting-the-punk-movement-20120920, (Visited 27/12/12) ]

The brand has reached out to a very different croud of recent. And I don't doubt that back in the day are so called new grown "hispters" would not have been as quick to jump into a BOY sweatshirt having seen the shop in all its glory! I'm going to ask my dad some questions when I get home and update this in a few days time.

The story on that Sunday came to an end  when he started to tell of the time he got shot in the eye. Luckily he managed to blink as the bullet entered so he didn't go blind!

You always forget that parents had lives before they had children.

This is not what I imagined!!!