“We were young, rich and beautiful, and the tide—we thought—was turning in our favor. We were going to change everything, of course, but mostly we were going to change the rules.” This quote from Marianne Faithfull is posted at the entrance to “Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture,” a new exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum. In a decade that saw meditation going mainstream and the fashionable world racing helter-skelter toward higher consciousness—often with the help of this or that substance—the boutiques of Chelsea were the dress-up box of the moment.
This show re-creates eight of the most influential: Hung on You, Granny Takes a Trip, Biba, Apple Boutique, Apple Tailoring, Mr. Fish, Dandie Fashions, and Quorum. Not just your average shops, the Chelsea boutiques were the stylish expression of their owners, some of London’s most creative minds. In fact, they were more like salons, places to hang out for hours, or days if you were cool enough. Each had its own clique and identity.
