SEX
was the original clothing boutique of vivian westwood & malcolm mclaren
on 430 kings rd, london circa 1974 thru 1976.
they are credited with starting the punk look in fashion.
The façade included a 4 ft sign of 4 ft pink foam rubber letters read “SEX”. The interior was covered with graffiti from the SCUM Manifesto and chickenwire. Rubber curtains covered the walls and red carpeting was installed.
SEX sold fetish and bondage wear supplied by existing specialist labels such as Atomage, She-And-Me and London Leatherman as well as designs by McLaren and Westwood. Among customers atSEX were the four original members of The Sex Pistols (the bass-player Glen Matlock was an employee as a sales assistant on Saturdays. The group's name was provided by McLaren in partial promotion of the boutique.
In late 1975 when nineteen-year-old John Lydon was persuaded to audition for the group by singing along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the jukebox. Other notable patrons included occasional assistant Chrissie Hynde, Adam Ant, Marco Pirroni, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and the rest of the Bromley Contingent.
The store's designs confronted social and sexual taboos, and included T-shirts bearing images of the Cambridge Rapist's face hood, semi-naked cowboys from a 1969 illustration by the US artist Tom of Finland, (wikipedia wrongly credits~ Jim French), a trompe-l'œil image of bare breasts from a novelty shirt first produced by Rhode island School Of Art students Janusz and Laura Gottwald in the late 60s, and pornographic texts from the book School for Wives by the beat author Alexander Trocchi.
Among the designs were clear plastic-pocketed jeans, zippered tops and the Anarchy shirt which used stock from the 60s manufacturer Wemblex.
These were bleached and dyed shirts and adorned with silk Karl Marx patches and anarchist slogans.
In December 1976, 430 King's Road was renamed Seditionaries, trading under that title until September 1980. Designs were licensed by Westwood to the operators of King's Road boutique
"Boy" who issued them - some with alterations - over the next eight years
In late 1980, the shop at 430 King's Road re-opened under the name World's End. The building was designed by McLaren and Westwood and realised by Roger Burton, aided by Jeremy Blackburn and Tony Devers, to resemble a mixture of the Olde Curiosity Shoppe and an 18th century galleon. The facade was installed with a large clock which spun backwards with the floor raked at an angle. McLaren and Westwood launched the first of a series of collections from the outlet at the beginning of 1981 and collaborated for a further three years. World's End remains open as part of Vivienne Westwood's global fashion empire.
