Item 2019.78 - Sportive Male by Paul Cape

Identity area

Reference code

2019.78

Title

Sportive Male by Paul Cape

Date(s)

  • 1967 (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

1

Context area

Name of creator

Sportive Male by Paul
(1959-unknown)

Administrative history

Paul's Male Boutique was opened in 1959 at No. 47 Carnaby Street in London's Soho by Jewish designers Nathan and Susi Spiegal selling the label Sportive Male by Paul. The husband-and-wife team took advantage of their proximity to the skilled tailors and department stores of the West End enabling them to manufacture small orders. This meant they could rapidly respond to the changing fashions and fads of 1960s London menswear with quality tailoring and exciting fabrics. By 1966 the Spiegal's had opened an additional boutique called Mister Carnaby in Foubert's Place.

Repository

Westminster Menswear Archive

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Dark blue wool cape with gold lion head clasps and poly cotton floral lining. It has a short stand collar and fastens with two hooks at the neck as well as a concealed central button and elastic tab. The lining has a floral print design made up of brown, yellow, grey and white flowers on a turquoise background.

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      Physical characteristics and technical requirements

      Material: Navy wool. Lining: Polycotton floral print.
      Label details: Sportive Male by Paul. 39 & 47 Carnaby St, London W.1.
      Measurements: 745mm back length collar to hem x 1260mm flat bottom hem at widest x 5mm deep

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      Note

      Invisible Men exhibition label:

      WOOL CAPE
      MALE by PAUL [Incorrectly attributed to John Stephen]
      1967

      This man’s cape features a floral printed lining and fastens with a metal chain and gilt metal lion’s head clasps. John Stephen designed it for his MALE by PAUL label. Known as The King of Carnaby Street, John Stephen was one of the most important fashion figures of the 1960s.

      Wool
      Archive no. 2019.78

      Note

      From Inside the Westminster Menswear Archive:

      FLORAL LINED WOOL CAPE
      Sportive Male by Paul
      1967
      By the late 1960s, capes had become a popular item of clothing for sale in
      many of the men’s boutiques on Carnaby Street in the Soho area of London. This man’s cape was purchased from Paul’s Male Boutique, which was founded in 1959 at 47 Carnaby Street, by Jewish designers Nathan and Susi Spiegal. Paul’s Sportive Male was just one of the labels that they manufactured and marketed. The dark blue wool cape has a short mandarin collar and fastens with a metal chain and lion’s head clasps at the neck. In addition, it features a concealed button and elastic tab. The interior is lined in a floral printed cotton and polyester mix fabric, probably designed to be a woman’s dress material.
      Wool, Polycotton
      Archive no. 2019.78

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          Sources

          Photograph in: Bethan Bide and Lucie Whitmore, Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners shaped global style (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2023), p. 160.
          Manager of Paul's boutique expected capes to be fashionable with men. 'Return of the Cape?', Men's Wear, 1 August 1964, p. 10

          Accession area