Katharine Hamnett CBE (b. 1947) graduated from St Martin’s School of Art in 1969. The Katharine Hamnett label was founded in 1979 and introduced its menswear line in 1981. The initial menswear collection was inspired by utility menswear and uniforms and was characterized by parachute silk, cotton jersey and a prewashed crumpled aesthetic. A denim diffusion range was launched in 1982. In 1984, Katharine Hamnett produced several oversized silk T-shirts with slogans, one of which read ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing’, referring to the UK’s opposition to American Pershing missiles. She later wore one to a Downing Street (the official residence of the UK prime minister) reception where she met then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In 1984 she was named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards. She launched her magazine Tomorrow in 1985. By 1986 the company’s turnover was £4 million. The same year, the first Katharine Hamnett store opened on London’s Brompton Road, designed by Norman Foster and backed by investor Peter Bertelsen. In 1989 her business was worth £20 million, and she signed a contract with CGA in Italy.
In 1998, Stile Moda’s five-year licence to produce Katharine Hamnett Denim and Katharine Hamnett London was terminated, replaced by an agreement with the Italian company Sportswear International to launch a men’s and women’s sportswear and denim line. Katharine Hamnett Denim was produced from 1994 and was relaunched as Katharine E Hamnett Jeans in 2008. In 2003 it was reported that The Juice Corporation was funding the designer with a line named Hamnett. The brand was relaunched as Katharine E. Hamnett in Autumn Winter 2005. The E was said to stand for Ethical and Environmental, and the line was made with pesticide-, chlorine- and heavy metal–free fabrics. Hamnett relaunched in 2017 with organic fabrics and Italian manufacturing, initially selling online.
Sources: British Vogue; Drapers; Terry Jones, ed., Fashion Now (Köln: Taschen, 2012); The Guardian; The Sunday Times; The Telegraph; The Times; WWD; Manchester Evening News.
Blades was founded in 1962 by Rupert Lycett Green (b. 1938), cutter Eric Joy and accountant Charlie Hornby. It was allegedly named after the fictional gentleman’s club in Ian Fleming’s 1955 novel Moonraker, but the name also deliberately referred to tailor’s shears and a dashing young man. Located at 25 Dover Street, in London’s Mayfair, Blades specialized in bespoke suits, offering a more contemporary approach to traditional tailoring than the nearby Savile Row, earning it a following among celebrities such as Mick Jagger, David Hemmings, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and the Marquess of Harlington. Both Joy and Hornby left the business in 1965 with Joy going to work for Mr Fish. In 1967 Blades moved to 8 Burlington Gardens and held one of the first men’s ready-to-wear fashion shows in Savile Row in March 1969, going on to sell off-the-peg menswear the following year. At this time, a bespoke Blades suit cost around £80, with ready-to-wear suits at 50 guineas, sports jackets at 28 guineas and trousers at 10 guineas. In 1969 Blades opened on Madison Avenue, New York; however, the shop closed after four years. In 1980 Lycett Green had sold Blades in London as a going concern. In 1992 a Blades boutique opened in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Adverts for Blades continued to appear in The Times up to 1997. The company stopped trading in 1998.
Sources: Cally Blackman, 100 Years of Menswear (London: Laurence King, 2009); Lance Richardson, House of Nutter (London: Chatto & Windus, 2018); Richard Lester, Boutique London: King’s Road to Carnaby Street (Woodbridge: ACC, 2010); Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, The Day of the Peacock: Style for Men 1963–1973 (London: V&A Publishing, 2011); The Times.