Yes there was a third store in Kings Rd, about half way down towards world's end. It was the first one they dropped when things got slow and the Indians who bought the business renamed it PHLIP - I bought a Schott leather jacket there in about 87. For a while they sold second hand then just really bad sweatshirts and avirex that was the was all the rage back then.

There was also a Flip in Edinburgh- catering  mainly to university students- on the south bridge-beneath which - incidently I had a knee trembler under the first archway besides Bannermans pub- ended up with piss stained black Levi 501`s.

Thanks alot for the link which brought back many memories. The "Flip effect" was also surprisingly long lasting still being influential at least 7/8 years later.

Are we all Sunglasses Ron?

I note Just Jim talking about his experiences (trying) to buy some Ivy at Urban Outfitters the other day and giving up because of them young 'uns.

On a positive note, someone left a comment on the last part of the you tube films asking 'how did they find out about all that stuff without the internet'?

Of course there were some (usually out of date with it ) 'style' magazines or even NME, but really you had to watch people and just like those guys were doing watch endless movies.

Now on terrestrial TV what few old movies are shown are the same in constant rotation. Back then if you saw a movie on TV and didn't tape it (if you even had a video recorder - most didn't) you'd wait years for it to be shown again so you had to soak up the look. I remember taking stills photos from the TV screen in certain movies to capture moments I was particularly in to.

I recently described the Flip buying and sorting process on another thread but what I hadn't realised at the time was that those bales were themselves vintage. Now imagine that today - finding late 50s early 60s bales full of natural shoulders and OCBDs....

I'll put my sunglasses back on now.

(Note: judging by the age he looked in 1981 Sunglasses Ron could not possibly have been a real Ted and it would be amusing to see his "sunglasses Ron' talking about how his generation took something that was about style and made it a cartoon look)

Last edited by TheWeejun (2010-02-08 00:53:45)

Thanks for that Klook, just watched all six parts. From 1977 to 1980 I worked in Rock On in Camden Town, used to sell lots of records to the rockabilly kids back then.

Last edited by Chris_H (2010-02-08 07:32:37)

Following on from this morning's Fliperama episodes I found myself with the whole afternoon to kill in town today so I thought I'd go east, a destination I never go to these days, in search of Adam!s vintage stomping grounds.

First to Rokit in Brick Lane. I was quite impressed because the stuff they had was relevant to various different styles, well displayed and not too expensive, shoes by Allen Edmonds some funny weejun copies, a few cord jackets and some interesting military issue (but civilian looking) trench coats for £30. Found one that fit great but was black when I thought is was dark navy.

Didn't find anything but felt that you could if you visited enough.

Then I went on what turned out to be a wild goose chase looking for Beyond Retro. God knows why I thought it was in Curtain Rd (Flip on the brain I guess) but I walked up and down in driving sleet before re-googling (google had given me curtain rd as an address for it) and finding it was 180 degrees back where I came from. I finally found it. What a pile of shite. 90% womens for the pixie girls as someone called them here the other day, and the 10% mens was just trash.

Not because it wasn't the style I'm looking for, but it was simply crap in crap condition displayed in a crap manner. I had hoped that it might be big enough to hide some gems. By contrast Rokit had stuff I would never wear but nice examples of pieces and well displayed in some kind of context.

Came home cold, waiting instead for US packages to come by the post....

Is Nick the guy at Rokit?

Because there's a Nick in Brick Lane who's name is getting dropped BTS just now.

Not just Londoners remeber Flip.us out of towners used to go visit when in London.....Covent Garden and Kings Rd, never made it to Shoreditch.

I remember in about 85 a mate and myself thought about opening a "vintage" clothing shop up in B'ham. I got hold of someone in London who was importing bales into the country. We went down to meet this guy at his warehouse (i can't remember which part of London, it was North london somewhere though i'm sure). There were bales stacked all over the place, he also had rails of stuff out to look at and buy. We went to talk trade .....but whilst there I came away with a bunch of stuff...mostly Jkts, I really remember a lovely three button, roll over the thrid button, dark tourqoiuse, with like a black and burgundy overlay check .....sounds gastly but honestly the colours were just perfect......I sooo regret getting rid of that jkt, even though it wouldn't fit me now!

/\

The idea didn't really come together really. I remember looking into costs vs profit and not being blown away, though to be honest I think I knew it wasn't going to be a big money spinner....it sort of seemed a fun thing to do and we wouldn't have anyone to answer to but us. Also my mate who I was looking to do this with, didn't have the same money to put in as myself, and though I loved him to bits, i would have to say he did happen to get taken on different flights of fancy, so I'm not sure we'd have had the consistency we would have needed as a partnership (a couple of years later he permenently headed off to Amsterdam to live and enjoy himself in that cities pleasures).

The other major factor was customer base.......there was another couple of shops that had been around a while and we weren't convinced of the market in the mids supporting another one, the vintage thing was maybe peaked at this point and I don't think I was that confident about its future. This was born out by the other couple of shops dissappearing within a year or two of this time. 

Still in some ways I regret not having a go, who knows what path's might have opened up from it? Maybe something maybe nothing.

Cue Frank.........Regrets I have a few, but then again too......

This has made me think about how the vintage scene seems different to me these days.....it seemed much more about a whole look back then.......mostly from what I see now its about picking out certain pieces and doing what ever with them, as opposed to an overall look (I know I am generalising here) maybe our younger bucks can enlighten me. Actually maybe the members of here aren't best qualified as they are probably into the look in its wholeness in anycase, but what about their mates??

Last edited by Prof Kelp (2010-02-09 08:32:19)