Nobody stayed pure. They all moderated a tad, even JS and Graham Marsh, not too much, but we are social animals and we all ultimately want to belong. And we all want to be considered attractive. Shaven heads are still unloved, even though they have become ubiquitous.

Interesting.  This is only from memory and nothing to do with the UK, but I wonder about that look Kevin Rowland was reckoned to have seen in the US: outside a bus station or somewhere: guys wearing check shirts, plain-fronted trousers (maybe chinos?) and plain caps.  A touch 'American Graffiti'?  I remember Ken Lovegrove asking me if I was a fan.  I was - and probably still am, without much wanting to listen to the music or wear the clothes.

Flares were very, very bad.  Yet we all wore them - and worse: 'Ruperts'.  Oxford bags - with turn-ups that gathered fluff and grit.  I still remember mine, circa 1972: running a forefinger inside to get the crap out.

I wonder how Paddy and Jim, JFMs old mentors before JS, coped with it all.  The last I heard of them, quite some years ago now, they were living quietly in retirement, in either Spain or Portugal.  JFM reckoned they would have relaxed into shorts and polo shirts by then.  But he identified them as being of a 1970 vintage: resentful when Brooks altered the appearance of their suits (darts, I think).  It was Paddy who kind of talked me through their look, via e-mail, particularly with reference to colour (knitwear, for example).  I would have liked to have seen photographs: short-haired Jewish antiques dealers, homosexuals, in their very, very American (oh yes, there was a strong emphasis on that all right) clothing: NYC as the Promised Land for Jews of their generation. 
I hope they're well.

Of course - "Dirty Dick's" was in the old ABC cinema, where I went to Saturday morning pictures as a child! You had to do a lot of rummaging there though to find anything half decent. I was skinny enough to be able to buy some stuff in Meeny's, which was mainly a children's shop I think. My brother was the best turned-out 10-year-old in Fulham!

Staxfan. I've replied to your PM. I'm convinced our paths have crossed often back in the day.
We knew about Dirty Dicks on the other side of town and went there for jeans.

Stax, there might be one or two ongoing problems.  For instance, I can't delete messages (for reasons that are completely unclear to me but might make perfect sense to someone else).  In spite of my RRP (Really Relentless Posting: copyright Woofboxer) the Internet is not my instinctive home.  I expect FNB is looking the situation over.

AFS - I guessed there might be a bug or 2 in the systems being aware that it's not possible to post photos currently, maybe it's possible to send new pm's but not reply to pm's (?), again, you're doing a great job !

RobbieB- I’ll check and if your messages pop up I’ll let you know, glad to hear you knew of those places, I remember a party around autumn ‘72, I was a bit put out as there was a guy there as well, possibly better , dressed than me ! It could have been you!

If I can bring Robbie and Stax together for a few drinks with friends and family, trying to breathe a little life back into 'Talk Ivy' will have been worthwhile.

Point taken, Robbie.  I find nothing there to disagree with.  'Talk Ivy' has been around for quite a while now and we live in an age of rapid change.

When I’m in JS there seems to be a wide age range of callers coming in, Chiltern Street is now a high end shopping destination and gets a good footfall, mainly in their 30s and 40s and well breeched.. A fair number of older guys still come in who are longstanding customers and who are greeted like chums. But as you say AFS, the prices would rule out most 20 year olds, even if they desired the clobber.