Remember Gerry's, bought a few Jazz albums in there. I usually went in there after a purchase or two from the Ivy Shop. In fact IS probably told me to look in there, I wouldn't have known it's existence otherwise, as my main mission was to go and buy clothes.

Now a certain someone isn't here to carp, a bump for the legendary Mr. Strachan.
Ian Strachan A-Z Style Guide anyone?

What I find really interesting about the whole Ivy Shop/Strachan and Russell Street thing, is that in the Eighties there must have been sufficient interest in Ivy/American clothes to sustain them.

Let's face it, rents and rates in the two locations would of been horrendous so naturally there must of been plenty of customers.

I know certain older posters say there were customers who were only interested in one specific thing and there must also have been passing, impulse sales but outside of this was there a significant group of hardcore Ivy wearers?

I always felt Russell Street was a bit more like an Americana emporium rather than having a singular focused look but as I've previously said I never knew it in it's prime.

After the demise of the Ivy Shop Windsor, I was a frequent visitor to Richmond.

But as the 80's turned into the 90's hard core US made clothing was becoming scarce, and towards the end the Ivy Shop Richmond was a shadow of it's former self. This is one of the reasons Ian of Harrington Guildford (who incidentally helped out Strach) diversified into RL, Gant etc. Another reason for it's closure was footfall dropped and also the greedy landlord upped the rent significantly.

Strangely after it's closure it remained empty for some time, so lost revenue for the landlord. I think he ended up using it as his office.

Last edited by Runninggeez (2022-07-07 12:17:03)

Hardcore?

Yeah don't know what I was thinking, lets say Ivy staples.

In his socio-economic analysis, TRS is at least partly right.  I grew up in the 1960s and people did seem kinder - at least in the working class area I lived in.  But you were also expected not to have - as Tim might express it - 'notions'.  And I had 'notions'.  I read books.  My parents had 'notions'.  They bought their first VW in 1964 and we went on holiday to Italy in 1971.  Those without 'notions' made do with a week at Skegness or, more often than not, bugger all. 
My late mother-in-law found it odd that I wanted to drink a demitasse.  'Notions' again, you see.
But her husband did support Liverpool FC so what could one expect? 
I did not like Margaret Thatcher.

Well Thatcher did nothing about 'notions'. The expansion of the minds of the urban working class was not a priority in her grand plan. I certainly had notions and had to leave Liverpool to give them full expression, so I know what you're saying. I never saw a beggar on the streets when I was growing up, not one. I saw my first beggar in Spain on a school trip in 1982 and was horrified. By the late 80s London was filling up with destitution and homelessness. Anyone who votes Tory is at best misguided, at worst callous. Alistair Campbell on Question Time last night! Superb! Sorry, I digress. Let's Talk Ivy! I'm not sure how many socialists shopped at J.Simons. Not too many I'd speculate.  My wing of the Labour Party runs on a manifesto pledge of 'Weejuns For All !' but I'm not sure how popular a policy that will be...

Weejuns for all?  How about Alden LHS for all?  A surefire vote-winner.

Just a thought.  TRS might do well to revisit Orwell's 'Down And Out In Paris And London'.  It's largely balls of course but I suppose it has a grain of truth in it.  Orwell amused himself for half a day by begging in (I'd guess) the West End. 
Mr.Roberts was probably still short-changing his customers in Grantham at the time.

There is a loafer said to be made from the flesh of dead gerbils.  They only go up to a Size 5.  Weller already has plans to market them in the run-up to Christmas.  I am on a percentage for supplying the gerbils.