In 1971, a young elementary school teacher rented the back of a shop on Kings Road. The heart of Swinging London in the ‘60s, the former private road of Britain’s Kings had already seen the invention of the mini-skirt in the atelier of Mary Quant. But the best was yet to come. The new tenant was none other than Vivienne Westwood, who occupied number 430 with companion Malcolm McLaren, future manager of the Sex Pistols. The hippy utopia was coming to an end and the United Kingdom was about to feel the shock wave of Punk. Let It Rock started as a 1950s Rock-n-Roll record store but Vivienne soon started assembling clothes in the Teddy Boy style. “I used my store as a crucible,” Westwood would later say when she became a world-famous stylist, “Malcolm and I changed the names and the decor of shop to adapt to the clothing as our ideas evolved.” And so, from Edwardian velvet to torn clothes, to safety-pins, to latex, to whips, to t-shirts with provocative writing, to DIY clothing using tubes, bottle tops and chains, it became a beacon for a street style with no taboos. Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Sex and Sedictionaries are the names that appeared over its doors, while inside the boutique, memorable pages of music, fashion and youth culture were written. Would Vivienne have ever believed it if someone predicted she would become a Queen of Fashion with Royal Honours bestowed upon her? On Kings Road, the shop’s sign has been the same for some time now - World’s End, along with its emblematic clock running backwards.
Kangaroo Tour legend returns to Wembley after 22 years
On October 25, London will host the first of three highly anticipated test matches between the Australian and English Rugby League teams as part of the ABK Ashes Series 2025. An event that goes beyond a simple sporting competition but is the rebirth of a historic rivalry that has its roots in the first half of the twentieth century.
Portrait Award 2025: A Prize and an Exhibition Celebrating the Art of Portraiture
This summer, London’s National Portrait Gallery will host the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award, a leading international portrait competition. Founded in 1980, it has received over 40.000 entries from more than 100 countries. In 2024, Antony Williams won with Jacqueline with Still Life.
Hurvin Anderson’s first major retrospective explores twenty-five years of painting between England and Jamaica, memory and modernity, and brings together over sixty paintings by the British artist, ranging from nostalgic interiors to saturated landscapes, through a profound reflection on identity and belonging.
Anselm Kiefer presents new paintings at White Cube Mason’s Yard exploring the relationship between history, memory and materiality. The exhibition investigates Van Gogh’s influence on his practice and frames a dialogue between myth and matter.
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