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The Destination Is The Journey
Not so long ago, I found myself walking up Charing Cross Rd on the way to a meeting. I passed Zwemmers book shop and glanced at the window - as I always do - and there, nestled among a host of famous names, I noticed a new photographic tome whose title stopped me dead in my tracks. The familiarity of its simple message leapt off the page with the glowing luminosity of a huge neon sign, the type you see outside that remote Holiday Inn as you drive across the Nevada desert in the dead of night :
The Destination Is The Journey.
Was this beckoning beacon written by someone who knew! or by some curious twist of fate, had they actually thought the name up? or had it been placed there in that shop window by the inhabitants of a passing UFO. Strange as it may seem, I had never seen something I'd felt so strongly put into words before, but there it was right before my very eyes transporting me back in time, re-affirming something I was just beginning to appreciate some thirty years ago.
It was sometime in the early seventies when I first began to realise the notion that my life was being taken on a wild roller coaster ride, driven by some powerful yet unseen guiding force. I had no idea in which direction I was heading but it didn't seem to matter, all I knew was, that I had to believe in myself and do what I really wanted to do, live a dream, and allow destiny to take me on a journey along a road that became suprisingly, wider than long.
At that time I was spending most days and nights of the week driving an old VW van around the U.K and across Europe buying and selling chic vintage clothes and objects, to a select contingent of like minded people who shared my passion for style.
Meeting and exchanging creative thoughts with these fellow travellers - although few and widespread - was a real turn on, and as each new door opened I ventured deeper into a hidden world of alternative culture that fuelled my hungry imagination. These journeys confirmed my belief that certain people I was meeting along the way were the real innovators and creators of the time and part of an important future society, all be it an alternative to the norm.
The diverse visual world that I was being exposed to unfolded like a movie before my eyes, and I had become the camera collecting and storing information not really knowing how I would ever use it , but just knowing it had to be collected for a good purpose.
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From as early as the mid 50s, growing up on a farm in a small Leicestershire village where the entertainment level for any young inquisitive soul was zilch, I like most of my generation was being fed a daily diet T.V films, cartoons and commercials - most either inspired by or directly from the US - also having an older sister who was into the latest rock'n'roll thang, I couldn't help but allow my creative senses to be impregnated by a wide range of cultures and images that would somehow shape my future.
T.V cowboys such as the Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger were my heroes although somehow I always related to the baddy. However one of the first looks I seriously got into was that of Davy Crockett 'King of the Wild Frontier.' After seeing this classic Disney feature in living colour, I instantly related to the larger than life character, and fell in love with his buckskins and fur tailed hat, I even persuaded my mum to buy me a kids toy version of that hat and treasured it for years.
Like most kids I became enamoured by the strange diversity and yet safe security of the whole Disney world, the dreams that that simple logo could conjure up were to just good to be true, I was totally sold on the power of the whole image.
Imagine my excitement then when I discovered the Swastika and the Nazis, the ultimate bad guys, like it or not those guys looked so fucking glamorous and decadent in their stylish uniforms, totally inspiring, surely they were never designed to fight in. Imagine my surprise twenty years later when I discovered their whole look was created by a costume designer. Incidentally I still rate the entire Nazis design package, right up there alongside Disney, good and evil side by side. . . . you choose ?
My first, and still greatest passion is fashion, and like all my passions - as soon as I was able to afford them - they became obsessions, life was rapidly becoming a mission to find the latest and most definitive items that would express my individuality.
In the early 60s the elitist Mod movement affected me so strongly that the philosophy of style I learnt then still remains with me today, the whole male narcissistic trip left a huge impression on a young lad from the country. It was through Mod that I discovered my female side which was total revelation to a boy brought up in a predominately macho male environment. I experienced speed and became hooked on life, not ever wishing to sleep through a single minute, there was just too much to do and never enough time to do it, strange how nothing changes!
Work at that time was just a vehicle to allow me to buy clothes, anything else was secondary even girls and going out. I discovered that the streets of London were paved with clothes that just had to be bought, and made the pilgrimage as often as I could. I worked all hours god sent - and still do to fuel my obsession - and as I became more enraptured in the whole lifestyle thing, I started to collect objects and records that reflected the fashion I was into at that time.
But work on the land although satisfying, was incredibly hard and poorly paid. I bought my first car when I was sixteen, a 1948 Standard 12, well in advance of the big day, total liberation. I discovered Drag racing that insane motor sport imported from the U.S. this surely epitomised mans desire to live life on the edge, what a revelation. At eighteen I made a major decision and headed for the bright lights and big city of Leicester, more cash and better clothes were essential.
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While still in my teens I left the security and draining negativeness of a full time job driving cranes in a large factory that manufactured stone crushing machinery, spurred with a new energy on leaving that cancerous post war ' the country owes us a living' attitude far behind, I immediately became self employed.
Thankfully I was incredibly motivated because I hadn't realised just how difficult it would be living off my own initiative, with only a very basic education as a backup. I very quickly learned to think latterly and accept any manual work I could find, and this meant doing some real shit jobs like delivering coal, and window cleaning, but the main incentive was the freedom to be into my own thing at what ever the cost.
I experienced a lot through the hippie movement but hated the clothes - these people knew nothing of simplicity being the essence of style - so when in the late 60s I saw Bonnie and Clyde - more baddies - I became totally inspired and started to delve into fashions of the recent past, discovering to my amazement the rich treasures of charity shops, other peoples cast offs, dead mens clothes. Through these happy hunting grounds I was able live out all my fantasies and recreate looks that had previously only been seen on the backs of film stars during my formative viewing years.
I quickly trawled through the decadent delights of the 20s 30s 40s and then the futuristic 50s, - a series of period cars heightened the whole experience - although I started out as a total purist, in order to stay ahead of my contemporaries - ever the elitist - I mixed freely between periods to create my own individual eclectic style.
This eclecticism was of course reflected in every cultural thing that I could lay my hands on and experience, I was always searching for the definitive item of any particular style I was into. Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Futurists were rediscovered, endless B-movies viewed, and every kind of extinct music genre was played. Kitsch reared its ugly head and left a lasting impression on my taste, I learnt that in order appreciate and understand bad taste one of course had to have very good taste.
Markets were always a good source, and I even had a stall myself for some time, always wanting to have my finger on the pulse. In 1972 I opened a shop in Leicester called Pioneer Antiques, later (Hollywood Fashions) selling old advertising signs - theres those corporate logos again - period furniture, objects and of course vintage clothes.
At last I had found a job that not only paid, but allowed me to totally immerse myself in my passions. Dealers from London were my main customers, as my taste was a little too extreme or shall we say too advanced for the locals, but it became increasingly difficult to supply the demand for the hardware, so the clothes gradually took over, and my trips to the smoke became more frequent, eventually setting up a base there.
As more and more people in London began to get into the whole nostalgia trip, there was a fierce yet understated competition going on between myself and my peers to get into the subtleties and obscurities of the various periods in order to stay ahead of the pack and retain our individuality. No stone was left unturned and a lot of inspiration came from period magazines, particularly of the pin-up variety, they were a huge source of the weirdest shit, and of course exposed all the extremes of our pioneering forefathers.
It is always strangely reassuring to discover that you are not alone in your peculiar taste and that these guys had been on a similar vibe so many years before. Through these dog eared pages obscure avante garde artists appeared and were researched, previously unknown films were absorbed into the consciousness, I became enraptured by surrealism and world-wide music began to enter my vocabulary.
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As demand for the clothes grew it meant I would have to travel further afield to satisfy the craving, the idea being that while I was out there looking for clothes and things for my own use, I could use my knowledge and selective eye to seek out and supply items to shops in London, that were the main retailers of vintage clothes and objects. Over a period of 18 months almost every town in England had brought forth fruit. I was turning up large quantities of unworn period fashion and started to sell to dealers from abroad, particularly Japan where they seemed to have an insatiable appetite.
As far back as I could remember I had always hated censorship, believed in freedom of speech and probably been an anarchist without even knowing what the word meant, until some time in 1975 when the whole punk thing broke on the Kings Rd, then it all became very clear.
Over the next few years like a huge rash of festering spots, every conceivable aspect of lowlife trash rose from the underground and burst onto the surface. The dark spirit of the underworld glowed like a ferocious torch for a while, but by 1979 punk had gone completely mainstream and the true lowlifes fearing overexposure once again returned to the bowels of the city to create, that is those who hadn't entered the mainstream, to use it for their own devices. It has to be said that most of what surfaced was uninspired crap, but there were some great things that happened and some fantastically talented characters appeared, some who are still part of the underground today.
The movement had inspired a positive reaction in people like myself, and along with four partners I opened a new type of shop called PX, selling chic military style clothes - which I had bought at army surplus stores across Holland, Germany and France - to a discerning few. I designed and built the shop in the style of an underground bunker, with industrial ducting and fittings I had plundered from the old MI5 building. The shop remained, but after six months and many policy arguments I instinctively decided to move on yet again into uncharted territory.
The down side of the Punk thing was that it left me with a warehouse full of period clothes, but by a stroke of pure fate it was these clothes that opened another door and helped me enter the film industry - could this be true I asked myself time and time again me involved in the film industry? - and by what better way than by recreating a movie (Quadrophenia) about my specialist subject the Mod period.
It seemed natural now to open a hire company specialising in contemporary street fashion, particularly as I had a warehouse full of the stuff that nobody wanted to buy. Again instinctively and without knowing why had I kept the best examples, was it for just such an occasion? In 1978 the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection was born.
The shop I had designed had not gone unnoticed, and ironically in 1980 I was asked by Westwood/Mclaren to redesign the very shop that had been the catalyst of Punk movement.
Worlds End was to be a real landmark in fashion history, a cocktail of ideas drawn from the film Dr Calgary's Cabinet, the book Alice in Wonderland, The Olde Curiosity Shoppe, and prints of 18th Century Galleons at sea, a true eclectic mix. The theme of the collection was based on decadence, glamour and the fusion of old and new into modern day pirates, a fitting beginning to a new decade.
A year later I designed and built Nostalgia of Mud for Westwood/McLaren, this shop was heralded as the most innovative of the decade by style writers of the time. Eclecticism ruled again this time drawing from African mud huts, Regency architecture, Sci-Fi films and WW2. As Mclaren put it 'these shop were beautiful stage sets and never designed to sell anything'.
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Through the shops and my film contacts yet another door opened, and I now became involved in the latest innovative offering from the music world, the pop video. Here at last I was able to explore and exploit, my creative urges and fuse everything I was passionate about into one great medium, film. The roller coaster got up to full speed during this period and didn't slow down for a full five years, new doors seemed to be flying open every day.
I had resisted my urge to visit America for years as I didn't want to be disappointed by my pre-conceived perceptions of this amazing fountain of so many dreams. The reality was when I did eventually take the bull by the horns, it not only surpassed all my illusions, but I really felt in my heart of hearts that this was my true spiritual home. On my return I discovered Travels in Hypereality a mind expanding journey through the language of signs, boy did that make thing clear. I have been back to the US through work several times in the last ten years, and each time come back elated with my discoveries of a land full of fellow travellers.
But the real expansion of my creative senses came in 1985 when I first visited Tokyo, to style and art direct a modern menswear fashion show for a company called Ying & Yang. Discovering and working telepathically with another fellow traveller - a John Peel style DJ called Snake Man - on the other side of the world who barely spoke a word of English, would have been enough for anyone in my position, but experiencing first hand the extreme diversity of Japanese culture totally blew my mind.
Extreme commercialism, living side by side with the ultimate in simplicity, Kitsch sitting next to the finest taste, no space and yet space for everyone, the work ethic pushed to its enth degree, intense noise and complete quiet, stress free spiritualism and water logic, the whole cocktail was quite unbelievable but boy did it work, good guys bad guys, beauty and horror, heaven and hell, this really was life on the edge and yet it felt totally normal. A new word had entered my every day life, JUXTAPOSITION. Never had I realised in my wildest dreams how much this word, this culture, this city would become such an important guiding light for the future.
In 1992 I took a huge gamble and rehoused the whole collection, now some 15000 items, in a spacious but derelict Victorian horse hospital.
The building inspired the hell out of me and filled me with the conceivable actuality of realising a dream, creating a base for endless insane schemes that would in turn inspire others like myself. But more importantly the building offered the opportunity to not only show films but to make them myself. The idea of putting on films and exhibitions seemed perfect for the space, which we now ironically christened The Chamber or Pop Culture, as much of what we set out to exhibit was about as far from the mainstream as you can get.
So with no budget, but a lot of help and enthusiasm from collectors and friends we kicked off with 'Vive Le Punk'. This important Westwood McLaren punk retrospective was a huge success pulling in over 3000 people in three months. A year later I was asked by the giant cosmetic company Shiseido to take the show to Japan to be displayed in their Tokyo gallery. The exhibition turned out to be their most successful, when over 15000 fashion hungry Japanese showed up in just five weeks.
Some ten years later, the general ethos of punk still lays at the heart of our organisation, we are stolid champions of the outsider and shall continue to support artists, filmmakers, writers and musicians who work outside the mainstream. The rest, as they say is history which, thanks to some amazing people who have given up their time and expertise, has produced what is now beginning to unfold within the pages of this website.
Roger K. Burton 2003