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More of a personal anniversary in Call Sign this
month. Recently, Call Sign Ed Alan and his wife Linda were invited to a
celebrity bash in a Kings Cross nightclub to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of a phenomenon that they and many of their age group grew up
with – the Ben Sherman button down shirt! Younger drivers may wonder why anyone would celebrate the anniversary of a shirt, well firstly this wasn’t just ANY shirt – if you lived and partied in the 60’s, then you wouldn’t be seen dead wearing any other type of shirt! Only your dad or granddad wore Rael Brook Toplin shirts! Secondly, although not many realised at the time, Ben Sherman was a real person! The "personal anniversary" refers to Ben Sherman’s wife Daphne, who is the sister of Alan Fisher’s wife Linda! Although Ben Sherman died many years ago, Daphne still has vivid memories of the period and Call Sign asked her to recall them briefly… "Ben brought his prototype of button down shirt with him when he came back from the USA in 1962 and after working on details of the design for a year, he made the button down shirt his own. 1963 saw the first of his button down shirts in the shops - although the label inside the shirts said 'Sussex Shirts'. Later, Ben decided to name-brand his button down |
THE ANNIVERSARY PAGE
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shirt and young people no longer spoke about buying a button down
shirt, but of buying a ‘Ben Sherman’! Newspapers and magazines of the time
began criticising the Ben Sherman, referring to it as a uniform linking the
troubles between Mods, Rockers and later on Skin Heads. But in
reality, many other men also quietly purchased Ben Sherman shirts in their
thousands for the style, colours, easy fit and ease of ironing!
In 1965, Ben opened his first |
showroom in the centre of swinging London - Carnaby Street. His
timing was perfect. Along with the music scene, London was leading the rest
of the world in fashion – and no fashion conscious young man about town
would be seen clubbing without his Levi's, Doc Martins and Ben Sherman
buttoned down shirt. And, here we are 40 years later and 90% of the young men and women still 'go clubbing' in their Ben Sherman shirts, shoes and suits." Simon Farlow |
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