Book Review: Granny Takes A Trip by Paul Gorman

I bought this book with my own money. This review is not sponsored.

A while ago I found out there’s a book about the famous 60s boutique Granny Takes A Trip coming out in 2025. I was eager to get my hands on this book because the late 60s is my favourite era for music and fashion. I love psychedelic rock. I love the optimistic sounds of the time. I love how the fashions of the late 60s were dopamine dressing before that was even a term. Very colourful and artistic approach to dress and the clothes still look great.

I think at this point the 60s is the furthest back you can go in time fashion wise where you can still wear the clothes today and it doesn’t look like a costume! So timeless! It looked great then and it looks great now. That’s what I like to see. Clothing that transcends eras and generations. I think it has a lot to do with the approach of taking classic looks of the past and modernising them. Which is why I tell every 60s lover to really appreciate the eras that came before it and made the 60s what it is. The 60s really were an amalgamation of eras and you can easily see that in Granny Takes A Trip: 1700s fops, Victorian dandyism, 1890s and 1900s Belle Époque and Art Nouveau, 1920s Art Deco and Flapper aesthetics, 1930s Old Hollywood, and even a little 1950s rock and roll. No aesthetic was made in a vacuum, it all builds upon each other.

If you were to imagine a little Dandy family tree: 18th Century Macaronis ➡️ Late 19th century Aestheticism Dandies ➡️ 1960s Dandies. The 60s takes influences from the flourishes of Rococo and Art Nouveau and the multicultural influences of the Aesthetic Movement such as Middle Eastern and Indian influences. In the 60s, you heard this in surf rock and with all the sitars in psychedelic rock. The decadence of the 1890s was just sex, drugs, and rock and roll before rock and roll: opium dens and excess! You see these earlier influences in the 60s, especially in rock stars like Brian Jones, Dave Davies, and Jimi Hendrix. I have a bunch of books on dandyism so I’m glad I’ve got this one in my collection.

If you’re in the UK and looking for the best price for this book, I bought mine from Awesome Books, which has free UK shipping and cheap international shipping and the price was a few quid less than Amazon. The reason for the high price is that it’s a thick, heavy hardcover book with lots of colour images, it’s truly a work of art true to the boutique’s approach of selling wearable art: the beautiful colour combination of navy blue and baby pink on the cover with the typography and the comic book like image of the iconic Jean Harlow storefront era. Open the book and you’ll see a monochrome pink version of the William Morris Golden Lily print. Keep turning the pages and you’ll be rewarded with incredible research and storytelling alongside vibrant images of psychedelic dandy peacock fashions.

You might be wondering why I’m writing a review of this book and that’s because fashion is an important part of rock and roll. Some people might pooh-pooh this and say “it’s all about the music, man”, but the image was a huge part of the fantasy and influence. Image consciousness did not begin with MTV. Even long before classic rock, a lot of importance was placed on getting the perfect look. Granny Takes A Trip is part of the story for classic rock royalty: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Marc Bolan, Elton John, Joe Cocker, Lou Reed, Gram Parsons, Rod Stewart, the list goes on! You can even see Granny Takes a Trip on screen: Veruschka wore a beaded dress from there in the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up.

Granny Takes a Trip’s beginnings in 60s Swinging London

The story of Granny Takes A Trip begins on 488 Kings Road in London. Like many things 1960s, it was started by a few young people with a dream. They were Nigel Waymouth, Sheila Cohen, and John Pearse. All three were in their early 20s. Waymouth had an international upbringing. He was born in India to a father in the RAF and he spent his childhood in Argentina before moving to London with his mother and getting into American R&B, blues, jazz and rock and roll like others of his generation. 

Sheila Cohen came from a Jewish family from North London and loved collecting antique and vintage clothing from the 1920s and 30s that she’d get for absolute bargains since vintage shopping hadn’t been gentrified yet. This collection would launch Granny Takes a Trip into the coveted celebrity label we know and love. 

The two came into contact with John Pearse after Cohen was convicted for possession of cannabis and sentenced to rehab. Pearse came from a working-class family of Irish descent and was trained as a tailor. He cut his teeth in tailoring when he walked into a tailor’s shop on Savile Row and asked if they had any vacancies for an apprentice. Henry Poole & Co didn’t have any openings, but they recommended Hawes & Curtis and he made such a great impression as a teenage apprentice that they wrote a letter to his parents saying they were “sure he will make a first-class tailor”. Pearse was also into the mod subculture and while the mods weren’t as colourful as the dandies or hippies, they loved good tailoring.

So Cohen’s knowledge and expertise was used to run the womenswear section and Pearse’s knowledge was perfect for the menswear. Waymouth’s graphic design talents would be perfect in creating the aesthetics. The name Granny Takes A Trip came from the old fashioned “granny” clothes Sheila was selling and well ‘trip”, acid trip. The 60s was all about humour and shock and that name really stood out because what kind of granny trips on acid? 

Naturally the Granny Takes a Trip founders would come into contact with other boutique owners like Michael Rainey of Hung On You, antiques dealer and 60s dandy pioneer/Swinging London inventor Christopher Gibbs, John Paul of I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet, Barry Miles of Indica Gallery, Tommy Roberts of Kleptomania, Alice Pollock or Quorum, John Crittle and Tara Browne of Dandie Fashions, Sid Brent of Take 6, and Tommy Roberts and Trevor Myles of Mr Freedom.

Aesthetically, these shops were a melange of influences: medieval, Romantic Byronic poet shirts, Aubrey Beardsley inspired black and white drawings, Roy Lichtenstein pop art, Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau, the cowboy fashions of Western films, and even James Dean in East of Eden. Granny Takes a Trip would change their look frequently as the façades became mainstream, and therefore passé. They were determined to keep that underground feel. One year it’s Art Nouveau, next it’s futuristic typefaces and Captain America quoting Oscar Wilde, another it’s a pop art portraits of Native American Chief Low Dog and Kicking Bear, then it’s a drawing of Jean Harlow, or it’s a car crashing through the storefront. Granny Takes a Trip had eras long before Taylor Swift.

When you think about it, you could really say that the Swinging London scene of 1960s Chelsea was like the grandchild of the Aesthetic Movement that was going on there nearly a century earlier. Victorian Era Chelsea was the stomping grounds of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Singer Sargent, and Oscar Wilde, the counterculture people of their day, so to speak. It’s got that artistic heritage! 

The 1960s was a decade of change in a century of change and Pearse described Granny Takes a Trip as “the first bisexual shop”. It was a time when girls were dressing like boys who dressed like girls. They also introduced the Afghan coat to westerners, which would become popular amongst the hippies.

In 1967, you had major strides in equality on both sides of the Atlantic: homosexuality decriminalised in England and Wales and interracial marriage federally legal in the United States thanks to the landmark Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision. Buzz came fast and they were featured in Time Magazine’s “London Swings Again” cover story in 1966. It was more than just a shop, it was a community space and you’d see rock stars not just buy clothes there, but hang out in a beautifully appointed room part of the boutique. They were featured in a Rank Group’s Look At Life newsreel with Iggy Rose shopping for clothes at the boutique.

Granny Takes a Trip were pioneers and with that comes with imitators and competition. They were not fast fashion like Biba or Take 6, the latter’s owner said of their capitalistic approach, “Think of the idea tonight, work it out tomorrow, take it to the factory next day, and have it in the shop in every size by the end of the week”. With them being in World’s End, there were other boutiques that had better locations and so began the lull. Music wasn’t the only place where there was competition. Also the owners were making money, moving on to other ventures, and having lives outside the business. Nigel Waymouth went into business with Michael English as Hapshash & The Coloured Coat designing psychedelic gig posters and book covers since the art establishment turned up its nose at them. They even tried their hand at recording music and recorded two albums.

In the 70s, he’d go solo as a graphic designer and design album sleeves for Nick Drake and America. The end of the 60s really marked the end of an era in many ways as well as an end of an era for Granny Takes a Trip. John Pearse went abroad, and he’d later come back to England and be an independent tailor and try his hand at filmmaking, making videos for gay punk singer Tom Robinson. That left Waymouth and Cohen feeling disillusioned with the shop and they sold it to Freddie Hornik, formerly of Dandie Fashions. Cohen was deep into an addiction and was arrested once again for possession of drugs. Typical of any rock and roll story, there’s drugs and encounters with gangsters.

Granny Takes a Trip goes Glam and to America in the 70s

Freddie Hornik refreshed Granny Takes a Trip into a more glam rock Nudie Cohn inspired look during a time when British rock stars were spending more time in NYC and California. So he followed the rockers across the pond and started working with two Americans from different backgrounds: the blue collar Gene Krell and the well-to-do Marty Breslau to bring Granny to a new audience. Krell had worked for the Small Faces, opening their fan mail and through that connection, he knew singer Billy Nicholls. While other boutiques were content to stay in London, Hornik had bigger ambitions. He flew to New York in September 1969 and it felt like a home away from home. He meets some stakeholders and they get into a partnership to establish Granny Takes a Trip in New York. Celebrities in the know recognised the brand so it was only a matter of time before they got their American clientele like Nile Rodgers, Ronald Isley, Gram Parsons, Leon Russell, Tommy Hilfiger, Miles Davis, and Todd Rundgren. Clients weren’t just clients, they were treated like guests. Clothes were imported from England and they’d sell like hotcakes. Meanwhile back in England, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren set up shop in World’s End. 

In 1972, Granny Takes a Trip expanded to Los Angeles thanks to an investment from Freddie Hornik’s girlfriend Jenny Dugan-Chapman. Eventually there were issues with importing clothes and drama between the investors and owners, with John LiDonni and Richie Ognibene investing in a rival boutique Jumping Jack Flash. They also wanted to have some American made clothes in the shop since importing from overseas wasn’t as reliable or sustainable. Of course being around rock stars meant drugs on demand and it led to the demise of the famous rock and roll boutique. Drug addictions often come with money problems and when there’s fights over money, that’s just the beginning of the end. The London shop was sold to Byron Hector in 1974, shut down by 1979, and in 1980 there was a big front page story in News of the World about some drug dealers at the shop. After being hospitalised for Hepatitis B, Freddie Hornik went back to the UK to live with family and work as a cab driver. Gene Krell worked as a shop assistant at Jumping Jack Flash for a bit before working with Vivienne Westwood and having a successful career in fashion. Marty Breslau ended up working as a taxi driver. Rumour has it he was killed during an altercation over drugs. 

Like with anything from the past, a revival of interest happened, which meant people telling their stories from the time, museum exhibitions, documentaries, and a relaunch. I’m afraid the relaunch wasn’t much to write home about. Like the OG Granny Takes a Trip, it was expensive and not for everyone, but it had a completely different aesthetic. Those who know Granny Takes a Trip love it for the androgynous dandy and glam styles of the 60s and 70s. That’s what they want! Not generic streetwear. I think it was a missed opportunity to bring items back from the archives and do faithful recreations of old favourites, because there’s really nothing like Granny Takes a Trip! 

At the end of the book there are a bunch of photographs of the Rolling Stones’ outfits from Granny Takes a Trip and pardon me for the millennial reference, I wish the magic copy machine from Fairly Odd Parents was a thing because I want all of these things in my wardrobe!

Final Thoughts

This book is an incredible read, one that you can’t put down. Seriously, I read this in two evenings and I couldn’t get enough of the storytelling. If you like VH1 Behind the Music style stories and the style of rock stars, you’re gonna love this book. Lots of name dropping. Lots of wild stories from the time period. A great retrospective of a truly one of a kind Kings Road boutique. Time machines aren’t real, but this book will certainly immerse you into that world. Seriously, it’s phenomenal and worth the price!

If you want to see some visuals of Granny Takes A Trip, other Swinging London fashions, and their influences, check out my blog posts of my visits to the Mary Quant Exhibition in London, Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, Sargent & Fashion exhibition at the Tate Britain and Biba exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, and Pre-Raphaelites in Birmingham.

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