By now many of you you would have heard that music artist, manager, impresario and self-promoter Malcom McLaren has died aged just 64. Most stories and obituaries have focused on his music and his influence on popular culture, not least with the punk movement here in the UK and beyond.
But just as importantly in 1975 the rebranding of his boutique on the King’s Road, London to SEX created what was arguably the world’s first rubber fetish shop. McLaren, together with partner Vivienne Westwood, styled SEX with a foam rubber sign, rubber curtains and walls, and stocked it with rubber clothes and bondage gear. Their customers included Chrissi Hynde, The Sex Pistols, Adam Ant and Siouxsie Sioux.
Represented as a gimp in the Sex Pistols’ documentary ‘The Filth and the Fury’ McLaren and latex fetishists were only ‘escaping reality’ according to John Lydon. But as McLaren recently pointed out in an interview with New Zealand radio host Wallace Chapman his motive for selling sadomasochistic clothing was more about his constant pursuit of figuring out how to inspire youth culture by plundering the past,: ”Whether it be Teddy boy suits, or whether it be rubber and leather wear; whatever it was, how was I going to connect it to this disaffected youth?”
He certainly did find a way to connect and I believe McLaren’s legacy will live on on not just in retail environments and accessibility of fetish clothing, but also in its vital attachment to the inquiring experimentation of now and future youth generations. Not forgetting that he did it all with panache, humour and ultimately courage.
