QUIRKY T SHIRTS - ANTONI AND ALISON

QUIRKY T SHIRTS - ANTONI AND ALISON

I'm trying to remember when I first met Antoni & Alison , I believe it was in 1992/3 and possibly in Jeff Banks' studio in D'Arblay, St. SOHO,London, my being in partnership with Jeff, and just down the street from another of my clients -The Duffer of St George who had their first store there having operated 'the markets' previously.

I was very involved in patents and copyright law at the time relative to surface design/printed fabric and could well have given A&A my opinion on their plagiarism of copyright case regarding one of their 'catch phrase/slogan/whimsical t shirt' designs that had literally been lifted by somebody in Giorgio Armani's studio. A&A went to court and won their case and were awarded a very reasonable 'nest egg' to help their fledgling business on its way forward.

ANTONI BURAKOWSKI AND ALISON ROBERTS

  I used to visit A&A at their studio/offices in Kingsland Road,Hackney which if I remember correctly was behind a cafe that fronted onto Kingsland Road where we charted a way forward They made deals in Japan and followed the route of many up and coming designers by agreeing to 'a diffusion line' being sold in 'Designers at Debenhams' where a number of my clients have gained successes and healthy revenue streams.

They've subsequently struck deals with Uniqlo as did  the tennis player Novak Djokovic and Orla Kiely this year.

In my youth I used to play water polo for my Old School Water Polo team where most of the players worked in the City of London where I also worked in a sales office in what was, but now demolished, Dashwood House in Old Broad St, next to a magical pub and sandwich counter called Patmacs and opposite the Gows wine bar where they served for free, quails eggs and celery salt, please remember this was in the late 50's and being a 'country boy' my parents listened in awe at the 'sandwich delicacies' I ate in Patmacs and the odd visit to Gows who incidentally are still there .

The reason I'm giving you all this background is that we had our water polo matches in the Dalston Road Baths that were all very old and Victorian and down the road from A&A first studio/office. After the matches we invariably then drove down the Kingsland Road to a moblie  Cafe in Ridley Road, the home during the day of the celebrated and vibrant Ridley Road Market, serving bacon and egg sandwiches and tea/coffee., particularly for the London cabbies working the evening shift.

Of further interest I took my wife to be, now sadly deceased, with me to a polo match and then made the mandatory stop at the Ridley Road mobile cafe and once there she stared at the cafe owner as if she knew him. It turned out that when she was on holiday in Spain with a couple of girlfriends from here in Hitchin the previous year they had been chatted up by a guy who used the 'chat up line' that he owned a number of restaurants in North London. I don't think that a 'mobile cafe' rates as a restaurant? 

 

It doesn't pay to bullshit too much as it can eventually nip you in your rear!!!

Ridley Road was a breeding ground for young aspirational market traders who wished to move on to be 'bricks and mortar ' retailers such as a certain Harvey  Gilbert who eventually morphed into Harveys for haberdashery type products, bedlinen, curtains furniture etc. He eventually sold out extremely well with many millions in the bank - good luck to him 

 

 

All images used on the Leslie Creasey Blog are from my hand clipped archive documenting 35 years of Style and Design media.  For all enquiries please contact leslie@charismatic-brands.com.