Backstage moments that capture the spirit of a movement
(Image credit: William English)

It’s often the impromptu, accidental or backstage moments that capture the spirit of a movement, more than anything intentionally staged or obvious. In 1975 William English, then a young film student, took a series of photographs of his friend Vivienne Westwood playing dress-up at the ‘Sex’ shop she ran with Malcolm McLaren at 430 Kings Road in London.

The young Westwood simmering with energy and abandon that would moments later explode from a subculture behind the curtains of the ‘Sex’

(Image credit: William English)

See William English's photographs of Westwood

The photographs show the young Westwood simmering with energy and abandon that would moments later explode from a subculture behind the curtains of the ‘Sex’ shop and find its name and fame as the punk movement.

The collection is now on show as a selling exhibition at another very English institution, though perhaps rather a surprising one – Maggs Bros antiquarian booksellers. Curator Carl Williams, who heads up the Counterculture section of Maggs, explains: ‘I was invited by William English to an exhibition ‘Punk: No One is Innocent’ about five years ago in Vienna where I first saw a few of the snaps. He had the original negatives squirreled away and so we blew them up for this show. I don’t really do innovation much, I prefer to turn over old ground and remind people of what might be important’.

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Maggs Gallery
50 Hays Mews
London W1

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Fashion Features Editor

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*. Having previously held roles at 10, 10 Men and AnOther magazines, he joined the team in 2022. His work has a particular focus on the moments where fashion and style intersect with other creative disciplines – among them art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and profiling the industry’s leading figures and brands.