I heard today that an old mate of mine died. I worked with John Taylor for about 8 years making mannequins for Adel Rootstien in a little studio hidden behind the Kings Road in Chelsea. It's the only job I ever had where I actually looked forward to going to work each morning. The studio had never really changed since he first set it up and sculpted Twiggy in sixties, there were the plaster heads and hands of all kinds of celebs and fashion models stacked precariously on shelves, the whole place had a layer of clay dust covering everything, most of the tools were at least 20 years old. Every morning at around 10, a model would come in and pose for a few hours whilst John set about sculpting her. Then we would have a fairly lazy lunch and a pint or two before going back and working on the plaster casts. The casts were eventually sent to a factory where they were copied and sold all over the world. I don't seem to have any pictures the old boy except this one which shows John and I working on a model of Amica in the late 80's. In 1990 I met Alison when we made a mannequin of her, and we've been together ever since. It was great fun in those days, walking up and down Regent Street seeing her in shop windows dressed up with different hairstyles and mad makeup. I even have a spare Alison under the stairs, in case the real one falls to bits. John was fantastic influence on me, a very wise and generous man who had partied hard through the sixties Kings Road fashion scene and matured into a mildly eccentric old man who considered most of what goes on these days as being irrelevant. I am a sad man today.
