Guide: The Dandie Fashions / BEV Design Collective / Apple Corps (The Beatles) Bentley S1
Dandie Fashions
In October 1966 Dandie Fashions opened its new store at 161 King’s Road in Chelsea having moved from a temporary location in South Kensington at 56 Queen’s Gate Mews.
The company was a partnership between tailor Freddie Hornik, designer John Crittle, fashion entrepreneurs Alan Holston and Neil Winterbotham and Guinness heir and socialite, Tara Browne.
Dandie created avant-garde clothing of the style typified by 1960s swinging London: ruffled white-laced shirts, breasted jackets, velvet suits and mini dresses, often with wild patterns and in every imaginable colour.
During the summer of 1966, Tara Browne had commissioned the BEV Design Collective run by Doug Binder, Dudley Edwards and David Vaughan to paint his AC Cobra with a new psychedelic colour scheme.
Following the successful completion of this work, Dandie Fashions employed BEV to paint the company’s new King’s Road storefront and interior.
Death of Tara Browne
Unfortunately, on the night of December 17th 1966, Tara Browne was fatally injured when he crashed his Lotus Elan.
While reputedly travelling at over 100mph, Browne failed to see a red light and proceeded through the junction of Redcliffe Square and Redcliffe Gardens in South Kensington. He swerved to avoid a car that pulled out in front of him and crashed into a parked lorry.
Browne died of his injuries the next day while his girlfriend, the model Suki Potier, survived.
The crash was front page news and served as John Lennon’s inspiration for the opening verses of The Beatles song A Day in the Life which appeared on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
John Crittle purchased Browne’s Dandie Fashions shares and became a partner in the company.
The Dandie Fashions Bentley S1
Two weeks before Tara Browne’s untimely death, John Crittle had also purchased a second-hand Bentley S1 (chassis B174CK) with which to chauffeur the firm’s famous clientele around London.
The grey standard steel saloon with green upholstery had originally been supplied to the Countess of Middleton in Ashford, Kent. It then moved to London upon acquisition by it second owner, Frederick Cleveland-Harmer of Old Park Road in East Acton.
During spring 1967, Crittle had Binder, Edwards and Vaughan repaint chassis B174CK in a sensational new pyschedelic colour scheme. At the same time, the original green upholstery was switched to purple hide with pink rugs.
Crittle, who was by this time designing outfits for The Who, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Sammy Davis Jr., David Bowie and Elvis Presley, had also become a good friend of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Over the next twelve months, many of these characters were ferried to various London functions in the Dandie Bentley.
Apple Corps
In January 1968 The Beatles earlier company (Beatles Ltd.) was replaced by a new conglomerate, Apple Corps Ltd., to handle the band member’s various business interests. In addition to its chief music making division, other Apple offshoots included film, publishing, electronics and retail.
One of the first business ventures undertaken was the Apple Boutique which pre-dated Apple Corps official inception by a couple of months.
Apple Boutique was a high end fashion outlet located on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street in Marylebone, London. The store and much of its merchandise was designed for £100,000 by Anglo-Dutch art collective, The Fool.
The Fool’s commission included a psychedelic mural to cover all four storeys of the Georgian premises. Upon its completion, the Apple Boutique opened to much fanfare with a star-studded launch party on December 7th 1967.
The Beatles Step In
In May 1968, The Beatles officially forged a business partnership with Dandie Fashions; 95% of the company was purchased in exchange for a 1% stake of Apple Corps.
Dandie Fashions was subsequently re-named Apple Tailoring and, as part of the acquisition, Apple Corps took ownership of the shop’s psychedelic Bentley.
Things Turn Sour
Around this time, the Apple Boutique’s mural, which had not received planning permission, was unceremoniously painted over after complaints from local retailers. With no proper business model and a major theft problem among staff and customers, the Apple Boutique closed its doors in late July of 1968 after just a few months in existence.
Apple Tailoring continued a little while longer, but it too had been closed by the end of 1968 as The Beatles sought to end their brief retail experiment.
By October 1968, chassis B174CK had been sold to its fourth owner, Peter Nutley in Hampton, Middlesex.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: BEV Cobra Martin Cook - https://martincook.zenfolio.com/ & The Beatles Bentley - https://beatlesbentley.com/
