Dave Carroll & The London Leatherman

‘’Around 1972/73 my Mum was working for a clothing factory in Battersea, (London) there was a few clothing factories (in the area) and they did contract work for the British Army, for example making British Army combat trousers.

Well, these factories all closed down because of the recession in the 70s and the seamstresses, which a lot of the woman in our area were, had no work. However, there was this very weird shop on Queenstown Road, around the corner from where we lived. We’d always seen stuff in the window and because we were just kids, we couldn’t understand it. Actually, pretty much no one in the area could understand it or why it was even there. Battersea was very working class, dull, with nothing interesting for people to visit, there wasn’t even a tube line. It was a very strange place for it to be in. From the outside it looked like a sauna with slatted woodwork and a very small glass window, which had in it studded belts, studded wrist bands and I remember a leather mask which completely and utterly freaked everyone out and everyone’s attitude was ‘what the fuck is this shop about?’. The shop was called The London Leatherman.

The guy who owned the shop, (his name was) Ken, it seemed was making a lot of money and selling a lot of stuff. We couldn’t understand what he would be selling and as I was getting older I came to understand it was a gay shop, but still not knowing what gay was. So….. anyway, the woman in the area who were now in need of work started working for him. This included my Mum, who went around the corner to see him and started working for him. Basically he would pay per piece and all my Mum had to do was sew leather jock straps, which she did on a machine she set up in our dining room. It was only until recently we had rolls and rolls of elastic in a cupboard left over for making these jock straps.

Basically, the pieces for the jock straps were already cut out and all my Mum had to do was sew them together. There was piles and piles of red ones and black ones, with The London Leatherman label sewn in. They really were ‘hand-made in London’ items and all the woman in the area who started working for him, found it hilarious. I remember my Nan putting one on her head, with the kids running around laughing, you know just playing and my Mum on the machine making these jock straps.

The jock straps were like elastic around the back, open at the back, with these leather pouches, which were pouches for the balls and the cock to come out of the top. It was pretty full on for the 1970s. But what he was selling to was the gay liberation, which had a really big leather scene in America, in particular San Francisco. A lot of it was being exported and there would be lorries turn up every few weeks and filled with all his leather goods to be shipped off. Of course, at first I didn’t know all of this, I was just a kid, but in later years when I got to know Ken he would tell me about the Coleherne Arms in Earls Court which had a leather scene back then, but all they could get was motorcycle stuff, which was kind of baggy and no one could get the right looking stuff, I imagine the inspiration being Tom Of Finland. They all wanted a fitted leather look and he was the only one who could (and would) make it. He literally started by trial and error, making for himself, wearing it out to the Coleherne and on his bike, he had a big BMW RS900 motorcycle, and that’s where his business came from. He played a very poignant role in the gay leather scene.

My mother continued doing bits and pieces of work for him, when all of a sudden the punk thing started and I started noticing from looking at all the music papers and everything going on that the punks were wearing the stuff I’d seen and knew it must’ve come from Ken’s shop.

We all used to hang around on street corners back then, and I was getting into punk. There was this kid who hung around with us who was a Teddy-Boy and he had a studded wrist band. I thought, that’s what the punks wear, ‘punk rockers’ is what they were called then, punks wear stuff like that. He said ‘I got it from that shop, you know that weird shop around the corner’. So, I did a deal with him or something, I think I had a tie, a Teddy-Boy boot lace tie and I swapped it with him for his wrist band. Once I put that wrist band on, and I had a Sex Pistols t-shirt, a really naff one, a capped sleeved one, I was a punk rocker. I was just 12 going on 13, I had really come of age when all of a sudden I was wearing that stuff. I remember straight away going to get a pair of jeans, they were flared, I had them drain piped, taken in, I went and bought a pair of Teddy-Boy creepers and I had all my hair cropped off. That was it, as easy as that everything changed in my life, I was a punk. But, I hadn’t even heard the music properly, I just liked the look. That would’ve been early 1978. I look back and I was very young.

In 1978 my Mum was still doing some work for The London Leatherman and she wanted me to drop some finished items off to his shop. But, I really didn’t want to, I didn’t want to go into his shop. She said ‘Just drop the bag off to him, he’ll give you an envelope with money in it and bring it back’. I can’t emphasize enough how much I didn’t want to go around there, it terrified me, it was a terrifying place. But, Ken was perfectly nice, he was a very nice guy. So, I went round there, he knew who I was. I dropped off the bag and he gave me the envelope and he said ‘you like all the punk stuff don’t you?’

And I said ‘Yeah, yeah I do’.

‘Well don’t ever buy it from that bastard’. He was referring to Malcolm McLaren the manager of the Sex Pistols and at that time had the shop Seditionaries with his partner Vivienne Westwood. He said ‘Do you want one of these and you can have some of those….’ I got studded belts and cuffs off him and I got these shiny t-shirts a red one, a navy blue one and a black one. He just gave them to me. They were capped sleeved, in a ciré like fabric which I later saw that the shop SEX sold them. The London Leatherman sold them with his labels in, he also sold them to Malcolm McLaren and put the SEX labels in. You can see the Banshees (Siouxsie and the Banshees) wearing them, they really were very early punk rock clothing.

As time moved on I really wanted a pair of leather trousers. I went and got a pair from Lewis Leathers. But, they were motorcycle jeans, they weren’t what I was looking for. I wanted jeans I’d seen the Sex Pistols wearing and what Generation X and bands like that were wearing. They were tight leather jeans with rivets, chrome rivets and they were a specific thing. So, much later in 1980/81 (I was 16) I went around to The London Leatherman and asked Ken. He said ‘I’ll make you a pair, it’ll cost you this much’. I’d just started working, so I had some money and he made me a pair with a belt. When you used to get leather trousers made by him, he’d make them with a matching studded belt.

The trousers had no lining in them, so they could be just tight enough, like a second skin. Essentially London Leatherman made fetish wear, which I didn’t understand back then, I just thought it looked good. I wanted to look like Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols), not a Tom of Finland drawing. It was fetish wear that became fashionable. These were the exact trousers the Sex Pistols were wearing, so I had my pair made by Ken and they were absolutely brilliant leather trousers. They looked fantastic with creepers, boots, anything.

I also got made by him a leather jacket. It was a single zip up the front jacket, with tassels, like a proper rockers jacket. Signature to his style it had popper studs on the cuffs. It was a great leather jacket.

He also sold great big knitted, chunky cardigans and jumpers, which I thought was odd. A friend of Kens used to knit them and so you could order a handmade woollen, chunky knit by The London Leatherman too. They were beautifully made, incredible.

Back when The London Leatherman was selling leather items to Malcolm McClaren for his shop SEX, on the Kings Road, he got wrapped up in the scandal related to the leather mask that the Cambridge rapist wore (1975). Both shops were raided by the police, because they were trying to work out the customers who had bought them. Ken had to say who bought the masks. That’s where the inspiration for the Cambridge Rapist t-shirts sold at Seditionaries came from. Previous to the scandal SEX sold a t-shirt with just the leather mask printed on, no writing.

But, The London Leatherman was constantly being raided. I’m sure because the police were homophobic in the 1970s. But, police just harassed people then, especially punks and people shopping at Seditionaries.’’

The LT2 Leather T-shirt by THE LONDON LEATHERMAN

The London Leatherman LT2 T-shirt made from leather and identifiable by the zip detail at the side and at the collar was first intended as a garment for the underground fetish scene. But, in the late 1960s with the fashion elite on the Kings Road, Chelsea choosing to wear their The London Leatherman pieces on the street and not just behind closed doors the LT2 T-shirt transcended into the glam rock, soul boy, punk rock, motorcycle and disco style genres.

The London Leatherman LT2 Leather T-shirt £385

Designed by Ken (Heddle Law Magson) in the late 60s to be fitted and unlined so that the leather sits against the skin, this garment, like our leather jeans is designed to mould uniquely to the owners shape as they wear the leather in. The working zips on the left side and left collar are for getting in and out of the garment

David Johansen & David Bowie, NYC 1974. Photographer Bob Gruen

It was around 1972 that Malcolm McLaren took an interest in The London Leatherman and in the time before and when McLaren managed the band the New York Dolls he dressed them in a lot of The London Leatherman items including the LT2 T-shirt. We’ve included above the picture by photographer Bob Gruen of singer David Johansen wearing the LT2 T-shirt in black leather, he also owned it in red leather.

Much to the horror of the fetish (in particular the gay fetish) scenes it was Malcom McLaren and Dame Vivienne Westwood who made the LT2 T-shirt ‘Punk’ (We’ll cover in more detail the transition from fetish to punk in a following blog post). Pictures below of Vivienne wearing the LT2 T-shirt are by photographers Ray Stevenson (Vivienne side of stage) and Ian Dickson (Vivienne with Sid Vicious).

Dame Vivienne Westwood 1976 at a Sex Pistols gig. Photographer Ray Stevenson.

Dame Vivienne Westwood & Sid Vicious 1976 at a Sex Pistols gig. Photographer Ian Dickson.

Adam Ant wearing The London Leatherman LT2 T-shirt. Photographer unknown.

Customers could purchase the LT2 T-shirt from The London Leatherman mail order catalogues or from The London Leatherman workshop directly, the LT2 T-shirt was also sold in the boutiques Granny Takes A Trip, Mr. Freedom, Let It Rock, SEX amongst many others. When these shops bought enough pieces from The London Leatherman their own branded label would be sewn into the garment instead of the black and white The London Leatherman label, these boutiques would often sell The London Leatherman items with both labels and a lot of the time no label.

Page from The London Leatherman catalogue 1975.

Illustration from The London Leatherman mail order catalogue 1972.

The t-shirt in a classic cut and a cap sleeve version was available in The London Leatherman catalogues from 1970 through to the mid 1980s. Today we offer the classic cut, made-to-order waxed sheep’s leather on WWW.THELONDONLEATHERMAN.COM

A Brief Biography of Ken- The London Leatherman

The origins of The London Leatherman label

Ken was born in 1938 in Worthing, West Sussex, England. We refer to him as Ken as this is how he would introduce himself and the name he used for much of his adult life, his real name is Heddle Law Magson.

The eldest with two younger brothers Trevor and Mel, Ken was immersed in creativity and crafts from a very early age. One of the earliest influences being the time spent sheltering from air raids during WWII with his mother under the stairs, they would spend hours and hours doing needle work, she taught him how to knit and sew.

In 1956 Ken was one of the last groups of men to be drafted into the army, he signed up to the RAF and trained for three years as a chef. His interest in ice-skating and theatre developed during this time and when stationed in Cyprus he played the character Widow Twankee in a pantomime performance of Aladdin. However, his time with the RAF was cut short when letters he wrote to his boyfriend of the time were intercepted resulting in him being court martialled and sentenced to 3 years in HS Prison Wormwood Scrubs (he served 18 months).

Ken served his time and moved to London in time for the Swinging Sixties. For the first few years he worked as a chef at The Dorchester on Park Lane and for a flying club near Hyde Park and one of his first forays into clothing was somehow being able to acquire sailor’s trousers. He would peg the trousers in from waist to knee, letting them out from the knee into bell bottoms. He sold these to boutiques in London in the mid 60s.

Towards the late sixties is when Ken’s reputation for leather work and fetish wear developed, his work being sort out by both the underground fetish scene and the fashion elite on the Kings Road in Chelsea. Self-taught his cut of leather trousers were designed for fetish, style and motorcycle riding, previous to this you could only get motorcycle trousers that were baggy and fashion trousers that were either too tight or too light weight for motorcycling. He would work with terry towelling and sheer ciré fabric too making shoulder enhancing cap sleeved t-shirts and tank tops with matching men’s underwear and shorts in the same fabric.

During this time the leather accessories he designed and made such as studded wristbands, studded belts, leather underwear and masks were considered much too outrageous to display and he wouldn’t make them readily available to the public until well after the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was granted preventing the discrimination of sexual activity between men and in-turn the gay revolution that followed this. Designing and making the clothing and accessories he did was not only considered extremely outrageous for the time but was dangerous too, Ken and his customers risked being arrested or even attacked by disgruntled members of the public if word got to the wrong people.

Come the early 70s the gay revolution was in full swing and Kens designs were in very high demand, not only in England and Europe but on the East and West Coast of America too, so Ken opened The London Leatherman shop, showroom and workshop on Queenstown Road in the early 1970s. It was no longer illegal for him to display his designs so he made sure the façade of his shop was something passes by couldn’t miss. He turned the Victorian shop front into what can be described as a mysterious Swedish sauna design of slatted woodwork with a single, small glass window displaying studded accessories and men’s underwear and The London Leatherman logo emblazoned across the front, built by his brother Trevor Magson.

Even though it was legal many gay and straight customers still wanted to shop anonymously meaning his mail order catalogues were a pinnacle part of his business. At first he hand drew the entire catalogue himself with a detailed description of the item and a code for customers to use for reference. Many items from these first catalogues remained available and featured in all catalogues released into the 80s. He used a number of artists to create the catalogue artwork over the years.

With the gay revolution came the attention from other shop keepers and businesses looking to sell his designs. They would order what Ken had to offer and if they ordered enough he would sew their labels in or often no label. Many The London Leatherman items were sold in Chelsea boutiques such as Granny Takes A Trip, Mr. Freedom, Let It Rock, Sex and Seditionaries which has led to many fashion historians mis-crediting Ken’s designs as being by others such as Vivienne Westwood or Malcolm McClaren. The items sold in these boutiques feature in The London Leatherman 'Exotica' & 'Leather Wear' catalogues from the time, we refer particularly to the famous The London Leatherman leather mask popularized by Malcolm McClaren with a t-shirt . Whilst McClaren did sell a few of the masks in his Kings Road shop Malcolm also bought the mask to give to a number musicians he worked with including Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls and Adam Ant for his first gig at the ICA. The London Leatherman leather t-shirt with side zip is a very early design by Ken and sold in all of the above mentioned Kings Road boutiques, as with his ciré fabric t-shirts. The London Leatherman t-shirts crossed into a number of sub cultures from fetish, soul boy, punk rock to disco.

From 1972 The London Leatherman supplied Alan Selby’s shop on the New Kings Road with all his leather clothing and accessories. Selby moved to the USA in 1979 when soon after Ken received word that someone was manufacturing The London Leatherman 'Exotica' designs out there thinking Ken would never find out. But Ken never missed a beat in business and swiftly got on a plane to the States with associates to correct the situation.

A keen motorcyclists Ken would ride around London, mostly preferring his BMW’s. This was a secret he kept from his family as just after his 16th birthday he had a motorcycle accident and vowed never to ride again. He liked fast cars owning a Simca, Carmen Ghia and Triumph GT6. In the 70s he upholstered the interior of his Rolls Royce himself with leather.

For many years Ken lived above The London Leatherman shop in his flat on the top two floors. He later moved to his house on Alfriston Road on Clapham Common with his partner in life also named Ken and his Alsatian Sheba. In the 60s he had an Alsatian named Simba.

Ken collected exotic and tropical fish for his very large wall feature fish tank he installed in The London Leatherman showroom in the 70s and positioned just behind the till. He also had a passion for model steam boats and power racing on the Serpentine lake, of which he won many trophies.

When not working with leather, Ken would often exercise his talent for drawing, painting and needle work. His paintings and tapestries are some of the most cherished items owned by those who knew him.

Words contributed by Mel Magson, Trevor Magson, Yvonne Magson, Dave Carroll.