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Malcolm McLaren began to design clothes in the early 70s, after he quit art school. In 1971, along with his then girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, he opened a boutique called Let It Rock. They sold gear for teddy boys, rockers, and greasers. Boring.

But then Malcolm met the New York Dolls, saw a little glimpse of the future of music, and convinced them to hire him as their manager. He designed a whole new look for them featuring red leather and Soviet symbols, and it totally failed and the band went down in flames. It’s become the popular punk party line to blame the Dolls’ demise on McLaren, but we think the real reason is because they only had a few good songs and were almost all worthless fucking junkies.

On a trip to New York in the mid 70s, McLaren met Richard Hell. He tried to become his manager too, but Hell said no. So McLaren did the next best thing: Returned to London, changed his shop’s name to SEX, and started selling Hell-inspired ripped t-shirts and bondage gear. Then came the Sex Pistols, blah blah blah, you should already know that part a thousand times over.

After the Pistols, McLaren founded Bow Wow Wow. Not only did he get the ball rolling on world music influencing pop, but he also invented a look for 15-year-old Annabella Lwin (he called it pirate punk) that is still giving men titanium boners to this day. Adam and the Ants used the pirate-punk look too, of course, but they aren’t giving anybody boners anymore.

Then McLaren got into rap, virtually introducing it to the UK with his Duck Rock album. He invented the buffalo gals look, which basically involved looking like an over-layered bag lady. Oh and he also stole the whole voguing thing from drag queens before Madonna did.

What this all amounts to is that Malcolm McLaren is at least partially responsible for every good idea from about 1970 onwards. The trickle-down from the fashion and music trends that he Svengali’ed is a part of almost everything that you like.

Vice met up with McLaren in Paris last month and he is one charming fucker—sweet as can be and hyperintelligent. He was dressed in blue jeans, a white shirt, an orange scarf, and a light brown overcoat. We ate at Au Bascou on rue Réaumur in the 3me. McLaren had sparkling Badoit water and a pork and cabbage stew.

Vice: Why did you get into the whole teddy-boy thing in the 70s?

Malcolm McLaren: I did it as an act of revolt against the hippies. I made myself a blue suit, copying the cover of an old Elvis Presley record, and I walked down the Kings Road to try and do something with my life. I wanted to be exploited but no cunt would even look at me! I was brought up in a family that worked in fashion and I had my art school hooligan imagination. The two came together and I set out to create antifashion.

So eventually, after weeks, I was stopped by an American guy dressed completely in black who pointed to a little hole in the road and invited me in there to sell clothes. It was 430 Kings Road and that’s where I began to create the “art school look” for the street. My girlfriend at the time, Vivienne Westwood, had a kid by me. She was a schoolteacher and I had to look after the kid. I convinced her to leave her job and I bought a couple of sewing machines.

So what was your first shop like, exactly?

It was called Let It Rock, which I later changed to Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die. That part of the Kings Road was known internationally as the tastemaking, rock and roll capital of the world, so people like the New York Dolls were drawn to it, along with people like Iggy. It was in the era of kaftans and beads so I put a jukebox in there that blared out rock and roll constantly.

But when the shop got successful I couldn’t bear it. I only liked it when it sold to the young and dangerous. When we sold to just anybody it became a commercial exercise. Whenever it started making money I closed it down. This would make Vivienne mad.

Can you explain your concept for the Dolls a little bit?

The idea behind the Dolls was to dress them in red patent leather and to debate the politics of boredom. I wrote a manifesto that was titled “Better Red than Dead.” It was at the close of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal was soon to arise. The idea was to put a certain social and political commentary back into pop culture. That was the start of the stage that the Sex Pistols would later perform on.

It wasn’t a very successful look for them, was it?

It was successful in the sense that it was a magnificent failure. I recall a journalist at the time, Lisa Robinson, rushing backstage, looking at the darlings of this demimonde of rock and roll and asking the question, pointedly, to Johnny Thunders, “Are you a communist?” His answer was simple and poignant. He said, “Yeah. You want to make anything of it?”

What made you want to open the store SEX?

I wanted to sell things that were normally sold in brown paper bags under the table. I tracked down manufacturers all over the UK… black rubber t-shirts, black rubber raincoats, tit clamps, and cock rings. We sold it all.


TO BE CONTINUED:
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