What John Simons is known for
John Simons opened the Ivy Shop in Richmond in 1964 and first labelled the Baracuta G9 a Harrington jacket in 1965. The shop moved to 46 Chiltern Street in Marylebone in 2011 and sells its own collections alongside Baracuta and Paraboot, with Jamieson's of Shetland. Vintage pieces sit with the new stock, as they did at the Covent Garden shop from 1982.
John Simons began in 1955 as a window dresser for Cecil Gee, then a prominent name in British menswear. After selling from a market stall in Hackney he opened Clothesville on Mare Street in 1963, a shop that dressed the mod scene. The Ivy Shop followed in Richmond in the summer of 1964. In 1965 Simons recognised the Baracuta G9 as the jacket worn by the character Rodney Harrington, and his shop's label became the first documented use of the term Harrington jacket. The Squire Shop opened on King's Road in 1967 with co-founder Stuart Malloy, and in 1982 J. Simons opened on Russell Street in Covent Garden, early in its approach to selling vintage goods. The storefront moved to No. 46 Chiltern Street in Marylebone in 2011. The rails today mix the house's own collections with Baracuta and J. Press, with G.H. Bass and Paraboot and Jamieson's of Shetland alongside. The shop presents itself as the reference for Ivy League style in Britain, filtered through a mid-century American and European eye, and vintage pieces still hang beside the new stock.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Ivy League menswear, Harrington jackets and Baracuta G9s from the man who named them
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Where next
- Samuel Collezioni — Bari
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