Shirt

Shirt with a purple, brown and black print depicting a landscape including wheat sheaves and church spires. It is made of Liberty silk produced at the company's printworks in Merton in 1968. The pattern was inspired by art nouveau designs. The designer David Elliott, worked for the avant garde menswear designer Mr. Fish before setting up his own shop in Cale Street, Chelsea, at the age of 19.
The donor, Peter Viti, was born in Bloomsbury in 1936. He attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts, then entered into a partnership making costumes and props. He eventually went into the family business of letting property. Viti calls himself ‘a bit of a dandy’. He purchased clothing from the boutiques which revolutionised men’s fashion in the 1960s. Viti recalls the London gay scene both before and after the legalisation of sex between consenting men in 1967, considering that things became a little easier for gay men as attitudes slowly changed.