Bathing suit, swimming trunks

Pair of blue nylon swimming trunks with an elasticated waist and a white elasticated belt from John Michael in Bond Street. A gold tag decorated with a butterfly hangs from a chain attached to the zip.
John Michael Ingram opened a small shop, John Michael, on the King’s Road in 1960. His designs were for young men looking for individual, contemporary clothing. The timing was just right, and a further 16 branches of John Michael were established. By 1967 the fashion journalist Rodney Bennett-England described the King's Road as the most important fashion centre in Britain.
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.