After a two-year break, fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms is back with a conversation with artist Steven Thomas.
After studying at the Chelsea School of Art in the mid-60s, Steve started his career in Swinging London, modelling, painting the façade of Chelsea boutique Dandie Fashions, and designing album artwork for bands, including the Rolling Stones. In the late 1960s, a girlfriend introduced him fashion illustrator-turned-fashion designer Barbara Hulanicki and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon of Biba, which began a very fruitful and inspirational collaboration. He began working with Biba first on smaller projects, like a makeup poster, then a children’s department at the Kensington Church Street store and the Biba concession at Bergdorf Goodman, and finally, when Biba took over a whole department store on Kensington High Street, Steve and his partner Tim Whitmore were hired to create all of the designs for the entire Big Biba store, including interiors, signage, giant display items and graphic designs for the hundreds of own-brand product lines. After Big Biba closed in August 1975, Whitmore-Thomas began working extensively with Paul McCartney—designing his company’s headquarters along with numerous private homes—as well as launching a highly lucrative advertising and branding business for some of the largest brands in the world, like Guinness, Harrods, Lucky Strike, Pepsi, and Virgin. In the early 2000s, Whitmore-Thomas separated, with Steve returning to his first love: painting.
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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-42-steven-thomas
Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Steven Thomas
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After a two-year break, fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms is back with a conversation with artist Steven Thomas.
After studying at the Chelsea School of Art in the mid-60s, Steve started his career in Swinging London, modelling, painting the façade of Chelsea boutique Dandie Fashions, and designing album artwork for bands, including the Rolling Stones. In the late 1960s, a girlfriend introduced him fashion illustrator-turned-fashion designer Barbara Hulanicki and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon of Biba, which began a very fruitful and inspirational collaboration. He began working with Biba first on smaller projects, like a makeup poster, then a children’s department at the Kensington Church Street store and the Biba concession at Bergdorf Goodman, and finally, when Biba took over a whole department store on Kensington High Street, Steve and his partner Tim Whitmore were hired to create all of the designs for the entire Big Biba store, including interiors, signage, giant display items and graphic designs for the hundreds of own-brand product lines. After Big Biba closed in August 1975, Whitmore-Thomas began working extensively with Paul McCartney—designing his company’s headquarters along with numerous private homes—as well as launching a highly lucrative advertising and branding business for some of the largest brands in the world, like Guinness, Harrods, Lucky Strike, Pepsi, and Virgin. In the early 2000s, Whitmore-Thomas separated, with Steve returning to his first love: painting.
Sign up for the Sighs and Whispers newsletter for more fashion and cultural history.
For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-42-steven-thomas
Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Steven Thomas
Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with artist and illustrator Emanuel Schongut.
Manny Schongut has had a long and diverse career as an illustrator. From upstate New York, Schongut studied and taught at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute before becoming a freelance illustrator. During the 1960s, Schongut became known for his distinctive book covers, often for science fiction and crime novels, that brought together watercolour and pen-and-ink in intriguing graphics. In the early 1970s, he was represented by Push Pin Studios, the legendary graphic design and illustration firm founded by Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast. Taking a more traditional figurative tack, Manny’s work appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times, Vogue, Town & Country, Redbook, and many other publications. Starting in the 1970s, Schongut began working on children’s books—so far, he has illustrated over twenty, and been the author of five of those. Based in San Francisco since the early 1990s, 86-year-old Manny continues to create.
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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-34-emanuel-schongut
Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Emanuel Schongut
Sighs and Whispers
After a two-year break, fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms is back with a conversation with artist Steven Thomas.
After studying at the Chelsea School of Art in the mid-60s, Steve started his career in Swinging London, modelling, painting the façade of Chelsea boutique Dandie Fashions, and designing album artwork for bands, including the Rolling Stones. In the late 1960s, a girlfriend introduced him fashion illustrator-turned-fashion designer Barbara Hulanicki and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon of Biba, which began a very fruitful and inspirational collaboration. He began working with Biba first on smaller projects, like a makeup poster, then a children’s department at the Kensington Church Street store and the Biba concession at Bergdorf Goodman, and finally, when Biba took over a whole department store on Kensington High Street, Steve and his partner Tim Whitmore were hired to create all of the designs for the entire Big Biba store, including interiors, signage, giant display items and graphic designs for the hundreds of own-brand product lines. After Big Biba closed in August 1975, Whitmore-Thomas began working extensively with Paul McCartney—designing his company’s headquarters along with numerous private homes—as well as launching a highly lucrative advertising and branding business for some of the largest brands in the world, like Guinness, Harrods, Lucky Strike, Pepsi, and Virgin. In the early 2000s, Whitmore-Thomas separated, with Steve returning to his first love: painting.
Sign up for the Sighs and Whispers newsletter for more fashion and cultural history.
For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-42-steven-thomas
Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Steven Thomas
