[RAYNOR, Stephane]. Just What is the Boy Looking at?

[London] Stephane Raynor, [c.1984]. First edition. Original acetate printing plate. 43.4cm by 33.4cm. Very rare acetate printing plate for the iconic Boy London, “What is the boy looking at?” T-shirt. THe text continues “We had set out to make a cigarette ad now the BOY was too hot to handle….” and appears to be a manipulation of a passage from “My Mother and I Would Like to Know,” a short piece by William S. Burroughs, which was published in the literary journal Evergreen Review Issue 67, June, 1969 (“…I thought my God what a cigarette ad: Clam bake on a beach the BOY there with a match. He is looking at two girls in bikinis… The BOY turned out to be the hottest property in advertising. Enigmatic smile on the delicate young face. Just what is the BOY looking at? We had set out to sell cigarettes or whatever else we were paid to sell. The BOY was too hot to handle.”). From Warhol, to Madonna, Punks through to New Romantics, club kids to fashionistas, all have worn BOY. Adopted as the uniform of choice for every youth movement that has mattered. When the BOY store opened on the Kings Rd in 1976 it became epicentre of a new dawn in both fashion and music, defining the spirit of punk and birthing the New Romantic scene that appeared in its wake. The design is particularly representative of the label’s ethos, transforming a Beat Generation literary reference into a pseudo-advertisement charged with ambiguity, desire, and irony. Rather than simply selling clothing, Boy London sold attitude, narrative, and cultural affiliation. The acetate is in very good condition. A rare surviving piece of production material from one of the most influential British fashion labels of the late twentieth century and an evocative relic of the King’s Road at its creative peak.