About the Book
*A Sunday Times and Daily Mail Book of the Year 2018*
The dazzling story of Tommy Nutter, the Savile Row tailor who reshaped the silhouette of men's fashion - and his rock photographer brother, David, who captured it all on film
From an early age, there was something different about Tommy and David Nutter. Growing up above an Edgware cafe, the boys seemed destined to lead humble lives in post-war London yet the strength of their imagination transformed them instead into unlikely protagonists of a swinging cultural revolution.
In 1969, at the age of twenty-six, Tommy opened an unusual new boutique on the 'golden mile' of bespoke tailoring. While shocking a haughty establishment resistant to change, 'Nutters of Savile Row' became an immediate sensation among the young, rich, and beautiful, beguiling everyone from Bianca Jagger to the Beatles - who immortalised Tommy's designs on the album cover of Abbey Road. Meanwhile, David's talent with a camera vaulted him across the Atlantic to New York City, where he found himself amongst a parallel constellation of stars (including Freddie Mercury and Elton John) who enjoyed his dry wit almost as much as his photography.
House of Nutter tells the glamorous true story of two gay men who influenced some of the most iconic styles and pop images of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with more than seventy people - and taking advantage of unparalleled access to never-before-seen pictures, letters, sketches, and diaries - Lance Richardson presents a dual portrait of brothers improvising their way through five decades of extraordinary events, their personal struggles playing out against vivid backdrops of the Blitz, the birth of disco and the devastation of the AIDS crisis.
A propulsive, deftly-plotted narrative filled with surprising details and near-operatic twists, House of Nutter takes readers on a wild ride into the minds and times of two brilliant dreamers.
About the Author :
Lance Richardson has written for numerous publications, including the Guardian, the New Yorker (online), and several international iterations of GQ. Originally from Sydney, Australia, he now lives in New York City.
www.houseofnutter.com
Review :
Richardson has created a pattern-perfect double-breasted biography of two gay brothers, who, in an unlikely rags to riches story, were brought up in north London and went on to shape the social and sartorial side of life in the 1960s
Captivating ... an engaging analysis of the British class system and the fashion industry, gay liberation and the Aids crisis, which plays out like a binge-worthy Netflix series
Splendidly readable and gossipy ... a gripping read that is as much social history as it is biography ... House of Nutter, Richardson's first book, is a fine match of author and subject. He writes with flair and erudition, making extensive use of interviews with David, and bringing something new to the evocation of an era that might seem overfamiliar ... it's hard to find fault with this thoroughly enjoyably glimpse into high fashion and low life
What makes Lance Richardson's biography so much more than a humdrum story of rags to riches -- or rather rags to bespoke -- is its illuminating and vividly drawn account of the milieu, both social and sartorial, in which Nutter moved, and the intriguing parallel history of his elder brother, David
Lance Richardson’s lively, affectionate, occasionally breathless book is a double narrative, the story of two brothers who rose from modest north London origins to the fringes of international stardom ... Compelling
Savile Row tailor Tommy Nutter dressed rock stars – it’s his suits three of the Beatles are wearing on the cover of Abbey Road – and his brother David photographed them. An evocative portrait of two extraordinary careers
House of Nutter is a tale that is quintessential of its era, told by a biographer who combines pace and exhaustiveness
In House of Nutter, Lance Richardson brings back Tommy in all his cheeky, sexy, wicked glory
Reads with all the seamless splendour of a beautiful bespoke suit. Enchanting, irreverent and entertaining
Through the lens of fashion, Lance Richardson superbly chronicles the greatest societal and cultural upheaval of the last century. House of Nutter potently underscores the inextricable relationship between the world we live in and the clothes we wear. I couldn’t put it down
Richardson susses out their [David and Tommy Nutter's] story lovingly, and with great panache. With all the ink that's been spilled on Beatlemania, Studio 54, sixties counterculture, and the rest, it's remarkable to find a new story to tell, with characters who were there all along, as if waiting for someone to notice
Tommy Nutter, the Rebel Tailor of Savile Row, dressed the Beatles and Elton John. Cheeky, aloof, camp, Nutter was drawn to glamour like a moth to a flame. Lance Richardson has restored his fame and gripping story in all its detail and pathos
Vivid and tragic
In the fabulous Nutter brothers, Lance Richardson has found a magical wormhole to Swinging London, Beatlemania, and Studio 54—destinations of the mind that feel both familiar and, through Tommy and David’s eyes, sparklingly new. An effervescent tale, told with the pizzazz of a checked suit, perfectly tailored
An enjoyable and absorbing read about sartorial rigor and queer life that also happens to be a moving social history of mid-century London and New York
