Join author Paul Gorman in conversation as we celebrate his new book Granny Takes a Trip: High Fashion and High Times at the Wildest Rock ‘n’ Roll Boutique.
Regarded as the original rock and roll clothes boutique, Granny Takes A Trip was more than just a shop and a fashion brand; it was, the template for all that followed. What started as an odd retail venture/art installation in a depressed part of London known as World’s End became an international byword for glam decadence in Manhattan and Hollywood, combining flamboyant style and all manner of countercultural activity attracting everyone from Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg to Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, the Beatles, and Lou Reed.
Hear how the tumultuous story of Granny Takes A Trip invokes a cast of often unique, sometimes entitled, unusually talented and troubled individuals on a collective mission to shake up austere, repressed, class-ridden Britain and white bread America. Paul will share how some achieved their goal at great personal cost as darkness, addiction and tragedy stalked those behind the extraordinary shop facades. Much mythologised but never told, this cautionary tale has now found its definitive chronicler in celebrated cultural historian Paul Gorman who has had access to first-hand accounts from all the principal figures, as well as notes for a memoir and a much-treasured scrapbook by Freddie Hornik, the tailoring entrepreneur who survived the death marches of central Europe after WW2 to acquire Granny Takes A Trip in the late 60s and transform into an unparalleled pop cultural force.
Granny Takes a Trip: High Fashion and High Times at the Wildest Rock ‘n’ Roll Boutique written by Paul Gorman with forwards by Amber Butchart and Anna Sui was published on 25 September 2025 by White Rabbit, order your copy now.
About the speaker
Paul Gorman is a London-based writer and fashion entrepreneur. Over the last three decades he has written for a wide variety of publications including Mojo, GQ, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Radio Times, Screen International, Music Week and Heat. Gorman has published eight books, including two editions of his acclaimed history of post-war music, fashion and style The Look: Adventures in Rock & Pop Fashion, and the definitive history of the transatlantic music press In Their Own Write. Two of his books have appeared in the London Sunday Times best-sellers lists – Straight with Boy George and Cry Salty Tears, a ghost-written story of spousal abuse for Dinah O’Dowd.
He wrote Reasons To be Cheerful: The Life & Work Of Barney Bubbles, about the late graphic designer who committed suicide in 1983. Gorman maintains the book blog: The Barney Bubbles book « Barney Bubbles. It is regularly updated with fresh and exclusive info, images and interviews.
Gorman also operates the fashion label The Look Presents which delivered its fifth collection to Topman in the US and Europe fall 2009.
A pop culture historian, Gorman has staged exhibitions, Q&As, fashion shows and many other events with partners including Sir Paul Smith, Central Saint Martin’s College Of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
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