Milepebbles on the Long Haul

Regular readers will know that we have now reached the First Anniversary of opening our little store. "Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday dear Bedlam, Happy Birthday or bust!"

It is a rare occurrence that someone comes in for the first time and doesn't say "How marvellous / wonderful / amazing! It's like an art installation / museum / Sex a.k.a. Seditionaries [Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McClaren's first shop - we don't necessarily see that, but it's now been said too many times to count. I guess they mean the spirit of it rather than literally? - http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/w/the-story/kings-road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEX_(boutique) ]

Anyway, we're not complaining, it's a subversively fine reference to have. And pleasingly at odds with our courtship by the Establishment, what with the Lord Mayor inviting us to exhibit alongside well-established luminaries and legends. We took two more outfits to the Mansion House to install this week. One of the staff asked if we could please redesign their uniforms (they like ours the best but it would be indiscreet of me to say that). The LM held a banquet last week for three hundred heads of trade, state and government. He exhorted them to admire our work then cited EoB as "a wonderful example of British manufacturing". That made us v v proud. It would be no lie to say that my eyes glistened. We told our respective parents. See all our cloth is British and all our clobber is Made in London - it says so on our new business cards now.

Austin Reed once again generously supplied the lovely shirts and silk ties -
our thanks to Tony Dobbs, manager at the #1 Poultry store

Our new "Thin Red Line" jacket (see history lesson at the bottom of this posting), next to our best seller the tweed "Poacher's Jacket" and matching waistcoat teamed with the Piccalilli Pants

And then, the glitter pink frosting on our birthday cake, that magazine read down all the corridors of power, Beige (http://www.beigeuk.com/  ), ran their feature on us. The model was Bedlam's regular poster boy, Ollie - barman from the Oval Lounge restaurant next door to the shop http://www.ovallounge.co.uk/ He is not only but ALSO drummer in Peggy Sue http://peggywho.com/ , currently on tour in the USA so y'all go check 'em! Here's our double page spread with a lovely piece by the editor, Dean Bright and photos by Claire Lawrie:

Referred to in the article is Mark's old school friend Steve Green, and you can spot his spray-painted canvas of Malcolm McDowell (in Clockwork Orange) over Ollie's shoulder. We have now taken delivery of his new work, Michael Caine, as dressed in another version of the "Thin Red Line", from the film Zulu:

Michael Caine - available to buy in store at £300

The origin of the phrase "Thin Red Line" was the Crimean War - specifically a military action by the red-coated Sutherland Highlanders 93rd Regiment at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854. Aided by a small force of Royal Marines and some Turkish infantrymen, and led by Sir Colin Campbell, the regiment routed a Russian cavalry charge against all odds. The 93rd's survival was due to the caution of the Russian commander, who believed that such a small infantry force could not hope to withstand a full cavalry charge and so figured it had to be a decoy / trap. Accordingly he ordered his men to disengage. The British press, of course, spun the story to raise morale amongst the public who regarded the war as an unpopular shambles. The Times correspondent, William H. Russell, wrote that he could see nothing between the charging Russians and the British regiment's base of operations but the "thin red streak tipped with a line of steel". The phrase has since come to represent calm British courage... as immortalised in Carry On... Up the Khyber, (directed by my late godfather Gerald Thomas) when Private Jimmy Widdle paints a thin red line across the ground, declaring "They'll never get past this!"

So remember bold Bedlamites, being small and outnumbered is no hindrance to victory!