The fashion curator and founder of London’s countercultural venue The Horse Hospital, Roger K. Burton, has died.
Burton came into fashion and styling through Mod culture, providing the original clothing for the 1978 cult film Quadrophenia. A year later he was asked by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren to design their shop Worlds End, the successor to the punk fashion outlet Sex, and went on to provide art direction for the pair’s Nostalgia of Mud in 1981.
Burton’s Contemporary Wardrobe Collection in Bloomsbury housed 20,000 items amassed over his career, and formed the basis for numerous exhibitions, including the current The In Crowd: Mod Fashion & Style 1958-66 at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
Burton founded the Horse Hospital in 1992, housed in the headquarters of the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, hosting exhibitions and events for artists including Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mark Leckey and Valie Export. Past curators at the venue, which also provided space for outside events such as the Fashion in Film Festival and the London Porn Film Festival, included Ian White and Tai Shani.
