Ben Sherman, John Lennon and Rolling Stone magazine.
Ben Sherman complete their 65th anniversary year in style with two brand new collections, collaborating with both the John Lennon estate and Rolling Stone magazine to create two ranges that perfectly fuse fashion, music and youth culture.
Interestingly the first edition of Rolling Stone, which appeared on 9th November 1967 featured John Lennon on the front cover, in costume from the Richard Lester directed film “How I Won the War”, Lennon’s only non-musical acting role.
The film itself is an absurdist comic take on campaigns during the Second World War, under the relentlessly jingoistic and incredibly inept leadership of Lieutenant Goodbody, played by Michael Crawford. Although it received a somewhat tepid review reception from critics, the ruthless mockery of patriotism and the the so called killer instinct will somewhat have chimed with the newly launched magazine which sought to combine music, politics and popular culture in a publication for a younger counter cultural audience.
Back to the Ben Sherman collections. First up the Ben Sherman x John Lennon collection, which includes a range of polo shirts, jumpers and t-shirts. The varied designs include items which incorporate Lennon’s own line drawings. Lennon was a visual artist before he picked up a guitar or wrote his first song, and attended the prestigious Liverpool Art Institute (1957-60). Lennon’s illustrations would feature in his two books of nonsense verse published in the mid 60s, “In His Own Write” (1964) and “A Spaniard in the Works” (1965), as well as the posthumously published “Skywriting by Word of Mouth” (1986). Now thanks to Ben Sherman his artwork is available in fashion form.
Ben Sherman x John Lennon Sketches Shirt and Dreamer Limited Edition Tee. Artwork © Yoko Ono Lennon
The Ben Sherman x Rolling Stone collection sees the brands streetwise B by Ben Sherman label collaborate with the globally recognised lexicon of music, style and youth culture. Under the editorship of Noah Shactman since 2021 Rolling Stone has returned to its 60s roots with a combination of politics, polemics and pop culture. The combination with fellow 60s survivors Ben Sherman has resulted in a collection that remixes the iconography of Rolling Stone for a whole new generation.
Ben Sherman x Rolling Stone Chequerboard Knitted Polo Shirt and Chequerboard Cardigan.
Shop the full Ben Sherman collection here.
