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George Harrison + Fireplace |
Marijke Koger opened her first boutique, The Trend, in Amsterdam at the age of 18 with her friend from school, Yosha Leeger. Around that time, she met Simon Posthuma. Soon the trio moved to the Spanish island of Ibiza. Simone Postuma was the painter and Marijke Koger was the graphic artist, while Josje Leeger designed and made clothes.
Koger, born in 1943, started painting and making her own clothes in her early teens. She dropped out of school at the age of 15, and went to work as a graphic artist at various advertising agencies in Amsterdam. She started her first boutique, The Trend in Amsterdam, at the age of 18 with her friend from school, Yosha Leeger. Around that time, she met Simon Posthuma. Soon after, the three moved , first to Ibiza, and then, after receiving a grant from Von Palland Foundation, to London. The year was 1966. In London, they met Simon Hayes of Mayfair Publicity who took interest in their work, and introduced them to many of his rock star clients. He also brought in Barry Finch as an informal manager. In a short time, The Fool were designing stage clothes for The Hollies and Procol Harum. Later, they were commissioned to design tour program covers and clothes for Cream as well as to customise their instruments. In 1966, Graham Bond - organist and lead singer of Graham Bond Organisation, introduced Marijke to Tarot, which became an important influnce on her work. It inspired the name for the group, The Fool. Indeed, Tarot, alongside Art Nouveau will prove to be the biggest infuence on The Fool's work (as well as a vast intake of LSD, of course). Meanwhile, the word about The Fool was spreading. Their graphic designs were receiving a lot of attention.
The illustrations The Fool Design Collective did for Saville Theatre, which belonged to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, brought them to the attention of The Beatles themselves. John Lennon and Paul McCartney came round one evening to Marijke and Simon's place, and were mesmerized by the psychedelic paintings on their armoire.
One of the first projects the Beatles undertook after forming their Apple Corps company was the Apple boutique, opened on Dec. 7, 1967 at 94 Baker Street in London. The Beatles were such fans of The Fool Design Collective work, that they commissioned them for the new Apple Boutique. The Fool were supposed to design everything; clothes, interior of the shop as well as the exterior. They engaged several dozen art students to paint a huge psychedelic mural across the entire front and side of the store.
McCartney initially described the shop as "a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things." Pete Shotton managed the store with Pattie Harrison's sister Jennie. Invitations to the grand opening, on 5 December 1967, read "Come at 7.46. Fashion Show at 8.16." John and George were the only Beatles that attended. The only drink available that night was apple juice. All in all for The Beatles, the group created the short-lived mural
for the Apple boutique on Baker Street (removed based on
traffic distractions), the decoration on John Lennon's piano, George Harrison's Mini Cooper and the inner
sleeve for the Sgt. Pepper album. The gatefold interior of the album
was going to incorporate a Fool painting but Robert Fraser apparently persuaded
the band to replace this with the familiar group photo.
Apple Boutique eventually closed in July 1968 – after merely seven months, during which it had lost nearly £100.000. To maintain the spirit of the store, The Beatles decided to give away all the remaining stock on the last day. As Ringo remembers: "We went in the night before and took everything we wanted. We had loads of shirts and jackets – we cleaned a lot of stuff out. It wasn’t a sale, we just gave it all away and that was the best idea." Paul adds: "The nice thing was that we weren’t too fussed when it didn’t work out. It was great: giving the clothes to people who showed up on the day.
The Fool themselves (and their
decor) appear in the Beatles-produced feature film, Wonderwall (1968). The film's synopsis is as turned on and tuned in as We Love You, Alice B. Toklas: London is truly swinging by ‘67. Inside his cramped
Landsowne Road apartment in SW11, absent-minded professor, Oscar Collins (Jack
MacGowran), discovers a hole in a wall in which he can view, unseen, the
wild antics of a hip photographer (Iain
Quarrier) and his collection of beautiful, drugged-up models, including the
alluring Penny Lane (played by Jane Birkin). As he strips away more bricks, mortar, and
even his ceiling, to get a better view of the couple's love-ins and
hash-fuelled "happenings," he discovers Penny is far from happy and he is soon
forced to enter his "wonderwall" in order to save her life… It is a visual world that emulates The Fool. (The film's soundtrack was George Harrison's debut solo
album, Wonderwall Music, and was the first release for Apple Records. The
recording sessions took place at Abbey Road and at Ravi Shankar’s studio in
Bombay, India, with The Remo Four's Colin Manly and Tony Ashton, as well as
Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr involved.)
Given all this sudden visibility, it's surprising The Fool wasn't more in demand for album cover designs. The Beatles clothes on the "All You Need is Love" world broadcast
are Fool creations. Of their album covers, the one for The Incredible String Band
is probably the most well-known. The work they did for Evolution by The Hollies led to
a collaboration with Graham Nash on an album by The Fool (and session
musicians) in 1968 that was quickly forgotten. The collective split up in 1969 with Marijke Koger and
Simon Posthuma relocating to California. The two would release several more singles and two more LPs, these too, all but forgotten.
1967: If one were fortunate enough to visit London in the Summer of Love, the whole thing, kit and kaboodle, was designed by The Fool.