Shirt

White and black checked Indian cotton gauze shirt by Stanley Adams. Stanley Adams owned and designed clothing for boutique Adam W1 in Kingly Street, which runs parallel to Carnaby Street.
The donor, Peter Viti, was born in Bloomsbury in 1936. He attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts, then entered into a partnership making costumes and props. He eventually went into the family business of letting property. Viti calls himself ‘a bit of a dandy’. He purchased clothing from the boutiques which revolutionised men’s fashion in the 1960s. Viti recalls the London gay scene both before and after the legalisation of sex between consenting men in 1967, considering that things became a little easier for gay men as attitudes slowly changed.