'The Youngest Legend in History': Cultures of Consumption and the Mythologies of Swinging London

This opening article to the special edition argues that the mythologies of Swinging London need to be placed in a longer history of the consumption and fashion cultures of London. The following articles all provide new contextualisations of sixties London in their analyses of the 'rag trade', shop design, department stores, and the representation of the city and its new consumer identities in the films of the period. The opening article also discusses contemporary reactions to the Swinging London phenomenon and reviews its subsequent interpretation by cultural and urban historians. It argues that changing academic interpretations and moral judgments about cultures of consumption have been central to debates about sixties London, and that this recent past has had a lasting and haunting influence on certain key sites in the city.