Archie McNair

Archibald Alister Jourdan McNair (16 December 1919 – 2 July 2015) was a British lawyer and entrepreneur, who created four businesses central to the growth of King's Road in Chelsea, London as a style centre in the 1950s and 1960s.[1]

McNair was born in Tiverton, Devon, the second of six children of Janie-Grace Jourdan and Donald McNair, who worked for a McNair family business making tyre-repair kits.[1][2] He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton.[1][2]

McNair trained as a solicitor in Exeter, and after Second World War military service as a pilot on an Auxiliary Fire Service boat, joined a legal firm in the City of London.[1]

McNair established the Alister Jourdan photographic studio at 128 King's Road, where the team included Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon, and husband of Princess Margaret), and on the ground floor, London's first espresso bar outside Soho, the Fantasie.[1] At 138 King's Road he helped Mary Quant set up her first fashion boutique, Bazaar, with Alexander's Restaurant, run by her husband Alexander Plunket Greene in the basement.[1]

In 1954, he married Catherine Fleming (died 2014), and they had a son, Hamish, and a daughter.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Horwell, Veronica (10 July 2015). "Archie McNair obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  2. ^ a b "McNair, Archie (1 of 9) An Oral History of British Fashion". Europeana. Retrieved 13 April 2023.