Vince Man’s Shop: Bill Green and the Soho Boutique That Changed British Menswear
Founded by Bill Green in 1954, Vince Man’s Shop was one of Britain’s first menswear boutiques. Located in Soho, it helped redefine how men dressed in post-war London. Known for its flamboyant styles and early embrace by gay and bohemian clientele, Vince’s soon shaped the look of Mods, pop stars, and swinging Carnaby Street. This is the story of how one small shop revolutionised British menswear.
The exterior of Vince Man’s Shop, 5 Newburgh Street, Soho, c.1957. Photograph shows actors Michael Stanley and Bernice Swanson browsing the window display. Image © Alamy. Used under licence.
Origins of Vince Man’s Shop and Bill Green’s Early Career
Vince Man’s Shop was founded in 1954 by Bill Green (b. 1920s), who operated professionally under the name Vince or Vince Green. Located at 5 Newburgh Street in Soho, London, the boutique was one of the earliest independent menswear retailers in post-war Britain and among the first to adopt the boutique model for menswear.
The business developed from Green’s earlier work as a physique photographer and as a mail-order retailer of men’s posing briefs and swimwear. His underwear adverts, regularly placed in the Daily Mirror during the early 1950s, promoted “continental-style” elasticated briefs marketed toward the “outdoor man” — a coded language aimed at body-conscious, often gay, consumers. These advertisements, shown below, illustrate how Green leveraged physique culture, coded desire, and Continental aesthetics to build a distinctive commercial identity.
Drawing on fashion influences observed during trips to France and Italy, Green launched Vince Man’s Shop to offer bold, modern menswear to a growing and increasingly style-aware clientele in central London.
From Underwear to Soho Style: Expanding the Client Base
Vince Man’s Shop may have started as a haven for gay men and theatrical types, but it quickly attracted a far broader clientele. As Green’s range grew beyond underwear into stylish leisure wear, young "Chelsea bohemians" and West End actors began shopping there alongside the initial gay customers. By the late 1950s, the appeal of Vince’s designs had expanded so much that even heterosexual men were adopting styles previously associated with gay men. Historian Veronica Horwell notes that at Vince’s, even pink satin hipster pants – a garment carrying "a certain ambiguity" in gender and orientation – "walked out of the shop on heteros, too".
Bold dressers of all stripes were embracing the new freedom that Vince offered. Young men in artistic circles were no longer afraid to wear velvet jackets or silk shirts out on the town. For the first time, it became socially acceptable for straight men to don clothes that were colourful, flamboyant or form-fitting, choices that would have been deemed "sexually suspect" just a few years earlier. Vince’s made casual attire like jeans and sweaters chic for an evening out, legitimising leisurewear in a world where men’s evening clothes had long meant suits and ties.
Black-and-white interior photo of Vince Man’s Shop showing Bill Green behind the counter with two customers, c.1957.
Image © Alamy. Used under licence.
Catalogue Covers and Visual Branding
Between 1955 and 1968, Vince Man’s Shop produced a series of striking mail-order catalogues that functioned as much more than sales tools. These covers were carefully staged to construct a distinct visual identity, one that merged physique culture, aspirational leisurewear, and the emerging language of retail modernism. Set against beach resorts, domestic interiors, and stylised studio backdrops, the catalogues presented a vision of the idealised post-war male body: toned, confident, and fashion-conscious.
Rather than using professional models, many of the men featured were drawn from Green’s connections to physique photography, lending the images an ambiguous eroticism that would have resonated with gay consumers while remaining legible to a mainstream audience. This dual address was key to Vince’s appeal, fashionable yet discreetly subversive. The catalogue covers offered a curated image of leisure-class masculinity, one where form-fitting briefs, satin shirts, and swimwear were presented as both desirable and respectable.
These publications now stand as a rare visual archive of how male self-presentation was shifting in post-war Britain. They capture a transitional moment when men were beginning to see clothing not just as uniform or utility, but as performance, pleasure, and identity.
“Pearl Divers” Swim Shorts, Summer 1968
These red and navy striped shorts, known as the “Pearl Divers”, were produced by Vince Man’s Shop for summer 1968. Cut from a denim-look nylon with a nylon zip, they were marketed for both swimming and walking. Described in the original catalogue as “snug fitting for real cool swimming,” the shorts reflect Vince’s late 1960s move towards youthful, casual garments that still retained the brand’s signature emphasis on the male body. The bold stripes, fitted cut, and use of stretch fabric situate these shorts within the boutique’s wider strategy of combining Continental styling with provocative, performance-led design.
“Pearl Divers” striped stretch shorts, Vince Man’s Shop, summer 1968. From the Westminster Menswear Archive.
Vince and the Mods: Youth Culture Takes Over
Green’s daring fashions caught on with Britain’s emerging youth subcultures. By the early 1960s, the style-obsessed Modernists or "Mods" were picking up Vince’s look and running with it. These Mods, London teens devoted to jazz, Italian scooters, and sharp dressing, craved slim-cut trousers, continental jackets, and eye-catching details. Vince Man’s Shop had exactly the sort of slim, stylish gear they wanted, and soon "the new Mods became clients". Legend has it that even chart-topping teen idols like Cliff Richard and Billy Fury shopped at Vince’s, emerging with the trendiest threads of the day.
Vince’s cachet also drew in celebrity customers well outside the Soho gay demimonde. A diverse roster of boldface names passed through the little Newburgh Street boutique: comedian Peter Sellers, jazz singer George Melly, fine artist Pablo Picasso (who picked up suede trousers), the King of Denmark, and a young Sean Connery all reportedly bought clothing at Vince’s[4][6]. Such patrons illustrate how Vince Man’s Shop bridged social worlds, from European royalty to underground artists, from straight movie stars to gay literati. Green himself later remarked that the success of Vince’s owed a lot to women as well: stylish young women approved of and encouraged these bolder looks on their boyfriends, helping to propel flamboyant menswear into wider acceptance.
Short-sleeve pink gingham shirt by Vince Green, 1950s. Typical of the brand’s later offerings blending playful colour with accessible design. From the Westminster Menswear Archive.
From Soho to Carnaby Street: Influence on 1960s Fashion
The ripple effect of Vince Man’s Shop on London’s menswear scene is difficult to overstate. Fashion historians identify Vince’s as a crucial catalyst for the "Peacock Revolution" of the 1960s, when young men’s fashion exploded in colour, pattern, and daring design. The boutique directly inspired a new generation of designers and entrepreneurs who brought cutting-edge style to the mass market. Most famously, a teenage Scotsman named John Stephen worked briefly as a sales assistant at Vince’s in 1955. Stephen keenly absorbed Green’s boutique model and aesthetic, and in 1957 he opened his own small shop ("His Clothes") just around the corner in Soho.
John Stephen took Vince’s innovative ideas and mass-marketed what had been transgressive style to working-class youth. He copied the tight trousers, bold prints and camp window displays of Vince’s, but crucially, he made his versions cheaper and more disposable, perfect for trend-hungry Mods. As Stephen later expanded into Carnaby Street (eventually running a dozen-plus boutiques under various names), he carried the torch lit by Vince’s: low-cut hipster pants, tab-collar shirts, brightly dyed denim, etc., all originally seen at Vince Man’s Shop, became staples of Carnaby Street mod fashion.
By the mid-60s, London’s young "dedicated followers of fashion" could buy affordable knock-offs of Vince’s high-style gear in dozens of Carnaby Street shops. Every bold Carnaby trend, from paisley shirts to pink flares, owed a debt to the trail that Bill Green blazed a decade earlier. Green’s early use of music, art and pop culture in merchandising (blaring pop songs in-store, artful boutique decor, racy ads) prefigured the way 60s boutiques meshed with the burgeoning rock ’n’ roll culture. And although Vince’s clothing was expensive and essentially a luxury for most teenagers in the 1950s, it normalised the very styles that would later be produced cheaply for the masses.
Decline and Closure of Vince Man’s Shop
By the mid-1960s, paradoxically, Vince Man’s Shop began to lose its cutting-edge status. The very revolution it had set in motion, a fast-moving youth fashion market, meant that Green’s once-radical styles were now widely imitated and constantly changing. Bill Green, somewhat older and less in tune with the swinging youth culture than his one-time protégé John Stephen, struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of trend evolution after 1964. The shop’s elite aura also proved a disadvantage in the new mass-market boutique era; younger customers now wanted cheaper, disposable fashions, whereas Vince’s had always stood for quality (and pricy) craftsmanship.
Mounting financial pressures forced Green to relocate the store to a cheaper North London site in the late ’60s, but the magic was gone. In 1969, Vince Man’s Shop closed its doors for good, ending a 15-year run at the forefront of men’s style. Bill “Vince” Green bowed out of fashion entirely, reportedly taking a job as a Soho restaurant manager by the early 1970s[28]. Looking back wistfully, he admitted that the menswear world he helped create had evolved beyond him: “If I was to go into male fashion again today, I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Green told writer Nik Cohn in 1971.
Commemorative green plaque marking the original site of Vince Man’s Shop at 5 Newburgh Street, Soho. Installed by Westminster City Council in 2016, it recognises Bill Green’s role in founding one of London’s first menswear boutiques in 1954 and his influence on the 1960s fashion revolution centred on Carnaby Street. Image © Andrew Groves.
Identifying Vince Labels
Over the fifteen years that Vince Man’s Shop operated, its branding evolved across a surprising range of garment labels. From stitched satin tags to bold graphic identities, these variations reflect changes in materials, manufacturers, and the shifting image of the shop itself.
Shown below are four examples from garments held in the Westminster Menswear Archive, offering a glimpse into how Vince presented itself across different eras. If you own a garment bearing one of these labels, or another variation, we want to hear from you.
Legacy of Bill Green and His Influence on British Fashion
The legacy of Vince Man’s Shop lives on in fashion history. In recent decades, scholars and curators have reassessed its importance as far more than just a niche gay boutique. Fashion historians now hail Vince as one of the earliest menswear shops in London — a place that helped launch the Swinging Sixties fashion revolution. A commemorative green plaque was installed at the Newburgh Street site in 2016, officially recognising Bill Green’s role in kick-starting London’s menswear transformation.
Vince’s radical 1950s designs, velvet suits, denim jeans, and pink hipsters pushed against the rigidity of post-war British menswear and opened up new possibilities for how men could dress and express themselves. These clothes were once sold in a small Soho boutique, but their influence reverberated across British culture for decades.
Today, surviving Vince garments and printed material are incredibly rare. Most were lost to time or dismissed as disposable fashion. If you own a Vince garment, catalogue, or photograph, or have any information about the shop, please get in touch. I’m actively researching Bill Green’s work and would welcome the opportunity to document, scan, or preserve any related material.
Contact
Professor Andrew Groves a.groves@westminster.ac.uk
Written by Professor Andrew Groves, Director of the Westminster Menswear Archive, University of Westminster.
© Andrew Groves 2025. All rights reserved.
Please do not reproduce this text or any associated images without written permission.
References
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Cohn, N. (1971) Today There Are No Gentlemen. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
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Horwell, V. (2006) ‘Men behaving boldly’, The Guardian, 2 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2006/sep/02/weekend7.weekend13
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O’Neill, A. (2000) ‘John Stephen: A Carnaby Street Presentation of Masculinity’. In Breward, C. (ed.) The Masculine Masquerade. London: V&A, pp. 60–75.
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Reed, J. (2010) The King of Carnaby Street. London: Haus Publishing.
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Westminster City Council (2016) Green Plaque Scheme: Vince Man’s Shop. Available at: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/leisure-libraries-and-community/heritage-and-history/green-plaques