You won’t read his full story in a book any time soon. He’s singing his tales through original music and photographs in intimate performances. He’s performing now through this weekend in San Francisco, and June 19-23 in New York City.

Now meet Peter Asher through a fashionable lens.

When you started performing as Peter and Gordon, was there a switch in your style? I think even before at school, you wanted to look good at school. Where Gordon and I went to school, we were obliged to wear grey suits and white shirts. But the trick was to see how tightly you could taper your trousers before they complained. Where were you shopping at that time? The customized thing, we’d just go to the cheapest tailor we could find. Other than that we shopped on Carnaby Street. It was through The Beatles we met [their tailor] Dougie Millings who made our stage suits. He made their stage suits and we liked the way they looked. You’d use this shiny material called Tonic. Shiny and tight. Luckily we were young and thin then.

Between you and Gordon, was there one who took the forefront in deciding what should be worn on stage? No, in the case of the stage suits, we’d go into Dougie Millings, and play with details. Lots of extra buttons, or double buttons, or extra buttons at the cuffs, or cuffs that folded back. Then the whole velvet thing, where you put the velvet on the collar, but then on the cuffs as well. The pockets were velvet. You’d sit there thinking up fancy details that Doug was very good at doing, just trying to make them as decorated as you could. Were there any bands on the road that influenced your style? I loved The Drifters and The Shirelles. Their whole choreography on stage was amazing. We never tried to copy them in any way, but I was certainly impressed by it.

Which designers were influencing the music scene at that time? There was Biba, but I didn’t know Barbara Hulanicki until later. Mary Quant. Suddenly these people were big stars! And they weren’t just big names like Dior, a sort of god-like status. They were on the ground, same as we were. You would actually get to meet them. Of course Twiggy was at the height of all that. Whatever she wore immediately became cool, and she’s still going strong. Actually, Twiggy was then and still is one of my best friends.

Photo: Jane Asher and Paul McCartney Now, about that famous flat in London you shared with Paul McCartney, as he dated your sister Jane… It was a house actually. It would have been tricky if it were a flat, as there were a lot of us, in the sense that it was my parents, my youngest sister, and Jane and Paul [McCartney] and me. We had a house on Woodpall Street. Paul and I had the top floor. Was there any clothes sharing going on in that house? No. I don’t think so. I don’t remember Paul or I ever borrowing anything from each other. I think men don’t do that as much. Women just seem to do that more. Though cross-sex sharing was already afoot, with the androgyny of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe. Boys and girls were sharing clothes. Especially in stores like Granny takes a Trip, which was the cool shop at the time. There were clothes that weren’t specifically designated boys or girls, anybody could wear them. And certainly some of the really skinny guys would get away with wearing girls’ jackets. Marc Bolan would or Bowie would, and make them look really cool. I don’t think I ever really did.

Tell me about your involvement Apple Boutique that the Beatles started in 1967. I didn’t have much to do with that, I was busy running the record company. It was all these people, [Dutch designers] Simon [Postuma] and Marijke [Koeger], who were sort of in charge of it. There were no clothes there I particularly fell in love with. Different divisions of Apple that stayed a bit separate. I think that was one of the problems at the end that it was venturing into all these areas that they weren’t personally expert in. So some of it did go downhill. And I missed the day that they closed it and gave all the clothes away. People were grabbing stuff feverishly. After mod faded away, where was the hippie place to shop? Pete Townsend used to have a couple of women who lived in his basement who made really cool shirts that we all used to go to. He married one of them, I think. But they would make very exotic shirts out of flowery material. And they would make them any way you wanted them, frilly cuffs and all the extras.

Who are your favorite designers to wear now? Etro. I could spend a million dollars in Etro easily. Every time they send the catalog there’s about half the things in there that I like. I wear quite flashy, or whatever you call it, stuff. I like this shirt, it’s rather Etro-ish but it’s by Robert Graham. As a producer, have you guided your artists to dress any differently, or better I don’t think as a manager I’ve ever played a role in an artist’s fashion sense. James [Taylor] very much had his own look. Though he dresses very well, you never think of him as a fashion plate in that sense. He doesn’t go for the avant gard. Though he does like Issey Miyake, but that’s not through any influence of mine. And the same with Linda Rondstadt. She always looked fabulous, but those were her choices, not mine. What's the most fashion forward thing you're seeing today? A lot of the black stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily wear, some of it’s unbelievably cool. Some of the super exaggerated stuff I’d certainly look ridiculous in it. I mean, as it is some of the white kids who wear it tend to look a bit ridiculous. Somehow, African Americans manage to carry it off like it was meant, and on white kids it looks like dressing up. Certainly, black fashion now is ahead of the game.

Hands down my favorite spread so far in this, the September issue season, Klein, Valletta and Edward Enninful envision an eternal heroine and her struggles over the course of a century, featuring looks by Chanel, John Galliano, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Givenchy and Alexander McQueen.

“September 29, 1929: A month before the stock market’s Black Tuesday, our heroine’s opium-tinged 29th-birthday party in the Blue Room rolls on.”

Painting ones nails might just be the oldest beauty trend. The Chinese have been making their nails beautiful since 3000 B.C. using a mix of arabic gum, eggs whites, gelatin and beeswax. Other ancient nail painting practices include stains from henna and massaging tinted powders into their nails. The painting of ones nails was so important to women that recipes for making your own nail varnish was included in 19th century cookbooks. Thankfully, nail polish technology and connivence has progressed.

Nail Solvent, or nail polish remover as it is now known as, was a big selling item in the first half of the 20th century. Something we now take for granted a good nail solvent was seen as a way to elevate the level of the nail polish you were selling.

The selling point of nail solvent can be seen in this ad for on the lower right side of this vintage advertisement which explains how Cutex remover is different then the others because it “contains a very special oil” that will not leave residue on the nails.

Moon manicures were popular with Hollywood starlets in the 20′s and 30′s, so it’s no surprise vintage glamour lover Dita Von Teese is bringing back this nail trend.

Mini-skirt inventor Mary Quant is less known for deciding that nail might not only match your lipstick, they could match your clothing too! Her mod aesthetic required red nails to be put on the back burner, allowing pastels nails to became all the rage.

Pastel nails lead to bright nails, and then darker nails which have been seen on the goth crowd for, well, ever. Male rock stars love this look to, seen above on Jared Leto. This love affair dates back to 60′s Lou Reed when he was fronting The Velvet Underground.

The 70′s saw the rise of the French Manicure, a term coined by Orly founder Jeff Pink and his manicure sets. This muted manicure is considered so timeless that it is often worn on important days such as ones wedding.

Minx nails are the newest big nail trend, as we wrote about last month. These metallic nail coverings have been seen on everyone from Lady Gaga to Blake Lively. Minx is basically nail stickers that are applied with heat and easy to remove.

With so many nail trends to choose from, and more popping up every day, decorating ones nails never ceases to be fun. No wonder it’s been such a long standing love affair.

Catwalk Queen reports that Mini skirt pioneer and mod style icon Mary Quant will appear on a new series of postage stamps in the UK.

The designer created her own design for new British Design Classics stamp series, which will be available January 13.

Image from Amore Crush Daily.