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WHEN I GOT HOME FOR CHRISTMAS OF 1969,

I had no plan for the future or any idea of how I’d get

one. It was grey and rainy and cold, the way Vancouver

is in December, when one day I joined my parents at

their church. It’s a good thing I did, because that was the

day I met Peter Fox. And that would change everything.

Peter was a friend of my parents, but more than that,

he was the manager of Sheppard Shoes, the high-end

men’s shoe store where everyone who mattered in

town would shop. He was born in London, and was

very cool, with his English accent, granny glasses and

bespoke suits. He was an artist, too. He’d studied

sculpture at art school in London in the 1950s and

worked at Harrods’s shoe department, before coming

to Vancouver. We got to talking and found that we

shared a fascination with shape and line. As it turned

out, he had the crazy idea of opening a menswear

boutique—a cool one, not the same old tweedy stuff

everyone else was selling, but not tie-dye and ponchos

either—and he asked me, would I be interested in a job?

Well, yes, of course I was.

They tell me now that I seemed so arrogant back then,

but it was because I was insecure. I’d drive Peter to

work in my two-seater sports car, a 1953 MG TD, which

was a vintage car even back then, and I’d be dressed

in these super flashy clothes, like this double-breasted

suede jacket I used to love. It was the hippie era, but

I wasn’t a hippie. Well, maybe a little bit. I was a slick

hippie, a bit of a dandy. My dad never approved of what

I wore or what I did, though. Later he would come down

to our store in Gastown and tell me I had the wrong

shoes on and that I should wear a suit to work.

The Sheppard’s clothing store made no sense at all,

of course. It was upstairs from the Sheppard Shoes

store so nobody could find it unless they knew it was

there. And a lot of people never bothered to find out.

So, I guess you could say it was struggling. Then one

day Peter told me he was thinking about going out

on his own and wondered if I wanted to go with him.

Why not? I thought. I had nothing else to do.

Peter found a location for the store he wanted to

open and my dad offered to loan him some money—

$13,500—to get started as long as he made me a 50

percent partner. I had no business skills, but I looked

good and I dressed well, so Peter agreed. And so, in

1970, we signed a lease and Fox & Fluevog was born.

1970

Not long after Fox & Fluevog opens,

international supermodel Kecia Nyman

walks into the store and walks out

with John’s heart. Three months

later, they’re married, and John is

hobnobbing with the jet set.

Around Christmas of 1969, John meets

Peter Fox, manager of Sheppard Shoes,

at his parents’ church. In 1970, the two

open a shoe store in historic Gastown.

The partnership, known as Fox &

Fluevog, lasts a decade.

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