Stephen Marks

Stephen Anthony Solomon Marks was born in Harrow, north London, the son of Jewish hairdressers and went to the local secondary modern school. He was a promising tennis player as a teenager, playing at Fred Perry's old club Herga and winning a junior prize at Wimbledon.

Marks began working as a salesman for the coat-maker Andre Peters and French fashion designer Louis Féraud, before setting up Stephen Marks London in the late 1960s to produce his own suit and coat designs. Marks had already ventured into wholesaling, earning the nickname 'the hotpants king' after spotting the trend for short shorts in Paris and importing stock to sell in Miss Selfridge.