Simon Posthuma

Dutch artist, musician, and clothing designer active in the late 1960's as part of The Fool, a design collective created by Posthuma and his first wife, Marijke Koger. They were very influenced by the psychedelic fashion defined by Carnaby Street in London and very popular with several British rock and folk bands of the era. The name of the collective was a reference to the tarot card, the Fool. Posthuma and Koger were living on the Spanish island of Ibiza in 1966, where they met photographer Karl Ferris. Ferris took photographs of clothing that the two had designed and through his influence, the photos appeared in the London newspaper, The Times. The two followed Ferris back to London, where they opened a combination design clothing and photography studio, with artist Josje Leeger joining soon after. Their work includes the clothing worn by the Hollies on the cover of their 1967 album Evolution, stage costumes and the front cover design for the 1967 debut LP by rock band the Move, stage wears for Procol Harum, the cover of the Incredible String Band's 1967 LP The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, cover art for Boudewijn de Groot's 1968 Psych-folk LP Picknick, stage costumes and decoration to instruments used by Cream, including Eric Clapton's famed Gibson SG guitar with a psychedelic artwork finish, Jack Bruce's Fender Bass VI bass, and Ginger Baker's drum kit, created for the group's 1967 tour of the US. The Fool were best known for artwork and clothing designed for the Beatles during their psychedelic period, including the graphics in the inner sleeve of the 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, clothes worn in the 1967 television broadcast of "All You Need Is Love" and in the "I Am the Walrus" segment of the 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour. They painted designs on John Lennon's piano and one of his Gibson acoustic guitars, as well as George Harrison's Mini car, his bungalow Kinfauns in Surrey, and several of his guitars. They were also responsible for a three-story multicolored mural on the facade of the Beatles' Apple Boutique in London's Baker Street area, but months later, it was ordered to be painted over after protests from other area merchants. Soon after, the shop closed. While designing clothes for the Hollies, they had met Hollies' member Graham Nash and as a band also called The Fool, persuaded him to produce their debut psychedelic folk album, which was released in early 1968, just before Nash quit the Hollies and moved to Los Angeles. The Fool then also relocated to Los Angeles and among other things, they created the largest mural in the world at the time on the Aquarius Theatre for a production of the musical Hair, and did the same on other theaters in San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago, all where Hair was appearing. They then split up, as did Posthuma and Koger, who stayed in Los Angeles while Posthuma returned to Amsterdam. However, the pair continued to record on A&M Records with an album in 1969, also produced by Nash, and after a few other musical collaborations, the couple had a child but divorced in 1973. Posthuma married again, to Ellen Benard, and also fathered a son by her, singer Douwe Bob Posthuma. Later in life, Posthuma developed Korsakoff's Syndrome, a type of dementia, and he died in 2020 from complications related to it.