Vale John Hemmes

Left :  John & Merivale Hemmes at the opening of the Mr Chow Restaurant
Sad news today that one of Sydney's legendary fashion figures John Hemmes has died at age 83. John and his wife Merivale once were the King & Queen of modern fashion in Australia.
Today their  son Justin Hemmes rules over a nightclub empire with some of Australia's most fantastic night spots from the Establishment to the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills.
Whispers has a life long history with the Hemmes. At the tender age of 18 we were hired to run a shop owned by their fierce (but friendly) business rival David Sheinberg whose father owned Sydney's Imperial Arcade and a string of fashion stores that were in competition with The House of Merivale, over seen by Merivale Hemmes and which presented Aussies with the very latest overseas fashion. John was always asking us to join his firm and although we declined, we have remained friendly with the family for decades,

John Hemmes was born in Surabaya, Java, Indonesia- his parents were Dutch and he was imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp as a teen before arriving in Australia with little money. Over the next 30 years he and wife Merivale built up a fashion empire. Today son Justin has continued this entrepreneurial spirit with an enviable restaurant and nightclub empire that employs around 5000 people in premises designed by his sister Bettina.

no joy for Justin

Sydney nightclub mogul Justin Hemmes had his application against police rejected today in the Supreme Court.
Hemmes had applied to have an order overturned- from licensing police to class his Ivy and Establishment venues from today as 'type 2' venues . The classification forces bars to close earlier than usual with alcohol served only in plastic beakers as opposed to glass and is applied when there have been over 12 assaults reported.

Despite Hemmes claiming his various bars have up to 2 million patrons a year passing through without incident and that he had no time to order enough plastic beakers, the judge rejected his application with the comment: "it would have been prudent to anticipate any development" .

 This is a blow to Hemmes who is possibly one of the most gentlemanly hosts and has always had excellent security at his nite-spots. Hemmes is expected to appeal.