The Prettiest Watercolours

1970s, alice pollock, british boutique movement, harpers and queen, Inspirational Images, james wedge, liberty's, thea porter, Vintage Editorials

Floaty cover-up in silk chiffon, printed with navy/red/cream, tying at waist; by Alice Pollock for Quorum, about £45. Black lycra swimsuit by Eres, £16.50.

Scanned from Harpers and Queen, June 1973. Photographs by James Wedge.

Belted cover-up in fine cotton voile, with paisley print in pale green/blue/yellow/purple, and long medieval sleeves; £37, Liberty. Pale green lycra bikini; £5, Liberty.

Cotton voile abaya by Thea Porter, with print of Chinese horses in green and brown, and two panels of antique patchwork fabrics; £61, Thea Porter

Inspirational Images: How to make it happen on holiday

1970s, alice pollock, brian duffy, bus stop, clobber, cosmopolitan, Crochetta, deborah and clare, Deirdre McSharry, Diane Logan, Escalade, Gordon Deighton, harold ingram, Inspirational Images, lord john, Lucienne Phillips, miss mouse, Suliman, Tom Gilbey, Vintage Editorials

Dress by Elle. Shirt by Deborah and Claire.

Always happy to bring you another ‘lost’ shoot by the late, great Brian Duffy. Since Duffy destroyed his own archive, we are left to piece together a career from what was published in magazines or retained in other people’s archives. I try to scan and share whenever I can… I covet both Alice Pollock pieces in this spread, and love the man’s style. Definitely how all men should dress, always.

Photographed by Duffy. Fashion by Deirdre McSharry. Modelled by Greta Norris and Cyril Hartman.

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, July 1972.

As an aside, apologies for sporadic blogging at the moment. There are a few changes afoot and it is distracting me a little from my usual magazine scouring and scanning. I will tell you when everything, hopefully, falls into place in the next few weeks.

Silk dress by Suliman, crepe shirt by Deborah and Clare.

Jacket by Alice Pollock, shoes by Sacha

Her skirt by Miss Mouse, blouse and scarf at Lucienne Phillips. His shirt by Lord John.

His and hers Harold Ingram sweaters

Her dress by Clobber, hat by Diane Logan and shoes by Samm.

Her top by Crochetta, trousers by Gordon Deighton. His sweater by Harold Ingram and trousers by Tom Gilbey.

T-shirt by Escalade. Hat from Bus Stop

Blue silk ‘intimate’ dress by Alice Pollock with bird print by Frances Ronaldson. He wears an Indian shirt from Crocodile.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall…

1970s, alice pollock, bill gibb, british boutique movement, Gina Fratini, jean muir, john bates, lord snowdon, mary quant, ossie clark, thea porter, zandra rhodes

Front row left to right: Jean Muir, Alice Pollock, Thea Porter. Second row: John Bates, Tim Gardner, Gina Fratini. Third row: Bill Gibb, Zandra Rhodes. Top: Mary Quant, Ossie Clark.

So many egos, so little space… I’m placing bets that Quant and Bates didn’t speak to each other for the duration. But it’s also nice to see Bates sitting with his friend Bill Gibb, and now I like to think that Alice Pollock and Thea Porter must have been quite pally as well.

Legendary Beauty

alice pollock, bus stop, celia birtwell, fashion mouse, janice wainwright, john kelly, ossie clark, pre-raphaelite, quorum, seventies fashion, simon massey, vanity fair, wightwick manor

By Alice Pollock at Quorum*, 19gns. The settee is covered in the original William Morris Bird Design.

There’s a marvellously romantic feeling about the Pre-Raphaelite look. It starts with your hair…soft, natural, framing your face in a ripple of tiny waves. It touches your skin…pale, delicate, un-made-up looking. It colours your clothes…crepe, chiffons and satins in rich hues. Start wearing this great, romantic look today – who knows, he might just start being very romantic to you!

Scanned from Vanity Fair, May 1970. Photographed by John Kelly at Wightwick Manor.

*This is a misattribution, the dress is actually an Ossie.

Dress by Simon Massey, £15. Photographed against a Burne Jones tapestry.

Dress by Fashion Mouse, £22. Photographed against the Kempe stained glass windows.

Dress by Bus Stop, £5. Photographed against a painting by Rossetti pupil Treffry Dunn.

We’re Not Going Away This Year

1960s, alice pollock, harriet, helmut newton, polly peck, Queen magazine, quorum

Black ciré jumpsuit (£14 12s) by Harriet

So instead of getting into a frenzy of bikinis I’ve been able to concentrate on the way to look this autumn. Black and rather Dietrich. Masses of sequins; velvet, chiffon, moiré. And shiny, slinky ciré, like satin come out from under a shower. To wear this black sheer tights; to spark up with silver, jet and diamond.

Incredible shoot from Queen, August 1969. Photos by Helmut Newton

Culottes and matching jacket (27gns) by Alice Pollock at Quorum.

Black moiré suit and white moss crepe cravat (£19 13s) by Sybil Zelker for Polly Peck

Sequined skirt (£19 13s) and chiffon shirt (£7 12s) by Sybil Zelker for Polly Peck

Ciré dress (£12 13s) by Harriet

Inspirational Images: Quorum, 1965

1960s, alice pollock, british boutique movement, ossie clark, quorum

Outfit by Quorum. Everywoman, July 1965

Model Behaviour

1960s, alice pollock, barry lategan, charlotte martin, georgina linhart, grace coddington, Honey Magazine, john cowan, lee bender, Models, norman eales, paulene stone, twiggy

Grace Coddington and some girl called Twiggy

As a wise man said to me very recently, it should have been mandatory for publications to identify their models back in the Sixties and Seventies. Luckily, some of you are very good at this anyway. (I am not). Also luckily, such features as this exist. From Honey, July 1967, we have a handy feature on some up-and-coming models of the time.

Twiggy, obviously, needs no introduction. The glorious Grace Coddington, Paulene Stone, Shirley Anne Hayes and the ethereally lovely Charlotte Martin feature amongst some lesser-[to me]-known beauties. If any of them ever do an ego-search on Google and find this blog, please do email me and let me know what you’re up to now!

Paulene Stone and Maren Greve

Lorraine Hawkins and Janni Goss

Shirley Anne Hayes and Jenny Fussell

Charlotte Martin and Sue Lynn

Kellie and Melissa Congdon

Vanity Fair: Pat Cleveland and Gala Mitchell

alice pollock, alkasura, antony price, david montgomery, gala, just looking, manolo blahnik, pat cleveland, vanity fair, zapata

Dress by Antony Price from Che Guevara

I must admit that I am generally pretty ambivalent when it comes to model worship, but two of my absolute favourites are Pat Cleveland and Gala Mitchell. So imagine my delight when I found another issue of Vanity Fair from 1971 (December this time. Again, falling apart. What’s with the Vanity Fair binding?) and an entire spread with the two ladies I love? Imagine my further delight when I realise the shoot contains phenomenal clothes by Antony Price, Alice Pollock and Alcasura [sic]. It helps that it was photographed by the great David Montgomery (whose photos always seem to tickle my fancy).

Outfit by Alice Pollock. Shoes from Zapata.

Outfit by Alkasura. Shoes by The Chelsea Cobbler.

Dress by Simon Ellis from Just Looking

Dress by Martha Hill

Mensday: What to wear to get your man / What to get your man to wear

alice pollock, jean varon, john bates, Mensday, menswear, ossie clark, petticoat magazine, sexy couples, sixties, take 6

Beautifully photographed and styled shoot with the slightly needy/domineering title as above. Curious.

Doing what I do, I’m in a good position to find and gift some [what I think are] beautiful clothes to my boyfriend. But I’m always hyper-aware that I don’t want to be the kind of girlfriend who tries to mould or change, in style or in any sense. And while I certainly enjoy dressing well for his delectation, I’m not the kind of girl who is ever really going to dress just to please a man. I consider it a happy accident that we have very similar sensibilities, so it’s not something I really have to worry about these days.

It’s a hard balance to strike, because our notions of sex-appeal and prettiness are invariably influenced by what we know men find appealing. Even the ‘anti fashion’ brigade dress in a way which they know will appeal to a similarly ‘anti fashion’ kind of man they might fancy. They may deny it, but it’s hard to separate style and sex-appeal on any level. An unwearably bonkers couture dress still reeks of money and power, which are alluring to many a man.

I’ve always had a slightly Good Cop/Bad Cop approach to dressing for my previous boyfriends. Rarely have they ever truly appreciated everything I’ve owned. On a good day, for them, I would shove ‘that top I don’t like’ to the back of my closet. On a bad day, for them, I would wear the exact opposite of what I knew they liked. I enjoyed knowing that it reflected badly on their taste, and well on mine of course.

From Petticoat, July 1969. Photos by Brian Songhurst.