Cotton jackets and blouses, comfortable baggy trousers, skimpy bareback sun tops and neat knee-length shorts. Team them up with saucy felt berets and rope-soled espadrilles —wear them anywhere (or on the prom).
A glorious recreation of 1930s photographs by the late great Mike Berkofsky, but we all know those pups are the real stars of the show!
Photographed by Mike Berkofsky.
Scanned from Honey, May 1974.
Daytime dresses in pretty prints and purely simple plains – warm and practical for everyday but special enough for best.
Photographed by Allan Walsh*.
Scanned from Honey, January 1972.
*Usually credited as Alain Walsh, I think it must be the same photographer.
Summers may come and summers may go but denim never fails us.
Modelled by Joanna Jacobs and unknown model.
Photographed in Florida by Roelof Wennink.
Scanned from Honey, April 1976.
Photographed in Ricci Burns’s drawing room. Hair by Mr Ricci of Ricci Burns.
Photographed by Mike Berkofsky.
Scanned from Honey, January 1975.
Jackets are the brightest you’ve ever seen, with enormous checks and swirling swingy backs. They go with vivid sweaters and the widest possible Oxford bags, worn shorter than usual to reveal gleaming white lace-ups and tappy 46 two-tone shoes. What a way to get yourself noticed!
Second model from the left in the top image looks to be Ika Hindley.
Photographed by Peter Castellano.
Scanned from Honey, October 1972.
Lurid Lurex, sexy satin and slinky leopard skin make the wildest look of all. Not to be confined to parties, dance halls or even billiard rooms—this is what you wear anywhere and everywhere.
Just one of the most deliciously styled and shot editorials. As so often happens with Terry de Havilland, his shoes are credited to Leicester Shoes in this editorial but they’re definitely his as they also feature in Vogue in 1972.
Photographed by Gilles Ben Simon.
Scanned from Honey, October 1972.
The incredible swagger is back. We all know you’ve seen it before, hidden away in mother’s wardrobe, but forget the mothball version and look out for bold stripes, zig-zags and checks in bright primary colours. The difference is that these coats have neat tight-fitting shoulders and wide swirling skirts which swing when you walk-surprisingly flattering and easy to wear. So let the wind blow, all you need is a flash of panache and a splash of colour.
Photographed by Denis Peel.
Scanned from Honey, October 1971.
Leather and fur get more expensive every year. It’s not only the taxes and rising costs of production. It’s just that there aren’t enough good animal skins for leather around to meet the consumer demand. Furs are there in quantity for the fabulously rich. Luckily a good substitute has been found – the nylon-spun, man-made sort. Some, especially in the leather field, are so like the real thing the only way you can tell the difference is by the smell. Take the white coat on pages 46 and 47. It’s fake and costs about £50. It has a double in real fur and leather for £270. Made by the same people who have duplicated most of their collection this way and it takes an eagle eye and nose to tell the difference. Others are just furry, woolly fabrics, obviously not imitating some four-legged friend, which is one of the nicest things about them. This fur fabric is now getting the treatment it deserves. Nairn Williamson (more famous for their Vinyl floor and wall coverings) were the first to see its potential and got six designers to use their Velmar fur fabric in their winter collections. Jane Whiteside for Stirling Cooper (new label getting famous fast for their beautiful jersey co-ordinates) was the cleverest of them all. She used the best sludgy colours, mixed it with needlecord to make a group of jackets and coats to go with trousers, skirts and blouses. Borg (American originated and the pioneers in England of this deep pile fabric) has been around for a long time, mostly on the inside of duffle and raincoats but it’s on the outside as a normal fabric that it looks its best. Next winter there will be a lot more of it around, now that designers are getting less snobby about plastics. Not only is it as warm as fur, it is, of course, much cheaper and you don’t smell like a wet dog when you come in from the rain, either. So you can wear it herding sheep on lost weekends, or in town queuing for the cinema without any guilt feelings about ruining your assets.
Insert obligatory ‘I don’t agree with the thrust of the argument for fake furs as just a financial consideration here’ caveat from me, your content provider. Don’t shout at me, basically. But it’s an interesting insight into the mindset of 1970, and the proliferation of fake furs and skins at that time. It’s also a breathtakingly styled and photographed work of art from Caroline Baker and Jonvelle.
Fashion by Caroline Baker.
Photographed by Jonvelle.
Scanned from Nova, January 1970.
If you can’t tango, simply steal into the spotlight in these flamboyant rumba dresses. The slipped shoulder strap, the bared midriff and the full-blown flouncy skirts all spell out the sexiest numbers for summer.
The main difference between the content of a magazine like Honey, as opposed to Vogue or Queen, is that the designers tend to be the more intriguing and less well-known of the period. If you want names like Miss Mouse, Granny Takes a Trip or Antony Price, these magazines should always be your first port of call. This shoot alone features one of my Holy Grail pieces by Granny Takes a Trip: the ruffled tie front top and skirt ensemble designed by Dinah Adams. Previously a designer for two other cult London boutiques, Mr Freedom and Paradise Garage, painfully little is known about Dinah Adams (misattributed as ‘Diana’ in the original credits). Which is why it’s always lovely to see her work represented anywhere.
Also shown here is a frothy, frilly delight of a frock by Miss Mouse, a.k.a Rae Spencer-Cullen. A personal favourite of mine, the Miss Mouse aesthetic is precisely why this early Seventies period is my favourite for fashion. Her work was heavily Fifties-inspired, quite ahead of the curve in the scheme of things, but always with a novel twist. Spencer-Cullen is yet another designer whose life remains something of a mystery, despite being a part of a hugely influential circle which included artists Duggie Fields and Andrew Logan. It seems that this anonymity was (at least initially) intentional, as an article from the Glasgow Herald in 1976 declared.
“At first, six years ago, when presenting her quirky designs on fashion, she seemed shy and utterly retiring. Miss Mouse could not be contacted easily by the press. She was elusive, hazed in shadows, a real mouse about publicity in fact. The only evidence of her entire existence was her clothes.”
In a world where we are so used to having information at our fingertips, there is something quite enchanting about this; tiny scraps must be stitched together to create a flimsy silhouette of a creative genius.
Photographed by Roy A Giles.
Scanned from Honey, July 1973.
(Please note – this blog originally appeared in 2016 on Shrimpton Couture’s ‘Curated’ blog project which has since been removed. It seemed a shame to let the posts disappear completely so I hope to eventually repost all my work here.)
You can take the summer’s pastels just the way you want. When you’re not wearing neat and co-ordinated nursery prints, try pink and blue in peasant style. You’ll find a pettiness you thought had vanished.
Fashion by Sue Hone.
Photographed by Roger Charity.
Scanned from Petticoat, 10th June 1972.
Liz Eggleston 