There are too many brilliant photos for me to scan from Bright Ideas For The Home by Per Dalsgaard and Elisabeth Erichsen (1978), so I’ve restricted myself to six of my favourites.
Vac-formed arses? Coupled with those suspiciously shaped side lamps? Yikes...
I particularly love the way the heads in the background are looking at each other disapprovingly...
I need to know who on earth Midnight Blue were, and where I can get some of these insane clothes. I had never heard of them before and cannot find out a THING about them online. I am a geek and I need help, I realise this…
Advert from Ritz Magazine, Number 14, 1978. Scanned by Miss Peelpants.
Everyone is looking back in nostalgia – especially in fashion. But authentic Twenties and Thirties clothes can be expensive to buy so sew your own and save money. Use crêpe de chine and bias-cut voiles and leave out the linings for an authentic swing and flair. Choose eau de Nil, bois de rose and the pale sorbet shades for pure, undiluted nostalgia.
Scanned from Harpers and Queen, June 1973.
Cheesecake sweaters by Phyllis Collins at Stirling Cooper. Voluminous batwing sweater by Lee Bender at Bus Stop. Jewellery by Corocraft.
Not only is this a delightful image, but I have a green version of the ‘cheesecake’ Stirling Cooper jumper. Whee!
Celon seems to feel a bit smoky, if the first picture is anything to go by. I definitely fancy the harem pyjamas with the mesh middle below though…
Illustration by Malcolm Bird. Vanity Fair, May 1970. Scanned by Miss Peelpants.
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.
What is this mysterious alchemy that makes James Wedge’s version of the pin-up cliché somehow completely wonderful to my eyes? I think the hand-tinting is a nod to the fictitious nature of the pin-up, completely revelling in its own artifice and utilizing its superficiality to create something fresh – despite its inherently retrospective origins. Also, it doesn’t involve Photoshop. Modern photographers need to take serious note.
19 Magazine
, May 1974. Scanned by Miss Peelpants.
Left: Knickerbockers and midi waistcoat by Pippa. Gilt hinged patent belt by Stuart Baxter. Snake printed Jules et Jim cap by Mr Freedom. Right: Waistcoat and gauchos by Pippa. Belt by Second Skin. Shirt by Harold Ingram.
Gaucho trousers are one of those styles that ‘the powers that be’, i.e people you don’t want to be listening to, like to say can be ‘pulled off’ by very few people. Well, I’ve been happily strutting around in a gorgeous pair of tomato red linen gauchos from Wallis, circa 1970, for a while now and I can safely say that they are one of my most favourite items of clothing. Ever. Because of their bold, clashy kind of shade of red, I’ve been mainly teaming with a plain black top, black tights and my chestnut brown brogues. So I was delighted to see these two photos from a spread in Honey (the rest are knickerbockers, I have no knickerbockers yet. This makes me sad.) where some super hot gauchos are teamed with, yes, leather brogues. I’m so 1970, and I don’t even try.
Of course, because I’m so 1970, my outfit post pictures are, errr, stuck on a roll of film which I haven’t finished yet. And, errr, then I’ve got to have them developed. So, enjoy Morgan Rank’s pictures of the photogenic ladies wearing the gauchos and brogues.
Left: Midi waistcoat and matching gauchos by Jon Elliott. Brogues from Lilley and Skinner. Baker boy cap from Mr Freedom. Right: Tunic top and gauchos by Sujon. Cap from Herbet Johnson. Lace-up granny shoes by Mary Quant.
Liz Eggleston 