A celebration of big Sixties hair. Because, if you’re anything like me, Big Hair is the only hair you can possibly manage in summer humidity…
sixties
Prima della mia vacanza….
british boutique movement, celia birtwell, jean varon, john bates, ossie clark, seventies fashion, sixties, stirling cooper, website listings
Stirling Cooper
New listings! Oh yes….
Miss Novell
John Bates for Jean Varon
Ossie Clark
Louis Caring
John Bates for Jean Varon
Victor Costa
Act III
Simon Ellis
Inspirational Images: Charlotte Rampling
charlotte rampling, hair, Inspirational Images, sixtiesCan it be…? That chain dress so beloved of Diana Rigg, and which I’m still desperate to identify? The dress colour and texture is different, but the chain effect looks very similar.
I love this shot of Charlotte Rampling; it’s a familiar pose. Me, sitting on the pouffe in front of my beloved art deco dressing table, wondering how on earth I’m going to do battle with my hair today…. Except I have genuine problems and clearly Ms Rampling does not.
by Philip TownsendThe Comely Miss Lumley
Inspirational Images, joanna lumley, Pattie Boyd, sixties
Joanna Lumley in her Swinging Sixties modelling days. An unashamedly posh bird who knew how best to work with masses of hair and ‘insufficient flying buttresses‘. I choose my style heroines verrrrrry carefully, you know…
She’s been in two of my favourite cult TV shows of all time (The New Avengers and Sapphire and Steel) and continues to be an elegant, engaging performer and a true lady to this day. I always admire those who broke somewhat pointless social taboos back in the Sixties, and Joanna chose to have her son ‘out of wedlock’ at a time when it would have ruined many a career.
She’s one of those people who just seems to float gracefully above the mêlée of the world below. Elegant, classy and sparky, never a snob or an airhead. She wasn’t drama school trained either, and I often wonder if this makes someone a warmer, more likeable actor (much like the best fashion designers are rarely those propelled from St. Martins each year).
One day I’ll probably do a proper post on The New Avengers and Sapphire and Steel but, until then, enjoy La Lumley, Sixties-style.
Fashion Icon: Françoise Dorléac
Catherine Deneuve, fashion icon of the moment, Françoise Dorléac, picture spam, sixties
Les demoiselles de Rochefort
Catherine Deneuve, films, Françoise Dorléac, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, sixties
I really do love Lovefilm. Watched Les Demoiselles de Rochefort avec Monsieur M l’autre weekend, and instantly fell for the beautiful Françoise Dorléac. I knew (very vaguely) that she had died young, but reading up on it is so horribly sad.
Her premature death, aged 25, in a car crash outside Nice in 1967 (not long after completing Les Demoiselles) prevented Françoise from attaining the international recognition which would, eventually, come so easily to her younger sister Catherine Deneuve. She was as great a beauty and as talented an actress. I must see more!
Les Demoiselles… is a lovely, fanciful film by Jacques Demy about twin sisters who seek fame and love in Paris, if only they can leave Rochefort. Musical numbers abound, none of them overwhelmingly memorable, but enjoyable nonetheless. There’s even Gene Kelly! It’s got that sorbet Sixties feel, similar to something like Summer Holiday, which feels rather outdated for 1967 but seems to work within the deliciously strange world of the film.
I also rather enjoyed the clear referencing of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a clip of which I have placed at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!
I will do a proper picture spam of Françoise later…
Anonymous Illustrations
19 magazine, Illustrations, Inspirational Images, sixties
Two luscious illustrations from an April 1969 issue of 19 Magazine. Neither are credited. Both are amazing and utterly inspirational. Thank you, anonymous artists, for creating such works of beauty.
Twiggy: more than a keyword….
british boutique movement, celebrity boutiques, sixties, twiggy, website listings
Twiggy’s own label was a brief, beautiful contribution to the world of the British Boutique Movement. Click here to see my previous blog about it. The pieces are rare enough, but it can often be hard to find them online when her name has become merely a ‘keyword’ for the masses of unlabelled minis and hacked off maxis floating around in vintage land.
However, Vintage-a-Peel always seeks to bring clarity to the vintage world, so I don’t use such keywords. Except now I have an actual Twiggy dress for sale, so I can. Hurrah! Stunning striped cotton mini with blue satin buttons down the front to match the blue satin ribbon around the waistline. I love the tiny, ever-so-sweet detail of the top button though, which is covered to match the fabric of the dress. It’s even lined in cotton; a detail which would simply never occur to anyone nowadays (and is far nicer than supposedly high-end designer pieces even from the Sixties!). Wearable and so sweet, but also immensely rare and collectable.
Now listed over at Vintage-a-Peel
Can’t stand still pants
Inspirational Images, pan's people, petticoat magazine, sixties
Here’s a delightful (but a delightful pain-in-the-arse to scan) photoshoot with my favourite dance troupe, Pan’s People, from Petticoat Magazine (May 1969). I suppose trousers for women were still something of a novelty in 1969, but there’s no excuse for usage of the word ‘pants’ for trousers in a British magazine.
Keeping Cool In Sticky Situations
cecil gee, clive arrowsmith, Foale and Tuffin, Inspirational Images, lee bender, marrian mcdonnell, observer magazine, ossie clark, Rosalind Yehuda, sixties
She wears top and trousers by Rosalind Yehuda (shoes by Sacha). He wears suit and shirt by Blades (shoes by Chelsea Cobbler).
Well we all need help with that. Sadly, this just means in terms of temperature. Although it is very much on my wavelength about such things. I just don’t see the need to instantly strip off as soon as there is a hint of sunlight.
Still wearing a moderate weight vintage coat, I was being blown along the seafront last weekend and frowning at people walking along in shorts. Do they just have a different inner thermostat to me? Or did they, as I suspect, look out of the window, see the sunshine and feel a steely determination to wear as few clothes as possible and get down to the beach? Chillblains or no chillblains…
Even when it genuinely is rather balmy, I still don’t see any great need to strip off…I like clothes too much.
Anyway, enough of my rambling and on with this superb spread from The Observer Magazine, 3 August 1969. Not only do I love the clothes (both his and hers), but I love the settings and overall feel of the photos by Clive Arrowsmith.
Hot days in sticky cities can be miserable. But there’s no need to take to a beach dress or wear your tie draped round your nabel. Keep morale up, temperature down with cover-up clothes in lightweight fabrics styled simply in cool, clear colours.
Dress by Foale and Tuffin. He wears Cerruti.
She wears Marrian McDonnell (shoes by Shoosissima). He wears suit by Cecil Gee, shirt and tie by Turnbull and Asser.
She wears ensemble by Foale and Tuffin (shoes by Biba). He wears suit by Fex Brothers, tie and shirt by Turnbull and Asser.
She wears dress by Lee Cecil for Jetsetters (shoes by Sacha). Silk scarf by Tony de Celis (the man in these pictures). He wears Gordon Deighton at Trend.
She wears Ossie Clark (boots by Chelsea Cobbler). He wears top and trousers from Feathers.
Liz Eggleston 
