Inspirational Images

Inspirational Images: Dress to decorate summer evenings

1970s, bus stop, caroline arber, celia birtwell, Gill Hutchings, Inspirational Images, lee bender, ossie clark, Pierre Elegante, quorum, radley, Simon Ellis, Sujon, Vintage Editorials, Vogue

Crepe dress by Simon Ellis, £8 15s

Photographs by Caroline Arber. Vogue, June 1970.

I wish summer would come. I wish my entire wardrobe consisted of these clothes. I wish every day could be a Caroline Arber kind of day…

Blouse by John Craig, £3 16s. Skirt by Pierre Elegante, £7.

Poppy red moss crepe dress with print by Celia Birtwell, by Ossie Clark for Radley, 11 gns at Quorum.

Dress by Gill Hutchings for Fair Lady, £4.

Blue-grey voile midi dress by Sujon, 7gns.

Rose and green jersey midi dress from Bus Stop, £6 15s

Vintage Adverts: Don’t be vague

1970s, hair, Inspirational Images, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, June 1971

Personally, I need absolutely no encouragement…

Mild Sauce: Wrap up well

1970s, celia birtwell, Inspirational Images, Meriel McCooey, mild sauce, quorum, Shirley Beljon, sunday times magazine, terry de havilland, Vintage Editorials

“Every designer has long scarves this season – decorating waists, flung over shoulders, slotted through necklines. Celia Birtwell, whose famous screen prints for Quorum enlivened some of their prettiest garments, has produced a new and imaginative collection of exotic zebra and tiger-printed chiffon fantasies which hide a multitude of flesh – even on our bonny pneumatic model. (In real life, Marinka works as a London barmaid.) The scarves come in three sizes, 44in. sq., 22in. sq., and 14in. sq., and cost £10, £6.50 and £4.50 respectively; they are obtainable from Quorum, Radnor Walk, Chelsea, London SW3, and also from their branch at Heath Street, Hampstead, London NW3.”

By Meriel McCooey. Photographed by Shirley Beljon. Mules by Terry de Havilland.

The Sunday Times Magazine. March 20th 1977.

Vintage Interiors: G-plan, 1972

1970s, G-Plan, Inspirational Images, interior design, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, March 1972

Phwoar. Such a sexy sofa. In fact, I want everything in that photo. The outfit she’s wearing, the dog, the shagpile carpet, the sofa, the glass doors and so on…

One day, it will be mine!

Inspirational Images: Shrimp in Silk

1960s, Inspirational Images, jean shrimpton, Photoplay, vanessa clark

Scanned from Photoplay, April 1967

Small feature on Jean Shrimpton’s clothes for her film debut in Privilege with Paul Jones.

I hate admitting I’ve not heard of a designer before, but Vanessa Clark is coming up as a blank for me.

Anyone?

Inspirational Images: Bright girl’s guide to open air dressing

1970s, Alan Rodin, annacat, biba, british boutique movement, Buckle Under, edward mann, elisabeth novick, Ian Batten, Inspirational Images, karl lagerfeld, Leslie Poole, Pierre Elegante, stirling cooper, Vintage Editorials, Vogue

Bird’s egg blue and white spotted shirt and striped trousers at Pierre Elegante. Hat by Edward Mann.

Photographed by Elisabeth Novick, from Vogue, April 1973.

If I could spend most of my springtime dressed like this, I would be happy. Sadly, I am currently living in thick black tights and long sleeves while the entire country shivers its way into May.

Curses!

Dungarees by Leslie Poole at Annacat. Hat from Liberty.

Left: Top by Alan Rodin, trousers by Ian Batten for Stirling Cooper. Umbrella from Biba — Right: Top by Karl Lagerfeld for Timwear, trousers same as left. Turban from Buckle Under.

Vintage Adverts: The New Age of British Steel

1960s, British Steel, Inspirational Images, space age, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, March 23 1969

Vintage Adverts: Nuts about Biba

1970s, barbara hulanicki, Barbara Hulanicki, biba, Inspirational Images, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

The Sunday Times Magazine, March 24th 1974

Those with a long memory might remember this as a Biba dress worn by Paula Wilcox in Man About The House (and also by Miss Peelpants occasionally around the house, as well as out of it…). I’m always inexplicably delighted to spot pieces I own or recognise in adverts of the time, although I think one for nutty chocolates has got to be a first…

Pat Cleveland in Cosmopolitan, 1973

1970s, coopers, cosmopolitan, david montgomery, Inspirational Images, pat cleveland, Walter Steiger

The wondrous Pat Cleveland from the spread which has already given us Ika Hindley and Gabrielle Drake. Pat is wearing shoes by Walter Steiger and a canvas suit from Coopers which ‘flaunts her amazing bottom’.

“Dressing up is for joy. Colour brings me out of my depression. Red makes me feel like a flower ready to be plucked, green is peaceful. I can feel yellow … A man can recognise the smell of his woman wherever she is.”

Cosmopolitan, June 1973. Photographed by David Montgomery. Scanned by Miss Peelpants.

Inspirational Images: Unruffled Tonik

1960s, Inspirational Images, menswear, sunday times magazine, Vintage Adverts

Photo by Alec Murray

Scanned from The Sunday Times Magazine, April 13th 1969

‘No other cloth bears itself with such irreproachable distinction or touches women with such cavalier effectiveness that even the musketress must be disarmed eventually’.

What guff! But I do envy her entire outfit, hat included…