menswear

Gimme Biba

biba, keith richards, menswear, seventies fashion, the rolling stones

I have just listed a rare piece of Biba menswear over on eBay. Not only is it a rare piece of Biba menswear, it’s also the same print as one worn by the divinely dissolute Keith Richards. I’m 99.9% certain that Keef’s is a bit of ladieswear, probably stolen from a girlfriend or even just from the rails of the boutique (as so many people did) but it’s a pretty cool coincidence nonetheless, non?

In other news, I would like to say hello to anyone who has just found me via The Guardian’s ‘Internet Picks of the Week‘ feature. Hello! If you want the promised feature on Scopitones, you can find that here.

Distracted by men. Again.

brighton, menswear, seventies fashion, telegraph magazine

I went to scan a fabulous hotpant-themed fashion spread in the Daily Telegraph Magazine from 1971, and instead I found myself scanning in menswear adverts. Whoops….still, dreamy or what? I am particularly loving Mr Brighton, above. Hotpants tomorrow….

More Boyfriend menswear gorgeousness (plus Top Ten award!)

amen corner, boyfriend annual, menswear, psychedelia, ruffles, sixties, stripeyness, the herd

I think the Boyfriend 1969 annual might as well have been called the ‘Miss Peelpants Guide to How Men Should Dress’. Here are The Herd and Amen Corner, rocking the stripes and ruffles respectively.

I’m very chuffed to have put in an appearance in Cision’s Top 10 UK Vintage Clothing Blogs, and in such esteemed company as well. Very nice to get recognition from such a site, even if I don’t quite understand how I ended up there! Thanks Cision! Thision.

(That’s for for any Look Around You fans out there….)

Stripes and Sounds: Simon Dupree and the Big Sound in Boyfriend, 1969

boyfriend annual, menswear, psychedelia, simon dupree, sixties, stripeyness

Oh no! Major oversight. I never finished scanning pictures from the Boyfriend annual 1969! Naughty me…. Since it’s a bit of an unofficial menswear week on the blog, here’s the gorgeous Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. So. Many. Stripes. Can’t. Cope. Swoon.

The Story of Cedric Safesuit

carnaby street, dandy, Illustrations, john stephen, king's road, lord john, menswear, petticoat magazine, sixties


Also contained within the aforementioned July 1967 Petticoat magazine, is this superb illustrated feature on some extremely groovy menswear. Illustrated by Gerry Richards. Utterly brilliant and too good not to share…

Cedric Safesuit was a civil servant with good prospects and only one problem – all the girls rebuffed his advances with haughty stares. Why? Because Cedric was an acute and unhappy case of B.O. (boring outerwear).

Fortunately for our story, Cedric’s best friend Teddy Trend decided to take him in hand. King’s Road, he whispered at ever more frequent intervals. Carnaby Street, he muttered whenever the conversation flagged. Finally Cedric was worn down and, let loose among the gear shops, an astonishing change came over him. With whoops of delight, he tore off his old brown suit and signed cheques for everything he could lay his hands on. “I’ll never have B.O. again,” he said happily, walking off with Teddy Trend’s latest acquisition, a Twiggy-hipped redhead. “A severe case of B.H. (big head),” diagnosed Teddy sourly.

Michael Man’s Boutique blue satin shirt, 69s. 6d., with matching striped trousers, 69s. 11d., by Lord John, and printed blue kipper tie by Sydney Smith 21s.

New summer image in John Stephen His Boutique yellow seersucker shirt, 55s., matching orange seersucker trousers also by John Stephen, 65s., boots worth a second look, black and tans by Topper, 89s. 11d., tartan chucka boots, 45s. 6d.

Brown herringbone coat by Dandy, 21gns., John Michael flat hat for flat heads, 89s. 6d., white jabot for that dapper look by Dandy, 20s.

From John Stephen His Boutique white satin vicar shirt, 89s. 6d., red velvet bow from the Chelsea Antique Market, 12s. 6d., matching black trousers with white inverted pleat by Lord John, 79s. 11d., and a business-like black bowler with red cherries, 15s. at the Chelsea Antique Market.

MenMenMenMenMenmimenmenmen….

english boy, king's road, menswear, petticoat magazine, quorum, sixties, stripeyness

Ahhhhh. Men. So few know how to dress these days. I’m lucky that, more recently, I have been spending time with a gentleman who definitely knows how to dress. If you’d asked me a few years back, to describe how I would like my ideal man to dress…..well, it would be pretty much spot on. But a few years ago, it would also have felt like a very impossible dream.

For some reason, the odd odd-man would come along and would want me to ‘re-style’ them. And then, for some reason, they would fail to listen to a damn word I said. The rest lived in t-shirts and jeans. Sigh. Anyway, you should never try to ‘change’ someone. I just wish they taught this kind of stuff to boys in school. Or that I lived in the Sixties.

(Mmmm, yes, the latter please!)

Anyway, I bought this copy of Petticoat from July 1967 the other day and was having severe fits of menswear-lust. The cover boys are all ‘English Boy’ models, the agency famously linked with those Quorumites in the late Sixties King’s Road scene, but I doubt any of them would be considered model-standard these days. However, they are instantly raised to godlike status simply because of the way they are suited and booted.

I also noted with amusement that the far left chappy is wearing a coat/jacket remarkably similar to my favourite (and now, inevitably, very shabby) burgundy velvet autumn coat. Confirming the fact that, I think, I often aspire to look like a male dandy when autumn hits, rather than a lady.

Veruschka: A re-think

1970s, menswear, sexy couples, sunday times magazine, Tonik, veruschka, Vintage Adverts

She’s starting to grow on me; I think it’s jawline empathy or something. Sexy guy; very well dressed, as well. I think there was a series of these, and I will scan more if I find them again.

From The Sunday Times Magazine, February 21st 1971

Do I give you the Hornes, baby?

1970s, haute naffness, menswear, Vintage Adverts

 

Mmmmm. Men in lounging gear. What poise, what magnificent arrogance, what opulent warmth. He looks like a proper hard bastard; I particularly love the spotty cravat and cigarillo.

Observer Magazine, December 1970

More from ‘Boyfriend’, 1969: The Moody Blues

boyfriend annual, eye candy, menswear, the moody blues

I can’t even begin to express how devastatingly sexy this photo is. Not necessarily because of their physical attractiveness (though I should point out that Justin Hayward is looking very pretty there at the back and Mike Pinder looks very manly and yum on the left) but because of how they’re dressed. Fringed shawls! Striped trousers! Gold braiding! Neckerchiefs! Paisley shirts! Moustaches! Men need to dress like this.

Ahhhhhh…..who can resist Nights in White Satin? A bit like The Air That I Breathe from my last post, and indeed A Whiter Shade of Pale (though, sadly, Procol Harum are not in Boyfriend for me to witter on about and show a gorgeous photo…), it always makes me well-up a little bit and go into a strange (but lovely) place very deep inside my psyche.