Frank Horvat

Because it’s Christmas (part III)

1970s, chelsea cobbler, clobber, Feathers, Frank Horvat, George Malyard, Inspirational Images, jeff banks, kensington market, Malyard, Therèse, Titfers, vanity fair, Vivvy
Hat by Titfers.

Model is Therèse.

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned from Vanity Fair, December 1970.

Velvet in various guises tunic, Clobber; trousers and suede belt, Feathers; hat, Malyard; lace-up boots, Chelsea Cobbler; neckband, Vivvy at Kensington Antique Market.

Because it’s Christmas (part II)

1970s, biba, Feathers, Frank Horvat, Inspirational Images, Jaeger, janice wainwright, polly peck, simon massey, The Purple Shop, vanity fair, Vintage Editorials
Crushed velvet again, sliced into a clean Seventies shape, narrow and knickerbockered but with lace-ruffled sleeves for the right touch of contrary nostalgia. By Polly Peck. Bugle-bead embroidered butterflies on brocade choker from The Purple Shop, Chelsea Antique Market. Child’s midi culotte dress by Just Jon.

Because it’s Christmas. Give yourself time. Time for you and those you love. Time to remember a neglected relative with a telephone call, a lonely neighbour with a visit more meaningful than the automatic instant greeting card. Time too, to think of perfect strangers in other countries, struggling against hardships we can barely imagine. Could be this is the time when a donation to one of those organisations which try to help is truly the spirit of Christmas, A spontaneous flowing of compassion and care from the unknown to the unknown.

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned from Vanity Fair, December 1970.

Velvet, crushed for texture, so right in brown, turned into a curvy gaucho suit by Janice Wainwright for Simon Massey. Perfect, amusing accessory— Biba’s boa from, of course, turkey feathers!

Long, serene, thoughtful dress by Young Jaeger in chestnut and purple printed panne velvet. Wide, full sleeves collected tightly at the wrist, soft, graceful skirt belted at the waist with a wide brown suede appliqued belt from Feathers.

Because it’s Christmas

1970s, baccarat, biba, bill gibb, Frank Horvat, Inspirational Images, The Purple Shop, vanity fair, Vintage Editorials
The kind of dress that might have got you Henry VIII — if you had wanted him. Tapestry tunic over a long skirt ; beautiful, low-necked blouse in silk. By Bill Gibb for Baccarat.

Because it’s Christmas. You’re going to forget, for once all the dreary practicalities of life. You’ll have no connection with the girl in the bus queue, wet winter mornings, tiresome clients, ceaseless telephone battles, budgets & diets, mortages and shopping. You’re going to experience the womanly spelndour of long, sumptuous gowns, shaped from luxurious stuffs – rich brocades, painstaking tapestries, beautiful braids; the whole piled into pattern on pattern so that the woman we know we could become emerges from grubby little Cinderella with a nonchalant elegance – relaxed, seemingly pampered and so obviously desreving a custom-made Prince Charming.

And because it’s Vanity Fair, it’s quite a long and endearingly meandering editorial on a loose theme which I will divide into a few different parts. Today, the glorious work of Bill Gibb for Baccarat, photographed so exquisitely I want to live in these images.

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned from Vanity Fair, December 1970.

Mediaeval splendour in a long tapestry coat, richly panelled in hamster, over a tapestry skirt and silk blouse. Rings, Purple Shop, Chelsea Antique Market ; Biba cameo.

The leisured life – something you can try out at Christmas, no matter how much organisation goes into it, epitomised by the slash-sleeved, printed panne velvet tunic over a ruffle-necked, ruffle-wristed blouse in festive red and green print. Bill Gibb for Baccarat.

The Six Jumps Ahead Look

1970s, crowthers, Frank Horvat, hair, Hair and make-up, Inspirational Images, Make-up, mr freedom, vanity fair
The six-jumps-ahead look (opposite) ; big Christmas talking-point for the folks and a very well-defined spell-out for the buzz (getting louder) that a lot of trendy heads will have short hair this spring. Not often this short, we guess, but when you’re a straw in the wind, you have to be visible. Now look at those eyebrows ; correction ; don’t because you can’t. Our model (Paris-based —which explains that neat little head) plucks them out every day. You don’t have to go this far— yet — but there’s no doubt whatever that brows should be thinner, paler and generally underplayed. Goodness knows what these tidings will do to Liz Taylor. Make-up ? Virtually none. Just super-clean, super-clear skin ; a little Geminesse Under Make-up moisturising tint (Apricot) which is totally transparent ; Max Factor’s Lip Gloss and a light dusting of freckles. The no-make-up look needn’t be quite this genuine; a lot of girls are achieving their version of it with foundation, gloss, blusher, powder—all of them transparent.

Top by Crowthers (although perhaps an uncredited Mr Freedom buy-in?)

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned from Vanity Fair, December 1970.

The Folk Art Craze

1970s, christian dior, Dress Den, Frank Horvat, Inspirational Images, jeff banks, Jorn Langberg, kensington market, vanity fair

The Folk Art Craze - Frank Horvat - Jan 71 b

Every designer is saying it loudly, clearly, boldly, prettily… the hand-made look is here. Maybe it started as a reaction against the badly-made, thrown-together, hotch-potched dolly era; maybe this reaction set the tide running for antique markets where painstaking workmanship could be picked up still; maybe it’s that elusive feeling in the air that a designer’s sensitive seismograph picks up and translates in his own distinctive handwriting. Whatever it is – it’s here.

Jorn Langberg of Christian Dior – London plots it out in warm brown velvet, got together with a brief, embroidered waistcoat and a deeply embroidered peasant skirt… at the other end of the scale the Dress Den at Kensington Antique Market tops a thick aubergine cotton skirt spilled with bright wool flowers with a scrap of bolero, pictorially embroidered over every centimetre of the scalloped front. If you’re skilled with a needle, have a good eye for colour and shape there’s no reason why you can’t put yourself ahead of the game. But this is a painstaking look, a one-off original look that can’t be tossed off in an evening by a hopeful but bodgy amateur needlewoman.

Both shirts by Jeff Banks; all accessories from Kensington Antique Market.

Fashion by Lorna Cattell.

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Vanity Fair, January 1971.

The Folk Art Craze - Frank Horvat - Jan 71 a

Inspirational Editorials: Maybe I was just born liberated

1970s, alice pollock, british boutique movement, Celestia Sporborg, Foale and Tuffin, Frank Horvat, Inspirational Images, just looking, kurt geiger, ossie clark, radley, ritva, stirling cooper, vanity fair

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 6

Stirling Cooper

This photoshoot, featuring the brilliantly named Celestia Sporborg, is another one of my all-time favourites, and one I have put off scanning for a long while because Vanity Fair is actually a rather painful magazine to scan. The gummed spine, with age, does not enjoy being flattened so it requires extra effort to maintain some kind of structural integrity. I couldn’t NOT scan though. I love these images. I love the blurriness, her natural facial expressions, the very domestic backdrop and, of course, the completely mind-blowingly fabulous clothes. I don’t know where to start. That Stirling Cooper above is just so modern. And the Radley playsuit, so very Glam. And the Ossie… Plus Alice Pollock, Foale and Tuffin and a Ritva sweater I sold on Vintage-a-Peel a few years back…

It also identifies the shots from Vanity Fair’s Guide to Modern Etiquette, ‘Nice Girls Do’, which I posted about before. To contextualise this shoot, the entire June issue is dedicated to feminism and liberation. Certainly one of the main reasons I love Vanity Fair almost above all other magazines of the period is the fact that they would theme all the contents of an issue, including the fashion spreads.

Celestia Sporborg is now a casting director herself, with over a hundred film credits on IMDB. She married theatre and film producer Robert Fox (brother of James and Edward) in 1975 and they had three children together.

Photographed by Frank Horvat.

Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Vanity Fair, June 1971

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 3

Foale & Tuffin

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 4

Radley

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 5

Ossie Clark

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 1

Ritva

celestia sporborg by frank horvat vanity fair 1971 2

Alice Pollock

Inspirational Images: Final revelations

1970s, Frank Horvat, Givenchy, Inspirational Images, Queen magazine

Token top made of black silk, and a leopard-print skirt slashed from waist to ankle on either side. By Givenchy.

Photographed by Frank Horvat. Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Queen, March 1970