Slip Into Something Beautiful

1970s, Butler & Wilson, charnos, chelsea cobbler, cosmopolitan, Dorothy Perkins, Fenwick, Harrods, Inspirational Images, Jane Cattlin, Kayser, lingerie, Liz Smith, loungewear, Marks and Spencer, norman parkinson, ossie clark, Vintage Editorials, way in

To sip your breakfast fruit juice slip on a cotton camisole, £10.95, and bloomers: £26.50 the set, Kayser. Earrings, £12.50, Butler & Wilson.

One of the nicest things about a summer holiday or a lazy weekend is not having to do anything—not even get dressed. With a handful of this summer’s prettiest lingerie you can breeze through a day of sunning or swimming. And then dress up for evening in a ravishing nightgown.

Hair by Kerry for Molton Brown

Fashion by Liz Smith

Photographs by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, July 1979.

To luxuriate in that idle day ahead, change into a silky bias-cut night-gown, £50, Ossie Clark for Charnos. Sandals, £20, The Chelsea Cobbler.

To shimmer in a blue pool, float in lace-edged polyester satin camiknickers, £6.99, Marks & Spencer.

Lace and polyester camiknickers, £8.50, Way In at Harrods.

Flowery georgette bra, £5.95, suspender belt, £5.75, panties, £3.75, stockings, 85p, Fenwick. Cotton voile robe, £59, by Jane Cattlin.

For a shady siesta, lounge in a broderie anglaise cotton bra and panties, £5.99, Marks & Spencer. Dotted net petticoat, £6.99, Dorothy Perkins.

To dance on your terrace, leap into a cotton voile and lace nightdress, £59, Jane Cattlin. Pumps, from £4.95, Frederick Freed.

To flirt, twirl in a lace and voile nightdress, £46, matching negligee, £50, Jane Cattlin. Sandals, £20, The Chelsea Cobbler

Kathleen Tynan by Norman Parkinson

barbara daly, Hair and make-up, Kathleen Tynan, norman parkinson, thea porter, Vogue

With her vivid dark blonde hair, shining hazel eyes and pale skin, Mrs Tynan looks marvellous in white: here it’s her Thea Porter dress of white voile embroiderpd in green and bronze. She wears Balenciaga scent Le Dix; the Eau de Toilette during the day, and the scent at night. Some time ago Mr Tynan had made for her a copy of the dress that Garbo wore in As You Desire Me”; a delicious compliment. “I use Hydriane by Dr Payot, powder, mascara and a bit of green eye shadow. Eyeliner in the evening. I’m skinny and I’d like to be fatter, but no one can tell me how. I sometimes exercise at Lotte Berk, but more often don’t, and I like swimming in warm waters.” She loves roses and cornflowers, her favourite restaurant is L’Etoile “for sentimental reasons and because it has the best food in London.” Here, her hair by David of Michaeljohn, her make-up by Barbara Daly.

Kathleen and Kenneth Tynan live in Kensington with their children, Roxana, 5, and Matthew, 2, when they’re not abroad: they’re often either just off or just back – now it’s just back from four weeks in a cottage in Wales. Kathleen Tynan is an excellent journalist, specialising in arts features and interviews, and is working on her first book.

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from Beauty in Vogue, 1973.

Softly Draping

1970s, bill gibb, Gina Fratini, Inspirational Images, lingerie, loungewear, norman parkinson, Vogue

Originally published in Vogue, 1973.

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from Lingerie in Vogue, 1981.

Frill on frill of chiffon make a soft, dressy nightgown in forget-me-not blue and palest cream. By Gina Fratini.

Girls run riot for Aristoc tights (and Jean Muir!)

1970s, Aristoc, jean muir, norman parkinson, tights, Vintage Adverts, Vogue

Dress by Jean Muir.

Photographed in Tobago by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from Vogue, September 1970.

Riding on the Hot Side

1970s, Anna Beltrao, benny ong, body shop, charles jourdan, Inspirational Images, Lucienne Phillips, norman parkinson, paris, shuji tojo, telegraph magazine, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, Vintage Editorials

Most revealing body suit of the season costs £40. Trench coat worn over it, £86. Cummerbund is £6.50; all by Benny Ong.

Would you dare to wear it? The body suit is what top designers have dreamed up for dancing this summer – to be worn with the barest excuse of a skirt, or a floating piece of chiffon. Norman Parkinson photographed some of the most exciting ideas in the modernised Paris Metro.

I would never have thought of sweltering on the Paris Metro as some kind of ‘normal’ experience I would aspire to, but here we are.

Shoes from Charles Jourdan and Walkers.

Fashion Editor Penny Knowles.

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from The Telegraph Magazine, Number 125 (February) 1979.

Looking romantic in the rush hour are blue and white striped organza dresses by Anna Beltrao, complete with body suits: fun but expensive at £200 each.

White satin body suit comes with wrap-around skirt in broderie Anglaise: £200. Demure white satin cap, £20. All by Anna Beltrao, from Haya 1, 12 Grafton Street, London.

Body suit for disco dancing all year round is striped red and black: £14.95. Red satin skirt, £16.95. Both available in other colours. By the Body Shop, 239 King’s Road, London.

Shocking pink body suit with red V comes with matching skirt. By Shuji Tojo, £98 from Lucienne Phillips, 89 Knightsbridge.

Summer at Source

1970s, biba, celia birtwell, Emmanuelle Khanh, gerald mccann, Herbert Johnson, ingrid boulting, Inspirational Images, norman parkinson, ossie clark, Suliman, Vintage Editorials, Vogue

Following Gaudi’s thought “to be original, return to the origin”, following it down to Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire where William Fox Talbot invented the camera, Norman Parkinson photographed eight dresses conjured from pure air and gauze.

This is like an album where every song is a certified banger. From the model, to the frocks, to the photographer, to the photographer he’s referencing, everything is flawless. Except that I don’t own all these dresses.

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Modelled by Ingrid Boulting.

Photographed at Lacock Abbey.

Scanned from Vogue, July 1970.

Silk gauze in pale straw with green and mauve. By Ossie Clark, Celia Birtwell print, about 25gns.

Silk chiffon dress in Celia Birtwell print by Ossie Clark, £40. Cap at Herbert Johnson.

Flower garden dress of crisp muslin. By Gerald McCann, £16 5s. 6d.

Black printed Indian cotton dress 10gns at Suliman.

Blackberry on black Indian cotton dress by Gerald McCann, £16 5s. 6d.

Silk chiffon dress in Celia Birtwell print by Ossie Clark, £40.

Fish finned cotton dress by Emmanuelle Khanh, about £30 to order.

Tessa Kennedy by Norman Parkinson

1970s, Inspirational Images, interior design, interiors, norman parkinson, Oxus, Tessa Kennedy, thea porter

Tessa and Cary wearing antique Afghanistani caftans in the garden room, a patterned passage really, where Cassian sleeps. A Kelim rug covers the bed, the cushions are sewn from Indian silk scarves. Caftans from Oxus, 490 Kings Road.

Tessa Kennedy lives down amongst trees and flowers on the Bayswater edge of Hyde Park; on a broiling blue July day it seemed more like the South of France with mimosa yellow awnings over the windows, white iron table and chairs set up on the terrace. On the corner of a great white classical block of houses, it’s a garden flat — no agent’s euphemism — knocked together from two; in the centre are a pair of tiny courtyards Tessa is changing into conservatories so that flowers can flower all year round: her sons can also wheel their bicycles straight out of doors to play. They are Cassian, Damian and Cary Elwes., 11, 10 and 7, and there’s Dylan, the baby, 7 months old.

Inside, a dramatic maze of rooms opens off the central chocolate-varnished corridor; everywhere carpets, tapestries, tartan and Indian silks make endless patterns. The old wine cellars have turned into great scarlet felt lined storage cupboards like the ones she designed for the Donald Davies shop, no dust can creep in. The drawing-room converts to a cinema built when Stanley Donen lived there; Tessa has hardly changed this at all. The projection room has mighty machines like the Marble Arch Odeon, she has registered herself as Kennedy Previews and has a projectionist hired full time—to show films to friends after dinner once or twice a week, or a couple of James Bond epics for the boys: “They love it of course and get absolutely boss-eyed.” Her fascination with gadgetry extends to video tapes, high-powered headphones for the stereo, intercom and a splendid American push-button dial telephone you can ring in on but not out. With the push-button stuff are clumps of fresh flowers, dog roses, daisies, piles of cushions in antique fabrics or in the flame stitch tapestry she sews on plane journeys, her collection of walnut shell sewing boxes, photograph, paintings—including a quartet of Louis XIV’s wife and mistresses—and carpet in a different colour but the same pattern as the one she designed for Burke’s restaurant. Burke’s is one of her decorating jobs she likes the best—along with Sir George and Lady Weidenfeld’s house and the flat she made for John Barry in an office block overlooking the Thames: “We installed such powerful sound that it moves right across the river and people coming out of the Tate look quite dazed.” Now she is working on a couple of country houses, one is for John Aspinall, and offices for Polydor records, and several new ideas, like a sauna in a storage cupboard, to build into this family and garden flat.

Yes, that’s little Cary Elwes at the tender age of seven. And of course it goes without saying that I would kill for those Theas…

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned from Vogue, September 1970.

Patterns of carpet, tartan and voile in the drawing room cinema. The carpet is similar to the one Tessa designed for Burke’s; her voile dress with bib of rare oriental fabric comes from Thea Porter, £68.

Tessa in the hall, a varnished chocolate box hung with brown and white cottons. The gothic chairs are part of her collection. Her long scarlet chiffon robe, £35, from Thea Porter.

Celtic Summer

1960s, Elliott, Inspirational Images, Ken Lane, Lida Ascher, norman parkinson, thea porter, Uncategorized, Vogue

Fire red paisley for a Celtic summer: The haunted house at Parc, near Afon Crosesor, where ghostly things happen all the time. Wild red flickering skirt, paisley and red gold organdie blouse with gold Turkish bodice. Skirt, blouse and top to order from Thea Porter. Fire red boots by Elliott. Sash pin from Ken Lane. Amber beads ,wrist scarf and long red scarf by Ascher.

Photographed by Norman Parkinson.

Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Vogue, July 1969.