If this dress was so damn popular, and sold in such vast numbers that Barbara and Fitz struggled to keep up with orders, then why on earth have I never seen it outside of these photos by John French? Does anyone own it? Do any museums possess it? Does anyone remember owning it? Anybody??
Photo by Richard Imrie. Cosmopolitan. Cosmo Tells All. July, 1972
Ika Hindley is the twenty-three year old temporarily red-haired model who out-acts Bernhardt or Garbo on the catwalk. Give her a dress and she gives it soul. When wearing Bill Gibb’s vamp dress at his headline-making launch collection, BBC cameramen filmed a three-minute take of Ika doing her number. “I’m hoping it will get me into films. Underneath all this pink paint there’s a frustrated actress,” says Ika who takes voice, dancing and singing lessons. All of which give her catwalk appearance extra oomph. And oomph is what Bill Gibb’s clothes have in plenty. Film star Twiggy and actress Irene Worth are favourite customers of the shy Scottish lad with the special fashion flair.
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| Sunday Times Magazine. June 15th, 1975 |
Another classic, beautiful shoot by one of my favourite photographers, Sarah Moon. I now possess the Moon-photographed Pirelli calendar and am dreaming of the day when I have a large wall to decorate, and money to spend on getting them all framed. She manages to enter dreamworld and photograph it for us; utterly inspirational!
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| Sunday Times Magazine. June 15th, 1975 |
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| Sunday Times Magazine. June 15th, 1975 |
The timings of my acquisitions are most bizarre sometimes. For instance, last week I bought a copy of ‘Everywoman’ in my aforementioned Snooper’s Paradise session in Brighton. Contained within was an interview with Laurence Harvey about his failed marriage to Margaret Leighton. I knew I had to scan it for Mensday; his look was far too awesome not to show you. But then barely a week later, I received a copy of Cosmopolitan from July 1972, and lo! who should be on the cover but Lawrence Harvey. This time photographed (rather more sexily than before, I might add) with his new fiancée, Paulene Stone. So I go to look him up on Wikipedia, to see how long that one lasted, and I find out that he died a year later in 1973. Which has made me feel rather sad. I mean, he squeezed a lot into his 45 years (married three times, there was even one fitted in between Margaret Leighton and Paulene Stone!) but still…. Interesting fact, Harvey and Stone had a daughter called Domino in 1969. She became a bounty hunter and died of a drugs overdose in 2005, the same year a film about her life (starring Keira *yawn* Knightley) was released.
Everywoman, July 1965
Photo by Toscani. Vogue, March 1976
Vogue, June 1976. Photographed by Bailey.
Hat by Frederick Fox for John Bates. Painted silk frill by John Bates.
Photo by Barry Lategan. Vogue, June 1976
Ludmila Savelyeva. Photographed by Avedon. Vogue, June 1969
Eyeliner, done properly, can be a work of art.
Somehow I missed that Pat Booth passed away in 2009. Alongside her then boyfriend James Wedge, Booth helped “create” the Chelsea fashion scene in the Sixties and Seventies with the boutiques Top Gear and Countdown. She had started out as a model, before and during the boutiques’ lifespans, and would become both a photographer and a novelist in later years. She was married twice; first to psychiatrist Garth Wood and second to advertising guru Sir Frank Lowe, a short year before her death from cancer. Pattie Boyd and Cliff Richard were the only attendees.
The reason I was looking her up was because I found and scanned this lovely shot of her from Vogue Boutique, February 1971. I’m still posting it, but I feel a bit sad to know that another key figure from the period has gone.
“Pat Booth strides out, left, in front of the recharged Countdown, 137 King’s Road, wearing the striped shorts she has made for the shop. All colours, 5½ gns, sweater the same, cape about 25 gns.”
Grace Coddington and some girl called Twiggy
As a wise man said to me very recently, it should have been mandatory for publications to identify their models back in the Sixties and Seventies. Luckily, some of you are very good at this anyway. (I am not). Also luckily, such features as this exist. From Honey, July 1967, we have a handy feature on some up-and-coming models of the time.
Twiggy, obviously, needs no introduction. The glorious Grace Coddington, Paulene Stone, Shirley Anne Hayes and the ethereally lovely Charlotte Martin feature amongst some lesser-[to me]-known beauties. If any of them ever do an ego-search on Google and find this blog, please do email me and let me know what you’re up to now!
Paulene Stone and Maren Greve
Lorraine Hawkins and Janni Goss
Shirley Anne Hayes and Jenny Fussell
Charlotte Martin and Sue Lynn
Kellie and Melissa Congdon
Liz Eggleston 