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…

Mensday: Double A-side

1960s, carnaby street, I was Lord Kitchener's Valet, john stephen, Topper, Vintage Adverts

Scanned from Photoplay, April 1967

Carnaby Male catalogue advert and ‘The Boys Go Antique’ clipping both scanned from the same issue of Photoplay, April 1967.

Scanned from Photoplay, April 1967

Vintage Adverts: Carnival, 1972

1970s, glam rock, Inspirational Images, Make-up, platforms, shoes, Vintage Adverts

'Carnival' shoes advert from the Co-op. Scanned from Vogue, April 1972.

I will definitely be attempting to recreate that make-up at some point in the future, how incredible!

Mild Sauce: Good-Time Susie

1970s, Illustrations, mild sauce, Vintage Adverts

Scanned from Nova, November 1973

Never mind him, *I* want one! Plus, I want to see what other products the ‘Good-Time Co.’ of Garrick Street stocked as well …

“Hello? Good-Time Company, how can I help you?”

Curious Coincidences: Wendy Brandes vs. Topshop

curious coincidences, jewellery, topshop, wendyB

Swear rings, Wendy Brandes (created 2008)

Swear rings, Topshop (2012)

How very, very curious.

Please check out Wendy’s original post here, and feel free to boycott Topshop in solidarity with a noble (I would never have reacted so calmly) and talented designer.

I get angry enough when they copy beloved vintage pieces, but this…

This post is brought to you by Miss Peelpants’s Curious Coincidences, it’s turning into quite the series!

Edited to note that Topshop have now removed the offending articles from sale with a decidedly formulaic apology.

Inspirational Images: Your health too, Mr Bottomley

1970s, barbara daly, caroline baker, chelsea cobbler, hans feurer, Inspirational Images, mary quant, mild sauce, nostalgia, nova magazine, tights

Nova, February 1972

One of my favourite images from a Vargas-inspired spread in Nova, photographed by Hans Feurer. I will scan the others in time, but they all deserve solo appreciation. I think I would actually give my firstborn for those Chelsea Cobbler shoes. Red leather AND stars? Fetch my smelling salts!

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, there is something about the Seventies take on Forties style (and particularly pin-ups) which I find infinitely more appealing than the originals or the tired current trend for such things.

It takes all the glamour and sauce, but gives it that subversive, pop art-esque treatment so typical of designers like Tommy Roberts, Terry de Havilland and Rae Spencer-Cullen for Miss Mouse (amongst so many other Vintage-a-Peel favourites). The models look quirky, confident and very knowing; I never get a sense of exploitation or submission. Even the tagline ‘exploitation can be fun’ is perfectly pitched and mocking both the exploiters and the prudes. Viva la Seventies!