Brigitte and companion in Cannes, circa 1953
Brigitte rocking the headscarf look here, in an unusual candid shot.
I can’t help but love her as a brunette. Her very early period (seen here) and her later Sixties, early Seventies looks are my favourites. I resisted the Bardot love for a long while because it seemed such a cliché. I mean, who doesn’t cite her as an inspiration? But she’s a hard one to fight…
Scanned from Woman’s Mirror, May 1962
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| John Bates for Jean Varon |
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| David Silverman |
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| Wallis |
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| Harold Ingram |
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| Radley of London |
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| Polly Peck by Sybil Zelker |
The Ostentatious Orgasm by Wendy Buttrose. Cosmopolitan Magazine, July 1972
Possibly the finest, sexiest illustration I’ve ever encountered. And, just to add to the sheer sauce, the illustrator is called Wendy Buttrose. I can’t help but think of the gorgeous Wendy Brandes and her beloved ‘Ass Flower‘ dress.
Ossie Clark for Quorum, £19 10s. Photo by Michal James-Ward. Flair, June 1970
I can only fantasise about a carefree life spent lounging in my fabulous apartment, in my beautiful Ossie Clark dress, with my gorgeous wavy hair and hilarious telephone conversations. But in the words of my beloved Steppenwolf, fantasy will set you free…
Every day (no exaggeration) I receive a steady stream of google hits involving Katy Manning and her knickers: Jo Grant knickers, Katy Manning and Daleks, Katy Manning naked… there was even one hit for ‘Jo Grant telepathic knickers’. I have no idea what telepathic knickers even are, but I’d sure like to see some. Or perhaps just sense them.
It’s partly my own fault, since this post ranks #2 on google if you search Jo Grant knickers.
Anyway, so that it’s all here, in one place (for those delightful Who-perves who are so desperate for the sight of a now-64-year-old’s knickers, bum and boobs) I’ve sought out as many images as I could for your delectation. For my usual non-perve readers, I do apologise and normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
For my American readers, and to clean it up in here a little, here is Katy Manning in some ‘pants’ as opposed to her British pants.
And here, no doubt, is Katy’s reaction were she to read this post….
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.
Years ago, in my hardcore Diana Rigg-memorabilia-collecting phase, I noticed and coveted a copy of Woman’s Mirror from 1966 with La Rigg on the front cover. I’ve only seen it this one time, on eBay, and it went way out of my price range. And considering I paid £30 for the Sunday Times magazine which featured John Bates’s designs for Diana, it must have been very steep for me to have not won it.
I mentioned it to Mr Brownwindsor a few weeks back, for some reason I can’t recall. I say mentioned, it may have been more like a moan. Wahhhh, poor me, I want this magazine, blah blah. The only difference now was that I am considerably more interested in the John Bates article it contains, than the Rigg one!
A few days after this, he mentioned having seen some copies of Woman’s Mirror in Snooper’s Paradise in Brighton. Spooky! No sign of the coveted issue (what would be the chances?) but definitely worth having a look in case there might be other interesting articles. So we mooched along on the Bank Holiday Monday. Had a look at some other issues of Woman’s Mirror, Woman’s Realm, Woman, Women!, Womanly, Women’s Troubles….etc etc. Then M noticed there were some more magazines in a glass cabinet. I look up, and there it is. Diana Rigg, with cut-out dotted line. THE issue. All other issues had been £3, surely this would be much more. But no. £3 it was.
I am a very happy lady, and I will be scanning/writing up the John Bates interview in due course.
My most recent Lovefilm rental was a film I’ve been dying to see for years: Two for the Road starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. I can safely say that it did not disappoint and I remain baffled as to why it wasn’t more successful at the time, or why it hasn’t been re-evaluated as a classic in the years since. I suppose it is mainly a lack of familiarity; when was the last time it was shown on’t’telly?
One reviewer explained the possible contemporary drawback that Audrey Hepburn was a much more established Hollywood star in 1967, and someone like Albert Finney would have seemed a terrible upstart to have equal billing opposite her. It doesn’t help that his character is a dominant, aggressive, opinionated Alpha male, and she is as delicately beautiful and softly spoken as always. That isn’t to say that her character is a washout, far from it, but in analysing a marriage across its entire lifespan, you will certainly see the worst sides of both parties. And the phrase ‘a bit of an arse’ was created precisely for a man like Mark Wallace.
The rhythm of the film is deliciously undulating and swervy, which is dictated by the fact that it is a road movie and that it switches between several different time periods through its entirety. You see how the couple first meet, how they fall in love, how they survive youthful poverty, pregnancy, the changing fortunes of their lives (and how these, perversely, make them unhappier), their dalliances, how they seem to be falling out of love. In fact, it shows every nuance of a complex relationship in snippy vignettes from several holidays, each involving a long journey across France. You never see their home, but you really don’t notice and certainly don’t need to.
It is also notable for Hepburn’s wardrobe, which is provided by a host of swinging young designers (Foale and Tuffin, Mary Quant, Paco Rabanne, Ken Scott etc…) and perfectly places each time period. You know where you are when her hair is long, and her beatnik jumper is red, or when her hair is perfectly coiffed into a Vidal Sassoon cut and her clothes are mod perfection.
You’ll laugh, if you’re anything like me you’ll cry, and you’ll fall ever more in love with Audrey and Albert. There’s even an early Jacqueline Bisset appearance. Definitely a ‘must see’, in my opinion.
Liz Eggleston 