Legendary Beauty

alice pollock, bus stop, celia birtwell, fashion mouse, janice wainwright, john kelly, ossie clark, pre-raphaelite, quorum, seventies fashion, simon massey, vanity fair, wightwick manor

By Alice Pollock at Quorum*, 19gns. The settee is covered in the original William Morris Bird Design.

There’s a marvellously romantic feeling about the Pre-Raphaelite look. It starts with your hair…soft, natural, framing your face in a ripple of tiny waves. It touches your skin…pale, delicate, un-made-up looking. It colours your clothes…crepe, chiffons and satins in rich hues. Start wearing this great, romantic look today – who knows, he might just start being very romantic to you!

Scanned from Vanity Fair, May 1970. Photographed by John Kelly at Wightwick Manor.

*This is a misattribution, the dress is actually an Ossie.

Dress by Simon Massey, £15. Photographed against a Burne Jones tapestry.

Dress by Fashion Mouse, £22. Photographed against the Kempe stained glass windows.

Dress by Bus Stop, £5. Photographed against a painting by Rossetti pupil Treffry Dunn.

Inspirational Images: Marie Helvin, 1971

Inspirational Images, jeff banks, marie helvin, seventies fashion, Tony Moussoulides

Marie Helvin in a Jeff Banks dress, 1971. Photo by Tony Moussoulides.

Mensday: Bowie and Jagger

cosmopolitan, david bowie, Illustrations, Mensday, mick jagger, terry t. burton

Illustration by Terry T. Burton, from an article titled “The Further Shores of Love” about same-sex attraction.

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, March 1974.

Wild about prints

1960s, angela gore, celia birtwell, georgina linhart, kleptomania, ossie clark, paul misso, petticoat magazine, quorum

Jacket by Kleptomania

The season of mists gets shattered into life in the riot of autumn’s wide-awake prints in all the colours of the rainbow.
Petticoat, October 1969. Photographed by Paul Misso.

Dress by Georgina Linhart from the Victoria and Albert Boutique, W.8. Silk printed scarf by Kleptomania.

Patchwork print trousers and tie top by Clobber. Blue and white print dress by Quorum.

Black and white flowery dress by Angela Gore. White boots by Sacha. Red and orange cord dress and scarf by Angela Gore. Jacket by Kleptomania.

Dress by Sujon.

Inspirational Illustrations: How to improve your memory, 1975

cosmopolitan, Illustrations, reynold ruffins

Scanned from Cosmopolitan, September 1975. Illustration by Reynold Ruffins

Tweedy Autumn Perfection

autumn, bill klein, daywear, kangol, petticoat magazine, seventies fashion, stirling cooper, Vivienne Lynn, wallis

Skirt by Sujon. Polo by John Craig. Beret by Kangol. Scarf from Van der Fransen.

This spread is everything I love about Autumn and Winter, and how I am often attired. Interesting clothes: textures, colours and embellishments; hats, scarves, tights etc. But sometimes I seem to forget to post more daywear spreads, I suppose because they were often less interestingly photographed and displayed; sometimes even borderline chaotic. But I don’t see why that needs or needed to be. Daytimes can be the most expressive times for me…

This shoot is particularly beautiful and, for me, inspirational.

Photos by Bill Klein. Petticoat, November 1974

Skirt by Wallis Shops. Polo by John Craig. Beret by Kangol. Scarf from Van der Fransen. Shoes by Saxone.

Skirt by Wallis. Sweater by Mushroom. Beret by Kangol. Scarf from Van der Fransen. Sox by Kickers. Saxone shoes.

Skirt by Left Bank. Sweater by John Craig. Beret by Kangol. Scarf from “208″ SW10. Shoes by Saxone

Skirt by City Swingers. Sweater from Leaves. Quant sox. Shoes by Elliott.

Tweed skirt and hat from Bombacha. Polo from Dorothy Perkins. Shoes by Saxone.

Velvet skirt by Stirling Cooper. Shirt by John Craig. Waistcoat from Dorothy Perkins. Beret from Marida.

Duffy (finally)

1960s, amanda lear, book reviews, brian duffy, jean shrimpton, michael sarne, mild sauce, pierre la roche, seventies fashion, the sweet

Queen magazine, 1963

Although you’ll all have long since forgotten that I promised to review the fantastic Duffy book (published by ACC. RRP £45 but currently £31.98 on Amazon.co.uk), I certainly haven’t and it’s been rather weighing on my mind. In fact, I’m troubled by the fact that I rarely seem to have the energy to type long, rambling blog posts at all these days.

So, as I often do, I will largely leave the photographs to do the communicating. Which is rather the point of the book itself. It is not a weighty tome about the life of the man, rather it is a weighty tome about the talent of the man. The talent which made him world-famous, but eventually left him feeling so trapped he had to [pretty much literally] destroy it in order to escape it. Page after page of gorgeous women, swinging dudes of the highest and lowest order and generally Interesting People. But it also covers the later period, the advertising and the selling-out, or ‘prostitution’ as he honestly described it.

I have to admit, I’m always on the look out for new Duffy shoots in my magazines because I’m almost rather bored of seeing the same ones shown again and again. And to be fair, of course, in Duffy’s case there is the genuine problem with the complete lack of original source material. His son Chris has spent years reassembling the archive, and I have to respect the labour of love that this project has become. Thankfully, the book is more varied than the exhibition I attended earlier this year would lead you to believe. I have scanned a few of my personal favourites, which I hope will communicate the beauty of his work.

A pet hate must be noted at this point, which is that these books rarely identify the designer of the clothes worn in the pictures. I know it doesn’t seem like much to a non-clothes obsessive, but I want to know if that dress really was by so-and-so and I find it infuriating for such information to be left out when surely it must be known?

Obviously, luxuriously printed and sized books such as this require the highest calibre of image quality for reproduction purposes, but it would be nice, in a few years time, to see a book which features more obscurities, more magazine tear-sheets and clippings; covering the lesser-known styles and techniques he used. For there are many. I mean, David Bailey has had enough books about him to last a lifetime; Brian Duffy certainly deserves another one.

Definitely one for the Christmas list. And watch out, because I’m going to be reviewing more books to put on your Christmas list over the next few weeks. Yes indeed.

Amanda Lear, 1971

Sweet, 1970

Unidentified, 1960s

Jean Shrimpton, Vogue 1962

Average White Band album cover, 1979

Michael Sarne, 1962

Pirelli, 1965

Pierre La Roche, Aladdin Sane make-up artist, 1973

Alphasud Car, Henley on Thames, 1974

Mike Henry and Nancy Kovack, 1964

Mensday: Shagpad

haute naffness, interior design, Mensday, seventies fashion, Vintage Adverts

Mmmm. Sensuous carpet. I suspect it was this immensely sensuous carpet which lured the silver platform-wearing lady in the last Bremworth advert I scanned in…

Barbara Hulanicki: Art Deco W14

art deco, art nouveau, barbara hulanicki, biba, interior design, James Mortimer, seventies fashion, Vogue
A section of the studio. Beneath the gallery one discovers a sink, kettle. cooker below a thirties’ Grecian frieze. Art Deco chairs in peach moquette. Screen, with beaded shawl. purple plastic  grapes behind a delicate nasturtium-leaf lamp hung with beaded fringe
Barbara Hulanicki at home in one cavernous studio which she found three years ago and filled with Art Deco from floor to ceiling. Walls, ceiling, stairs, all painted a rich matt brown, merge into the shadowy interior; angles and lines are softened and blurred. Colours, not walls, mark out living areas, a different shade for each section of space. Light is filtered through the brown-tinted glass of the high, patterned perpendicular window and a long fanlight in the roof. A brown spiral staircase, leafy with plastic twisting plants, leads to a long gallery which forms the dressing-rooms. Everywhere, an endlessly intricate arrangement of colour, pattern, space; a deep, dark brown jungle of the ornamental, the exotic, the glittering.

Photos by James Mortimer. Vogue, October 1975.
The dressing-room. Shades of peach and deepest brown, Creamy lighting from bulbs set behind opaque glass. Peach mirrors hung with beads, the dressing table, a darker shade of smoked peach, made up of tiny individual drawers. Stool topped with smoked peach glass.
The bath, a riot of peach and plastic flowers. Ornate brass taps, Art Deco screen. Brilliant blue glass, candlesticks and pearly plastic grapes.
Barbara Hulanicki in the sitting-room, the window open to reveal a jungle of climbing plants outside. In the background, a collection of Art Deco glass below the enormous mirror, at least six feet in diameter. Everywhere lamps, small, fringed or mushroom-topped on long, slender stems: everywhere figures, ferns, flowers. In foreground, a set of black/silver/turquoise vases and modelled head on decorated brass tray and glass-sided table: replica of a twenties’ cigarette girl, now bearing a tray of jewellery.
Looking down from the gallery into the studio, arranged into its separate “rooms”
The bed, above, hung with shawls, scattered with sequinned brocaded cushions. Barbara Hulanicki reflected in the bedside mirror on the writing desk and in the centre of the mirrored bed-head. On the right, a peach mirror flex set of shelves, with photographs, figures, eight Art Deco plastic handbags.

Mild Sauce: Even little girls need support

1970s, charnos, flair magazine, janet reger, margit brandt, mild sauce, Tony Moussoulides, underwear

Margit Brandt for Femilet. Stockings by Charnos. Suspender belt by Rosy of Paris.

Ignoring the slightly dodgy undertones in the title of this fashion spread, it demonstrates why I love the Seventies look so much. I’m a petite girl, with petite curves, and while I’m perfectly capable of going braless, I love bras. Sadly, very few styles appeal to me. I honestly wish I could go shopping in Janet Reger, in the early Seventies.

Photographs by Tony Moussoulides. Flair Magazine, January 1971.

Janet Reger. Stockings by Mary Quant.

Janet Reger. Tights by Wolsey.

Abecita. Tights by Mary Quant.