Woohoo! Finally. As many as the Great British Weather will allow right now (*shakes fist at dreary grey skies*)…..enjoy!
I had to smile, knowingly, when I saw the almighty kerfuffle in the press about Keira Knightley’s outfit at the Olivier Awards last week. Anyone would think she had gone out in the nuddy herself by the way they reacted. I believe her piece isn’t vintage, Miu Miu or somesuch, but novelty prints are one of my favourite things about vintage clothing. There’s really nothing new under the sun, and there’s certainly never anything new on the catwalks.
Indeed, I have a much beloved blouse by Lee Bender for Bus Stop (in almost exactly the same kind of style as Keira’s Miu Miu: repro repro) which features a delightful art deco lady with her nips out. It’s a perfect date blouse; fits beautifully anyway and there’s much entertainment to be had when the penny drops for your date.
The last date I wore it on, to my great pleasure, he turned up in a vintage print shirt as well. I like a man who can pull off a good novelty print…
I was so sure I was born under a naffer star than this. Surely it had to be The Village People, Art Garfunkel, Gloria Gaynor or Dr Hook? But lo and behold, I find that the UK No.1 the day I was born was, in fact, Tubeway Army – Are Friends Electric.
That explains the deeply embedded synth-love then….
Find your own here
Last minute party sparkle: a sip of Dom Perignon champagne straight from the bottle, “That way I don’t spoil my lipstick,” says Bianca.
I like her style.
It never ceases to amaze me how many ‘new’ pictures of someone can turn up, even after all these years. Sometimes I wish I still had my Diana Rigg site, just as an image archive, so I had somewhere to plonk anything new I come across. Ah well, blogging is my only outlet these days so that’ll just have to do.
A fantastically frothy and superficial spread on ‘How to make an entrance’ from Cosmopolitan 1974 with Bianca Jagger, Diana Rigg (wearing John Bates, no less), Angharad Rees, Christophers Cazanove AND Gable and Rose Marie (who was in Stardust, apparently. I don’t remember her….)
Bianca Jagger makes a point of arriving when the “audience” is assembled and waiting…. actress Diana Rigg loves walking into a party alone-“I’ll leave on my own, too, if I feel like it,” she says. Singer Brenda Arnau stalks into every party as if it were the jungle, her silver ceremonial bracelets clanking. With one exception, our celebrated ladies chose dresses in dramatic red, black or white. A party is no time to hide your light under a bushel. So, as the actresses do, take three deep breaths-and you’re on, baby…
Brenda Arnau
Daniel Massey and Jill Townshend
Angharad Rees and Christopher Cazanove; Christopher Gable and Rose Marie
A lady never wears fake jewels, coloured underwear, diamonds before breakfast
Amazing images, ludicrous etiquette I’m happy to be breaking on a regular basis, clothes I want desperately. Ahhhh……it has to be more from Vogue, June 1971.
It is in bad taste to dress extravagantly or showily with people who are all plainly dressed.
Blouse by YSL. From Vogue, June 1971. Photo by Peter Knapp
The most I will do in public, usually, is a bit of a powder buffing and perhaps lipstick. Anything else, I would feel far too self-conscious. I wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without the make-up I needed to be wearing, unless I knew I could nip into the ladies somewhere en route. And that brings me back to this woman. Because she kept glaring at me. As though I shouldn’t be looking at her piling the slap on. Seriously? If you’re going to apply your maquillage on a crowded train, then you can’t expect everyone to demurely look away to protect your modesty.
She managed it, though, and I came very close to giving her a round of applause. Except she was still glaring at me and she looked a bit like Catherine Tate, which scared me as well. Ah well. Well done, random train make-up lady. Hope you enjoyed your weekend in Dublin!
I promise, if you send me this Varon dress, I will be a good girl. Never wear underwear with my Ossies, never hang my John Bates dresses next to anything Mary Quant, never mix Bus Stop and Biba and, most importantly of all, I will wear this dress everywhere I possibly can. Cos it’s just too perfect for words.
Thank you, vintage Gods.
Yours Hopefully in Tricel,
Miss Peelpants xx
Looks like Lily Allen was out and about in a lovely black Ossie Clark dress last night. I suppose it might be a repro, or a Jimmy Choo for H&M, but I sincerely hope not. Googling around to try and find out, I see she’s planning to launch her own ‘vintage label’ at Goodwood this August. Hmm.
Sounds like a pretty awesome event; Sandie Shaw, The Damned etc. Though with that, Roxy at Lovebox and The Who at the Albert Hall….I am going to be stoney broke if I do everything I want to do this year.
Oh poo.
I know David Sylvian disowns Japan’s debut album, Adolescent Sex. I know early Eighties Sylvian is infinitely superior in a soulful, shy indie boy kind of way. I know the songs are more intricate and beautiful. But I just can’t shake it….
The pretty hair. The floppy cuffs. The flares. The girly make-up. The sexy, vaguely Imagination-esque sound they were peddling back then. It just does it for me, I’m afraid. It’s a bit grimy, a bit rock’n’roll, a bit glam rock and a lot sexy…
They even covered Barbra Streisand. And Sylvia is infinitely prettier too.
Random picture spam of the delightful Anna Karina. Make-up and hair perfection, and so beautiful you would probably willingly give a limb or two just to have a face like that.
Liz Eggleston 
