Once a Bee Gee wife but Lulu had popstar flings
both called David Jones
Lulu Haiku
david bowie, haiku, luluOnce a Bee Gee wife Once a Bee Gee wife Do I give you the Hornes, baby?
1970s, haute naffness, menswear, Vintage Adverts
Mmmmm. Men in lounging gear. What poise, what magnificent arrogance, what opulent warmth. He looks like a proper hard bastard; I particularly love the spotty cravat and cigarillo.
Observer Magazine, December 1970
Gaga, eat your heart out
Inspirational Images, marlene dietrich, Style Icons
Vintage Inspiration: Jacqueline Bisset
Inspirational Images, jacqueline bisset, picture spam, sixties, Style Icons
Currently loving her very subtle and elegant Sixties self. My eye gets drawn to these photos every time I dip into my archives, yet I’ve not got around to posting them. For shame.
Ctrl Alt Ossie
billie piper, celebrities in vintage, ossie clark, seventies fashion, telegraph magazine, Vogue
Vogue 1972
First of all, I would like to say ‘well done’ to Billie Piper for her gorgeous Ossie Clark on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. Not quite so well done on commenting on how musty and old it smells, but she looked so damn awesome I will forgive her. I will also forgive her for Doctor Who-related things. Perhaps….
I love how swamped she looks in it. It reminds me of when I’m wearing dresses like that and how I adore that feeling of being swamped in fabric, so many things are so very skimpily made nowadays that properly billowing sleeves are something of a novelty.
It got me thinking of alternative Ossies. Because she’s really only wearing a ‘Model T Ford’ one. Plain black, buttoned front, billowing sleeves, puppy-ear collar. It’s a divine frock, but it was vanilla essence in fabric form really. I love getting one in to sell, I even love them when they’ve been shortened because they’re so plain I really can’t criticise someone for wanting to make it ‘their own’. They are the perfect vintage wardrobe basic.
But sometimes I come across Ossies in old magazines which you would just never have credited to him in a million years. Not because of any design deficiency, quite the opposite. They’re just not the convention. No Celia print in sight. No billowing sleeves or puppy ear collar.
I’m not even talking about the early pieces. The panelled mod gear, or even the frilly satin minis. I’m seeing it throughout the Seventies, when anyone might think he was surgically attached to rolls of moss crepe and silk chiffon.
He was a master tailor, and very innovative. As were so many designers. But when you become known for ‘a look’, it’s rather difficult to move away from that – or at least, harder to sell. So here are a handful I can place right now, but I will certainly post some more if I ever find them. I’ve not even seen anything remotely like these turn up in reality. If they did, would anyone believe they were Ossies?
The Telegraph Magazine, early Seventies
Still in love with Noosha
glam rock, noosha fox, seventies fashion
Every so often, the lovely person who runs this small tribute to Noosha Fox manages to unearth some new single covers. This may not seem terribly exciting to other people but, considering the dearth of images of the lovely Noosha, it’s a bit awesome really. There’s also an incredible, high quality video of Fox performing Only You Can on Top of the Pops over on Youtube which I have embedded at the bottom of this post. I know a few of you adore her as much as I do, so I thought I ought to get around to sharing!
Why have they not invented…
1970s, flares, jeans, Vintage Adverts
…a time travelling post box yet? At one time, the otherwise-evil-Topshop were doing some brilliant loons which I’m probably on the verge of wearing out because of the poor quality of modern denim. I knew I should have bought four of each style. Now there’s hardly anything approaching a decent flare and we seem to be back to bloody low-rise ubiquity again. Sigh. I want to order from these 1972 adverts. I want the flares AND the tops. Why was I born too late? Why?
I’ve struggled a bit with buying originals over the internet, because they never seem to accommodate my rear (of which I’m quite proud, but it’s annoyingly disproportionate to my hips/waist/legs) and I can’t send them back with a note saying ‘I don’t have a Seventies-sized arse, apparently’. I’m also [awkwardly] a pint-sized person, but not ‘petite’ in the leg length department. Which leaves me either trailing or swinging.
What I need is a huge selection of originals or decent repros to choose from, in decent quality denim which doesn’t stretch out and bag. Sigh. Is it too much to ask?? Any recommendations from my dear readers, bearing in mind I refuse to fork out ridiculous designer-denim prices….? Any high street shops you’ve noticed? I thought wide legs and monster flares were meant to be ‘back’… if so, where the hell are they?
Barbarella (Not the Electric kind)
anita pallenberg, barbarella, jane fonda, Paco Rabanne, sixties
Last night I found myself actually having to explain who and what I was talking about when I made a passing reference to Barbarella. I think it started out from my wondering how I was ever going to create an outfit around my thigh high boots (they flip over the top with red cuffs and look adorably Puss in Boots-esque) which didn’t make me look like a hooker; I mused that going for the full on Barbarella-type look might be my only option. I often forget that other people I know don’t actually live in my world and that some things, which are something of a given for me, are totally alien to them. So to speak. My certain knowledge that it was costumed by the genius Paco Rabanne was also called into question. I am always right though, people must learn this.
Ahem. I jest of course…
It’s been a while since I saw the film, although I’ve had it on DVD for a while, so I thought I would settle down and watch it tonight….possibly wearing the thigh high boots and a leotard for good measure. Rar! So here’s a picture spam:-
Although I must, personally, admit to a slight preference towards Anita Pallenberg as the Black Queen. It’s a brunette thing….
Duffy
brian duffy, diana rigg, jane birkin, jean shrimpton, seventies fashion, sixties, terence stamp
Len Deighton, Paulene Stone and Brian Duffy
No, not the irritating, Diet Coke-advertising, singer. I mean Brian Duffy, swinging Sixties photographer and film producer (Only When I Laugh and Oh! What a Lovely War) who attempted to burn all his negatives in his back garden in 1979 when he had decided to quit the industry (David Bailey once quipped that, had he known Duffy was attempting this, he would have come along and helped him). I managed to see the exhibition at the Chris Beetles gallery just before it closed, and now I spy a documentary on BBC4 about the man himself. Wednesday at 9pm, for those lucky Brits who can view it. I’m sure, like most things, it will end up on Youtube or somesuch eventually for our international friends.
A narrowly averted disaster
haute naffnessMa and Pa Peelpants were actually going to throw out this wood-look resin crudité tray from circa 1971. Quelle horreur!
Phew! It is now safely in my possession. The perpetrators have been suitably chastised and reminded that all naff Seventies items must be given to me. Tsk! Apparently there’s a plate warmer with my name on it, up in the loft…
Liz Eggleston 