Gay Childhood

musicals

I was told the other day, at dinner, that I had a very gay childhood. I believe they meant gay in the camp sense of the word, rather than actually gay, ‘happy’ or as some kind of strange modern term of abuse. It was a friend of a friend, who I last saw at my friend’s birthday party last year (where they were very amused to find I knew all the lyrics to some very cheesy Eighties music). This year we found a mutual appreciation for two lesser known musicals which I had loved as a child.

Firstly Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, which I don’t think is all that strange to know about…is it? Anyway, I always wanted to be Dorcas (Julie Newmar) and had a serious crush on Benjamin. The two were separate desires, but it was quite neat that they ended up together in the story.

And secondly, the brilliant Slipper and the Rose. Which is fabulous on so many levels. Songs by the Sherman Brothers. Big frothy Georgian frocks. Margaret Lockwood in camper-than-camp wicked Stepmother mode. Michael Hordern being adorable. It even has Annette Crosbie as the Fairy Godmother, for heaven’s sake! Tragically, my brother and I can still sing entire songs (faultlessly in his case) when prompted….and all it takes is one phrase sometimes.

There is no point to this post, other than that the conversation amused me greatly.

Slave to Love

bryan ferry, crushes, groupies, picture spam, roxy music

I’ve been quiet again, but with better reason this time. I’ve had my groupie gals staying for the week, and have been immersed in rock talk for most of that time. Charley had the most incredible book of photos by the legendary Mick Rock, including several of Mr Bryan Ferry which nearly had me on the floor in swoonfulness….

He seems to be popping up all over the place [and in conversations] far more frequently at the moment, or I’m just noticing it more, and it’s all leading me to realise that I have one hell of a serious crush on him.

I mean, what’s not to crush on?

I’m afraid I’m a sucker for the [dark] floppy hair and blue eyes combination. Add to that the sophisticated (even at the height of glam rock) dress sense, the slightly odd dancing, the fact that he appears to have been born middle-aged [and has therefore never aged], and then there’s that voice. The voice of God, as someone put it. Oh yeah….

He really is a sort of God. He’s always exceedingly cool, without ever chasing such a thing. Far too much effort I’m sure, he leaves that kind of thing to Mr Bowie. And I love that quote about how Roxy Music wanted to redecorate hotel rooms rather than trash them. No wonder my beloved Durans worship the BryanGod so wholeheartedly.

And at 63, I definitely still would. I’ve even got an Antony Price dress hanging up in my wardrobe for such an occasion. I’m not actually sure it should ever leave my closet for anything less than Bryan Ferry.













Funk to Funky

1980s, adam ant, antony price, ashes to ashes, danielle dax, Duran Duran, human league, jane kahn, new romantic, perri lister, picture spam, strawberry switchblade

In honour of the new series of Ashes to Ashes starting tonight (I’m currently pausing for a moment to resist the urge to bounce around….oh what the hell, bounce bounce bounce!) here are some random early Eighties images….if you like that kind of thing!

Mmmmm…..gratuitous soggy Durans shot…..

Sunshine Superblouse

alice pollock, british boutique movement, moss crepe, personal collection, vintage fangirl squee

I just realised how grey my blog is looking currently. And since I was leafing through my Boutique book this morning, in an attempt to cheer my poorly self up (revenge of the spring snuffles), and realised I had never scanned in the photo of Alice Pollock wearing my Alice Pollock blouse….I thought I ought to share. And brighten this place up a bit. Because it is seriously yellow.


I once made the mistake of wearing this blouse to the theatre. I hadn’t realised how tiny the theatre would be, that I would end up in the front row – practically on the stage, and that John Simm would quite possibly be blinded by my sartorial choice that night. Whoops!

The Mill on the Floss: Helmut Newton does Alice Pollock

1960s, alice pollock, bill gibb, british boutique movement, mary quant, ossie clark, quorum, zandra rhodes

I must admit that I don’t have a great many copies of Queen magazine in my possession. But a conversation about Alice Pollock the other day reminded me that I have one, frankly awesome, copy from 1969 with an entire fashion spread dedicated to Pollock’s clothes – photographed by Helmut Newton. It’s entitled The Mill on the Floss.

When the London rat-race is too much for you…you can retire to the calm and order of the country and gaze peacefully, restfully, into the depths of a mill-race. Ideal wardrobe for mill-racing – catch of floaty granny-dresses from Quorum. (Yes we do mean that long; we are rather serious about this.) Wear your granny-dresses with suede boots; after all, the climb through the mill may be rugged.

It’s funny really, how few Pollock pieces turn up nowadays. And the ones which do are usually the more Ossie-esque. I’ve had a few, all blouses I might add, and currently only own one labelled piece. But this spread shows you a bit more of her range, beyond pretty crepe blouses. Apparently her knitwear was extraordinary, and one person described it as possibly superior to Bill Gibb. Which is high praise indeed.

She had less of a defined style than Ossie, but her clothes were, by all accounts, exceedingly wearable and feminine. Less aggressively sexual, which is why it’s so interesting to see them photographed by someone like Helmut Newton.


It made me wonder if a lot of female designers in the Sixties had that problem, and why so few (aside from the idiosyncratic Zandra Rhodes, and master self-publicist Mary Quant) have remained in the public consciousness since the Sixties and Seventies. My own favourites at least, it would seem. The male designers were often the biggest drama queens, and have ensured their notoriety continues to this day. Whether through the strength of their designs, their lifestyles or just a knack for self-publicity. I’m sure there are countless exceptions to this rule, but it’s been occupying my mind today.

Anyway, enjoy the Pollocks! I for one wish I could be running around a mill, in the countryside, in Quorum clothes right now.

Drew Barrymore: BIG HAIR

backcombing, drew barrymore

I have been trying this look for weeks now. Each time I find I’m perfectly happy with my endeavours, but somehow I keep chickening out of leaving the house like this. I can’t quite work out why. I’ll leave the house with curls, crimping and weird plait things on the odd occasions I can be bothered to do them in the first place. But the backcombing is proving to be more of a challenge for me. Perhaps it’s something to do with having big hair anyway, and a life-long struggle to keep it under control.

Regardless, I clearly need a good talking to from Drew Barrymore. She’s looking pretty damn fab and retro all over the place right now, era after era, but I think this may be my favourite so far. But then again, I am biased.

Extremely entertainingly, one news report described her hair as buffon. Do we think someone has only ever heard the word bouffant and was making a poor stab at spelling it?

Sandie Shaw Boutique

1960s, cathy mcgowan, celebrity boutiques, jeff banks, personal collection, sandie shaw, twiggy

The other day I promised to show my Sandie Shaw dress. It’s a navy wool crepe with a very nifty little double layered collar (the top layer being in white moss crepe).

I can’t promise this will be a terribly long or informative blog post, because there’s so little information out there about the label. It opened in 1967 and, needless to say, Sandie didn’t design the dresses and shoes (although she had full ‘approval’). I suspect it didn’t last very long, much like Twiggy and Cathy McGowan’s boutique labels. Perhaps there was deemed a conflict of interests when she married designer Jeff Banks in 1968?

Sandie opening her boutique in 1967


I will make Sandie one of my Fashion Icons at some point, whereupon I shall write more comprehensively (if I ever do such a thing) about her and her style. But if any of you are not familiar with our girl, I should probably tell you that her trademark was to sing barefoot. So much was made of the fact that her label was producing shoes!

The images have been taken from footage shown in the BBC’s Queens of Pop programme.



Yes Sandie, I’d be grimacing if they put me in a wig like that!


A screengrab cannot truly capture the seriously groovy Sixties dancing going on at this point.




Ouch, bunions ahoy!

Fashion Icon: Noosha Fox

1970s, alison goldfrapp, fashion icon of the moment, glam rock, noosha fox

Please don’t all cry out ‘who???’. Noosha is a little gem of an icon of mine from the mid-late Seventies. Born Susan Traynor, and originally from Australia, she changed her name to Noosha Fox and the glam band ‘Fox’ were formed around her. Her look was very heavily influenced by the starlets of the Twenties and Thirties. She wore floaty chiffon dresses, swishy capes, fringed shawls and flowers in that ringletted bob. Her make-up was a glorious mix of blue eyeshadow-ed Seventies-ness and that flapper girl cupid’s bow pout. And oh! that adorably squeaky, Helen Kane-inspired voice. She’s like a silent movie star taken out of her time and plonked on the set of Top of the Pops.

It’s fairly safe to say that Ms. Alison Goldfrapp has taken rather a healthy dose of inspiration from little Noosha. I love how unique and seemingly unspoilt her performances are. Someone who would never be a star nowadays, due to her slightly awkward dancing and facial expressions. But I adore her. She’s just so cute, and her clothes are delicious (being both very Seventies and also very antique-looking), and, and…..the songs are amazing. I have no idea what you look like now, or even what you’re up to, but Noosha – I salute you!!

It’s been tough to find enough images of this icon to fill the space, so I would highly recommend your looking at some footage of Fox on YouTube.

Queens of Pop

dusty springfield, john bates, kate bush, marianne faithfull, sandie shaw, siouxsie sioux, suzi quatro

Did anyone see the BBC1 Queens of Pop programme the other night? Neither did I. Now I know I don’t watch a lot of telly these days but, when I do, I see every other show being trailed to death. Yet I had no idea this had been on. Luckily I was able to use iPlayer, so hopefully any other UK readers who might have missed out can get to see it.

It’s not exactly earth-shatteringly interesting, more a fluffy bit of eye candy. But oh what eye candy! It was almost quite John Bates-tastic, what with Dusty Springfield in her empire line beaded hobble skirt gowns, and Sandie Shaw wearing what I’m certain is a Bates here.

They also briefly touched on the Sandie Shaw Boutique, even showing some clips of the opening and the designs. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. There’s hardly any information around about this little venture, so to suddenly have the footage was fabulous. I have one, very groovy, Sandie Shaw dress which I recently had cleaned’n’pressed and shall photograph’n’blog about very soon.

So team Dusty and Sandie, with Marianne, Suzi, Siouxsie and Kate….and you’ve pretty much got a perfect line-up of awesome music and even more awesome (what? I’m a fashion girl…not a musician….) clothes and make-up.

Also very well worth watching just to see John Lydon getting all sweet and soppy over Kate Bush. Awwww…..

Celeb Vintage Spot: Laura Bailey in Ossie (ish)

celebrities in vintage, ossie clark

Laura Bailey at the premiere of The Boat That Rocked (a film I actually want to see, for once….although I fear it might make me angry if it’s badly made or designed).

I’m sure there’s a gorgeous Ossie underneath that weird old black jacket….so why the weird old black jacket? Surely it can’t have been the cold London night air….I would happily get hypothermia for an Ossie like that…..