Kate Moss at Topshop….what a joke

british boutique movement, bus stop, kate moss, lee bender, Ms Peelpants' rants, ossie clark, topshop

I queued patiently to buy some of the Celia magic, I tried to zone out the people standing around muttering “No idea who this woman is, but I know this stuff will sell on ebay”, I narrowly avoided being ripped to shreds as the rails were pushed out and all hell broke loose. I bought the pieces which had some manufacturing integrity (did anyone actually ever wear that botticelli print silk monstrosity?? so badly made I wanted to weep….) and put my years of hardened vintage shopping to good use as I walked around clutching the dress everyone was wetting themselves over and ignoring the black market-level dirty looks and whispers of ‘are you buying that?’

It was fun as a one-off. Something to tell the grandkids about, since I don’t have a Biba experience like that to share.

I didn’t bother second time around, the second collection was a poor relation and I don’t need the hassle. I’d rather spend my time and money getting an original.But at least she designed the prints and had some claim to the copied shapes of Ossie’s. The woman has talent.

Kate Moss in the original (left) and the Topshop copy (right)

Kate Moss at Topshop is a travesty. Normally such a non-event would barely register in the world of Ms. Peelpants. I couldn’t care less about Madonna at H&M, Lily Allen at New Look or even some of the least talented designers in the world getting deals with the same shops (naming no names, but I’ve heard some very interesting first-hand things about one of them lately and am suitably smug that I guessed they had no talent years ago). But Kate Moss at Topshop has affected me on a very personal level, and opened eyes to the true extent of the shallow money-grabbing at the heart of the fashion world these days.

I remember noting with amusement that Kate Moss had a vintage Bus Stop dress I also have. Much like the Ossie jacket she once wore, it’s always a nice little nod to the vintage community that vintage is still cool and it can do wonders for the image of what are, to most people’s minds, just someone’s old cast-offs. We know they’re not, but sometimes the challenge is to change other people’s perceptions. Kate Moss did the vintage community a lot of good in the past, but now she’s cheated on us.

For she has now ‘allowed’ (inverted commas to note that it is not her place to allow such a thing) Topshop to copy the aforementioned dress for her ‘collection’. A travesty so awful, on so many levels it’s taken me about a week to calm down enough to write this. They’ve copied the dress exactly, even down to getting the print copied and the detailing around the neck and on the sleeves. To add insult to injury, the dress in her closet had been hacked with what looks like nail scissors and is now a bum-skimming mini dress. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see how badly out of proportion even the remake is. They’ve remade a ruined dress.

Lee Bender should sue Topshop. Her work has been copied stitch for stitch. It’s one thing to be inspired, Bender herself would have to admit that the dress was heavily inspired by dresses of the Forties, but there’s no room for the word inspiration here. This is duplication and it’s disgusting.

On a more personal level, one of my absolute favourite dresses has been ruined for me. This year everyone will think I’m wearing bleeding Kate Moss at Topshop. Next year, everyone will think I’m wearing two seasons old bleeding Kate Moss at Topshop. Two years time, perhaps the fashion world with its attention span of a gnat might have forgotten all about Kate Moss at Topshop (or perhaps Kate Moss herself, we can but hope).But my dress will still be tainted by the association and I resent the fact that I will always have to think carefully about whether to wear it or not. To sell it now would be to cash in. To sell next year, well no one will want the same problems I would have. But really, I don’t want to sell it. I bought it for me, and it fits me like it was stitched to my body.

Yours truly in the original dress

Fashion Icon of the Moment: Françoise Hardy

1960s, british boutique movement, fashion icon of the moment, Foale and Tuffin, Françoise Hardy, Paco Rabanne


Françoise Hardy – Lank Haired Goddess
‘Another pouting French goddess??’, I hear you cry? Françoise Hardy is a cut above your average though. An extraordinarily talented singer and songwriter, Françoise charmed audiences throughout Europe in the Sixties. With her long, heavily fringed brown hair and youthful ‘ye ye’ music style, she was quite a radical figure on the French music scene along with Serge Gainsbourgh and her future husband, Jacques Dutronc.


Her style developed from slightly mousey, minimalist Parisian girl to a proper Swinging Sixties Chick who wore clothes by the likes of Foale and Tuffin and Paco Rabanne. She’s also managed to grow old gracefully, and remains a stunningly beautiful, elegant woman. Françoise Hardy, we salute you!

If you can’t afford the car, try this instead…

1960s, alice pollock, british boutique movement, celia birtwell, ossie clark, radley, twiggy

Certainly a worthy recipient of the name Lamborghini, just look at the sleek lines and general aesthetically pleasing-ness of it all. Ossie was one of the main proponents of the trouser suit, and this swiftly became one of his most iconic pieces once Twiggy wore the ‘couture’ original. It was also produced for Radley in the first year of their collaboration with Ossie and Alice Pollock, successfully showing that their designs could easily be manufactured more affordably.

It’s a real stunner. From the classic Ossie suit tailoring (often overlooked in favour of the dresses) in champagne satin, to Celia Birtwell’s chinoiserie print trousers. I must confess that the chinoiserie is one of my favourites, it just works so well on satin! Although obviously Ossies are born to be worn, this beauty is certainly a collector’s dream and a rare museum quality piece by one of the most revered designers this country has ever had. Wearable art.

Fashion Icon of the Month: Brigitte Bardot

1960s, brigitte bardot, fashion icon of the moment

Brigitte Bardot – Parisian Pouting Pussycat

Over the last fifty years, countless women have spent hours in front of their mirror, trying to perfect that Bardot pout. Her style was that effortless chic so few people possess, but we all try to imitate. A simple black headband, an unassuming little sheath dress, a flash of liquid eyeliner and plenty of sultry attitude to top it off. Sometimes she only needed a towel or strategically placed flowers – the minx!

She also managed to get sexier and sexier the older she got. The fresh-faced Fifties ingenue soon became a sultry Sixties sex siren, her gaze projected confidence and sexuality – helped along by some more revealing clothes – but always looking sophisticated rather than cheap. Every actress, model and wannabe seems to have done a Bardot-a-like photoshoot at some point in their career…but no one has or ever will come close to her. That je ne sais quoi indeed!

I get the strangest feeling….

Ms Peelpants' rants, topshop

…when I walk into Topshop and I start to wonder if they’ve been rooting around in my wardrobe. They’ve crept into my flat, in the dead of night, and swiped patterns from my favourite vintage clothes. At least, that’s how it feels.

Let’s face it, mainstream fashion ate itself a long time ago but are they really trying to tell me that they have NO original ideas to rub together at all?? I might be walking around in fashions of the past, but at least I’m honest about it. High street shops are meant to be peddling modernity; even the Forties revival in the Seventies was done with real glam rock relish and refreshed, somewhat modernised. The Sixties/Seventies/Eighties/Nineties revival we’re currently seeing is a pale imitation of those eras. They can’t even make up their minds, one decade revival at a time is simply not enough anymore. Fashion moves so fast, it must regurgitate its past five times a year.

Where are the fresh ideas? I might not wear them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to see them. What’s the look of the noughties? Is it a fashion stew? All bitty, overcooked, trying to cater to too many tastes and just winding up bland? I swear I’m even seeing Topshop reproduce pieces I remember seeing in there circa 1993. Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!!!

If you’re going to copy something line for line, at least take it to another level. Try something different with it. There are only so many ways to cut a dress, but don’t just go for the easiest option. It’s dull and usually very poorly made.

Another good reason to keep buying vintage 🙂

Pick any dream…..

1960s, 1970s, british boutique movement, Gina Fratini, john bates

…and Gina Fratini has a dress to match. So says the London Fashion Guide of 1975. I can’t help but agree with them. Fratini is a criminally underrated designer. She has her fans, me being one of them, but rather like John Bates has been overlooked in favour of the real exhibitionists of the era.

‘As a child I dressed everything from dolls and Teddy to my dog. I never though about a career – I just did it.’ The words float over a studio that looks like a rainy-day dress-up box, full of Victorian dolls, whimsical plants and miles of lace laid out like a daisy chain.

The London Fashion Guide, Spring 1975

I think this is the reason I adore her clothes. She started out in costume (like myself) and this ‘dressing up box’ approach to fashion lends her clothes a romantic, whimsical and period edge. Her approach is something I can relate to as well.

‘When I design a dress it gets half made, then I add a bit here and there. When I’m working on a dress I’ll rummage and play with the lace all day, and suddenly I can feel it coming together.’

She salvaged a basement full of antique lace from shops which were closing down in the Sixties, and used this and predominantly natural fabrics in her work. Fratini was never about practicality or minimalism, she was truly a girl’s girl. Her motto is as apt for today as it was back then;

‘One works all day, and afterward there should be a time to really take off. That’s why I love doing these fantasy dresses. You’ve got to dream – these days more than ever.’

Above Left: Alice in Vintageland – an adorable gingham smock dress with pierrot collar and huge patch pockets. Right:You’ll feel like a Regency dream in this utterly, unashamedly romantic muslin dress from the late Sixties.

Two Sixties legends for the price of one….

1960s, british boutique movement, diana rigg, emma peel, jean varon, john bates


With thanks to Senti for that title! I honestly had no idea that these photos existed, but I found them yesterday and they’ve swiftly become my favourites. Diana, of course, is a huge inspiration to me – not only as Emma Peel but that does have a lot to do with it. I always loved how natural she seemed, and of course the effortless cool. As Emma, that was helped considerably by Bates’ influence as designer. She wore his designs to perfection, and continued to wear Jean Varon garments into the Seventies. Through this, I ‘discovered’ Bates and simply fell in love with his extraordinary designs. Having now met him, I’m even more in awe than ever before – especially after he gave me a nugget of advice on how to wear his frocks. The man is a legend.

I’ve never heard her speak of him, and only contemporary comments from him about the design process. I suppose these things rarely seem so iconic and special at the time, when deadlines are tight and it’s just another job. But you can just see magic being created in these photos.

Fashion Icon of the Month: Nerys Hughes

1960s, fashion icon of the moment, nerys hughes
Nerys Hughes in The Liver Birds

One of the most darling dollybirds of the late 60s/early 70s, Nerys Hughes tottered her way into fashion icon status as Sandra Hutchinson in The Liver Birds. Week after week, the girls would fight it out over a sexy negligee; destroy each others’ feather boas and debate the merits of a maxi versus a mini.

Sandra was always the glamourpuss though. Feigning innocence with the lads, whilst wearing the shortest of minis. Batting those false eyelashes under a heavy fringe (it’s a wonder she could keep her eyes open!!) and backcombing her thick brown hair as though her life depended on it.

She was also curvy, posh and had a prickly veneer of respectability. Just my kind of girl!! The Liver Birds became a manual on 60s chic for me (before I discovered The Avengers) and I would still kill for her wardrobe. Nerys, we salute you!!

Zandra Rhodes

1970s, fulham road clothes shop, zandra rhodes

I heart Zandra Rhodes. How can you not love someone so vibrant and talented?

In honour of her wonderfulness, I’ve just listed a super duper rare example of her early work (ca. 1971) in moss crepe. I’m such a sucker for moss crepe, and Zandras in moss crepe aren’t all that common at all. Some day I’ll get around to photographing my moss crepe Fulham Road Clothes Shop trousers with the lipstick print. Heck, some day I’ll get around to wearing them. So anyhoo, this shirt dress is wonderfully simple in cut but showcasing her gorgeous Frilly Flower print in red on purple. It’s wearable, timeless and pure Zandra.

John Bates Exhibition

1960s, british boutique movement, jean varon, john bates, personal collection

*pinches self*

Is it? Is it still true? Did I really meet my all time favourite designer yesterday afternoon?? I think I did…

Wow.

Considering I was a bit of a wreck to start with, he handled me remarkably well! He was very debonair, very charming to talk to and generally didn’t disappoint me at all. It can be a bit of a let-down when one meets one’s idols and I was worried about even introducing myself for fear of appearing to be a muppet (which I’m sure I did) and that he might not be what I was expecting. I needn’t have worried!

Of course I get home and all sorts of things pop into my head, so many things I wanted to ask him and better answers about my collection. But such is life, and I’m so honoured to have met him!