Shepherdzzzz Pie
Posted: January 31, 2010 Filed under: haute naffness 4 Comments »
Contrary to what most people seem to [bizarrely] think, I am really quite dorky. The other morning I found myself lovingly preparing Shepherdzzzz Pie from a Seventies recipe my mum has been using since, well, the Seventies. Shepherdzzzz because of the Heinz Baked Beans origins and contents of the recipe. I’m not a natural cook, but it’s one of the things I’m fairly adept at doing.
As per usual, I was also listening to GOLD. My default radio station for most occasions. So I found myself in the dubious scenario of cooking this pie whilst shimmying around the kitchen, in rollers, to the divinely dubious sounds of the Andrea True Connection’s More More More. I still get urges to start singing ‘if you steal my sunshine‘ but my Seventies-self slaps the Nineties-self around the face and carries on with the shimmying. I know I should really be slinking around to Roxy Music or whoever, as usual, but there are times you need a bit of cheese (if not on top of the pie, because someone doesn’t like cheese).
Lulu Haiku
Posted: January 30, 2010 Filed under: david bowie, haiku, lulu 2 Comments »
Once a Bee Gee wife 
Do I give you the Hornes, baby?
Posted: January 29, 2010 Filed under: 1970s, haute naffness, menswear, Vintage Adverts 9 Comments »
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
Posted: January 28, 2010 Filed under: Inspirational Images, marlene dietrich, Style Icons 4 Comments »
Marlene Dietrich in Kismet (1944)
Vintage Inspiration: Jacqueline Bisset
Posted: January 27, 2010 Filed under: Inspirational Images, jacqueline bisset, picture spam, sixties, Style Icons 5 Comments »
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
Posted: January 26, 2010 Filed under: billie piper, celebrities in vintage, ossie clark, seventies fashion, telegraph magazine, Vogue 5 Comments »
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…. 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?
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.
Books, covers and interesting people….
Posted: January 25, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »I occasionally alude to my other life as someone who works in theatre. It probably sounds more glamorous than it could ever actually be, but it’s considerably more interesting and enjoyable than inputting numbers into a computer or any other temporary job I’ve undertaken in my past. I do it fairly erratically; others do it more regularly; frankly we’re nearly all doing it because we enjoy our itinerant work lives in the creative industries. M commented the other day that I seem to meet some incredibly interesting people in my line of work, and he’s right. It never ceases to amaze me. It also never ceases to amaze me how few of the artistes we deal with ever actually ask what we do with the rest of our lives; I think people assume this is our career. Certainly with the ballet, it’s only a very seasonal employment for any of us and it’s a lesson in never judging a book by its cover.
Thanks to this, I know photographers, dancers, artists, textile designers, costume designers, interior designers and costume makers. Par exemple, the lovely Sally let slip the other day that she made the incredible black dress with large pink bow that Anna Friel wore in the recent stage production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Tracey is an extremely talented photographer (she also has a blog). Lisa makes these gorgeous printed leather bags. Aila has her own dance duo, The Bee’s Knees, and always seems to come into work with the most covetable hair and make-up. And those are only the ones with websites I can link you to….
I love my vintage life, but it does me the world of good to spend a few weeks every year with such inspirational people. It reminds me of all the other things I want to do, as well as Vintage-a-Peel.
Still in love with Noosha
Posted: January 24, 2010 Filed under: glam rock, noosha fox, seventies fashion 3 Comments »
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…
Posted: January 19, 2010 Filed under: 1970s, flares, jeans, Vintage Adverts 10 Comments »
…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)
Posted: January 18, 2010 Filed under: anita pallenberg, barbarella, jane fonda, Paco Rabanne, sixties 8 Comments »
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….
