Coat by Elgee, boots by Biba

It seemed appropriate, for some reason…

Photographed by Graham Hughes. Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Honey, December 1974

Coat, skirt, hat and boots by Biba / Coat by Wallis, hat by Biba, boots by Chelsea Cobbler

Coat by Stephen Marks, hat by Biba, boots by Mary Graeme / Coat by Elgee, hat by Biba, boots by Chelsea Cobbler

Coat by Sheraton from Ronnie Stirling, hat by Fenwicks, boots by Mary Graeme

Cape by Elgee, boots by Mary Graeme

Coat by Wallis, hat from Fenwick, boots by Chelsea Cobbler / Cape from Just Looking, hat and boots from Biba

L-R: Gauchos and battle jacket by Tony Berkley, boots at Elliott; Midi coat and matching pants by Alan Rodin, belt by The Wild Mustang Manfacturing Co, boots to order at the Chelsea Cobbler; Skirt and midi coat by Tony Berkley, blouse by Alan Rodin, boots by Anello & Davide.

Time to dig out the gauchos, zig zag knits and lace up boots again. Not that I ever need any encouragement, mind…

Photographed by Charlotte March. Scanned by Miss Peelpants from Nova, September 1970.

All three printed dresses in dicel crepe by Janice Wainwright at Simon Massey

Barbara wears halter top and pleated skirt by Mary Quant, £23 for the rigout, and shoes by Chelsea Cobbler. He wears intarsia sweater by Ballantyne.

Nice girls are turning a cold shoulder on some of the best looking men around. Perfectly enchanting girls, like Twiggy, who flashes her famous shoulder blades at Christopher Gable through her sleeveless, backless The Boy Friend costumes. And who can forget Lauren Bacall and lngrid Bergman acting with their backs turned on Bogie in all those Late Late Show films. Now you can make some of the best exit lines in the backless—and fairly frontless—cIothes previewed here. lt’s clear that fashion is on the side of the female female in clothes that show off a nice warm back and allow plenty of MANoeuvring room. Putting the Back-to-Basics through their paces in many of the pictures are Barbara Trentham and Gary Myers, a couple of Cosmo people to watch. Blonde, brainy Barbara with the 1,000-watt smile will soon be seen in her first film, opposite Shirley MacLaine. called, if you can believe it, The Possession of Joel Delaney, and Aussie Gary is tall, dark and one of television’s busiest tough guys. Together they show that a cold shoulder never turned a good man off…

Scanned from the very first UK edition of Cosmopolitan, March 1972. Photographs by Norman Eales.

Paulene wears chamois leather blouse and pleated skirt by Jean Muir, £46 and £31.50

Paulene Stone in a robe from Browns, £20

Barbara wears dress by Early Bird, £7. Gary’s sweater is by Harold Ingram, £3.30

Barbara wears dress by Mary Quant, £15

Barbara wears strappy crepe dress by Medusa, £9.95

Barbara wears dress by Tsaritsa, £29. Shoes by Mary Quant.

When both ladies turn up in identical tank tops scooped low, a man scarcely knows where to put his eyes. Dark Janni and tawny Kari-Anne [sic] fill out backless sweaters by Stirling Cooper, £2.95. Janni’s red jersey trousers are £9.60, also by Stirling Cooper. Yellow satin jeans by Medusa, £17.91.

The Chelsea Cobbler 1970s embroidered wedges

Ahhhh. British Summertime. For those of you NOT currently experiencing one of the most spectacularly soggy summers this land has seen in recent years, have pity on us. It is quite unsettling to be reaching for your autumn coat in almost-mid-July. It’s also unsettling to have received an adorable gingham umbrella from your mum as a birthday present and to have been using it almost constantly since then. I’m a July baby, it’s not meant to be this way!!!!!

It’s also hard to get oneself into the listing groove when your head is saying ‘summer dresses’ ‘light cottons’ etc, but you take one look out of the window at the river your street has become and think ‘err, actually, maybe not….’.

So here is my ever-so-British mixed bag of new listings. I do hope you enjoy!

Ossie Clark 1970s moss crepe and satin dress

John Bates for Jean Varon ‘Venice’ dress c. 1966-67

Early Laura Ashley art nouveau print maxi dress

Lee Bender for Bus Stop dress w/ keyhole feature

Polly Peck by Sybil Zelker 1970s medieval influenced dress

Fifties-influenced Chelsea Girl cotton stripe blouse

Nova, February 1972

One of my favourite images from a Vargas-inspired spread in Nova, photographed by Hans Feurer. I will scan the others in time, but they all deserve solo appreciation. I think I would actually give my firstborn for those Chelsea Cobbler shoes. Red leather AND stars? Fetch my smelling salts!

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, there is something about the Seventies take on Forties style (and particularly pin-ups) which I find infinitely more appealing than the originals or the tired current trend for such things.

It takes all the glamour and sauce, but gives it that subversive, pop art-esque treatment so typical of designers like Tommy Roberts, Terry de Havilland and Rae Spencer-Cullen for Miss Mouse (amongst so many other Vintage-a-Peel favourites). The models look quirky, confident and very knowing; I never get a sense of exploitation or submission. Even the tagline ‘exploitation can be fun’ is perfectly pitched and mocking both the exploiters and the prudes. Viva la Seventies!

From the same spread in Cosmopolitan as the Gabrielle Drake post, and eagle-eyed readers might recall that we have seen Ika Hindley before… There are still a few beauties to come, but I decided they were all worthy of their own post.

The spread was styled by Deirdre McSharry and she is really speaking my sartorial language. Dress by Annacat, shoes by Chelsea Cobbler and hat by Sarah Frearson. Make-up is by Pierre LaRoche (Bowie’s make-up artist and also for the Rocky Horror Picture Show) for Helena Rubenstein.

Cosmopolitan, June 1973. Photographed by David Montgomery. Scanned by Miss Peelpants.

“She arrived in the studio like an early Garbo, plain and drab. One hour and much make-up later she is fashion’s own superstar”.

Ouch.

Alice Pollock

Phew! That was a long break. I’ve finally got the first batch of Autumn/Winter clothes up over at Vintage-a-Peel, and there are some KILLER items for you. I’m very excited to be offering Ossie Clark, Alice Pollock, Aristos, Biba, Terry de Havilland, The Chelsea Cobbler, Janice Wainwright and two incredible hats by Edward Mann (and those are only the big names!). Plenty more to come, so stay tuned and, meanwhile, enjoy!!

Hilary Floyd

Biba

Aristos of Carnaby Street

The Chelsea Cobbler

Huguette

Pussy Cat by Carla Jane

Ricci Michaels

Terry de Havilland

A Downs Model

Biba

Ossie Clark for Radley

Edward Mann

Frank Usher

Edward Mann

Janice Wainwright for Simon Massey

Wallis

From Nova, February 1972. Photograph by Harri Peccinotti

If this were my spring capsule wardrobe, I’d be one very contented lady…

Safari jacket, 80 gn with jodphurs, 75 gn with skirt. Hat (without veil) 22 gn. Sam Browne belt, 20 gn.

It’s a funny old world. One of the main reasons the regular Biba relaunches have failed so dismally, each time since 1975, has been the price issue. Barbara Hulanicki, whether you agree with her or not, has always had a firm belief in affordable, fast fashion. £200 for a middling quality dress, as seen in the most recent attempts to reignite the brand, is simply not acceptable in an age of fast, cheap fashion and quirky high-end designers with real personality and bite. To whom are they appealing? I’m afraid I judge people who buy House of Fraser Biba. I just can’t help myself. So there can be little or no cachet to buying that gear, from either Biba geeks or fashion freaks. And the quality isn’t good enough to be seen alongside the likes of Jaegar and Hobbs for the ‘medium’ level appeal.

Trousers and cardigan, 60 gn. Blouse 25 gn. Hat, 25 gn.

Biba was cheap, cheerful, young and undeniably cool. Nothing has come close. Primark has the prices, Topshop supposedly has the cool and youth, but none of them have the quality or uniqueness of their oft-copied ancestor. Yes, I said quality. Biba might have had a reputation for badly-made clothes but it simply wasn’t true. It was an assumption, based on the price. And fair enough, it wasn’t couture-quality, but it was no worse than anything being produced by Saint Laurent for his Rive Gauche, Ossie Clark and other British Boutique designers of the era. Certainly a cut above anything being made by many big name designers, these days.

My vintage Bibas are beautifully well-made. They couldn’t have survived forty-odd years otherwise. A seam might have deteriorated here, a small moth-hole appeared there, and perhaps a zip has busted after a particularly raucous night out. But I’ve seen Paris couture from a mere ten years earlier in a far sorrier state than that.

Dress, 100gn. Hat, 10gn.

So if shop-floor Bibas are still doing the trick after four decades, can you imagine what a couture Biba must have been like? And if Barbara was baulking at a higher-than-usual price tag for a voluminous jersey dress (which I own) and feared it wouldn’t sell (it sold out), then what on earth was she thinking about offering a coat for 120 guineas?

Coat, 120 gn. Helmet (without veil), 14 gn.

I had heard vague things about Biba couture over the years, but I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever seen anything like this article before. I do so wish I could see some Biba couture pieces now. The original owners must have remembered they were such, so I would hope that the provenance would be forever attached to the piece as it passed from careful owner to careful owner.

Dress, 110 gn.

Dreamy. And certainly not hindered by some incredible photos by the legendary Helmut Newton and footwear by The Chelsea Cobbler.

Observer Magazine, 19th January 1969.