Primark's A/W Campaign: I'm stocking up!

Hi guys,
I know August hasn't even arrived yet, and the height of summer is yet to come (if the hype is to be believed) but after falling in love with the Autumn/Winter collection from River Island last week, I just couldn't resist a peak at what Primark has in store for us.

No matter how much I try to focus on buying high quality items which will have longevity in my wardrobe, I just can't resist a rummage in Primark! They always manage to pick up on the hottest seasons trends but at the cheapest prices possible. If I want to experiment with something different I always look in Primark before I look in Topshop because I want to make sure I'm going to like a new look before I invest in it: new looks on a budget! What's not to like?!

Here are the outfits I'm coveting right now. And as soon as they hit the stores, I'll be stocking up:

The trend I am most loving from Primark from A/W is the boyish, casual 1960s trend. The sixties are by far my favourite style decade - and although I don't have the coltish figure of Eddie Segwick or Twiggy, I love nothing more than teaming flats with minis and oversized boyish coats. This is the drop I am most looking forward to in Primark, and I imagine I will spend a small fortune!

I also really want to get my hands on that khaki parka jacket with the leather sleeves. It's just £25, and apparently it should land in-store at the end of July. 

Do you shop in Primark? And what do you think of the new season collection?

Love Tor xx

Happy Birthday to Carnaby Street!

This year is the 50th birthday of Carnaby Street, and to celebrate a pop up gallery/museum has opened smack-bang in the middle of the street showing fashions and photos from the swinging sixties and seventies, focusing on Carnaby Street as centrally important in Londons growing music and fashion scenes during those decades.

The centre piece of the exhibit is a wall length cabinet which contains unique historical documents and mass produced goods (once everywhere, but rare today) I saw a Carnaby street doll produced in the late 60s that i'd never seen before: it made me think of the Mary Quant doll (called Daisy) which I once cited as the end of Quant's indie-London cool and the start of her slide into commercialism. There is also a video containing footage of Carnaby street from the sixties which prooves fascinating watching.

I know I talk about it frequently because it's a passion of mine, but I love all of the sixties images; the way the women carry themselves, the fashion, the haircuts are all fascinating to me. I love to compare the lives of women over that 50 year period and more importantly their perception of their lives and their relationships. Carnaby street style in the 60s was admired the world over (think Austin Powers!) and so I think it's fantastic that the anniversary is being celebrated in this way. From mods to hippies to punks, London was leading the way and the trendsetters were buying their clothes in Carnaby street.

I can heartily recommend a quick trip to the mini-exhibition. It's free to enter, only takes 15 minutes to walk around, and it's a great way to learn something about the modern-history of London fashion. And it's right in the middle of all the shops, so it's a great thing to do when you're in town and you're tired of the retail therapy.

Love, Tor xx

Focus on: Barbara Hulanicki

I haven't written one of my "Focus on" pieces for ages, which is a shame. I enjoy writing them, and also find that even though they are quite rudimentary, they help focus my mind. Whilst writing a single level narrative about a specific designer, my brain runs ahead of me making connections to novels and articles I have read and tying them together with my thesis. I want to do some serious work on my PHD application this afternoon, so i'm hoping this will help!!

From paper dresses to dresses in the paper, today's designer is Barbara Hulanicki (predominantly, this is about the Biba of the 1960s and 1970s) I say dresses in papers because Hulanicki and Biba had a start in life that many modern designers would perceive as decidedly unhip: she started selling her designs by mail order in the back of middle class British newspapers such as the Daily Express. In fact, it was from here that she got her big break; a pink gingham dress sold in the back of the Daily Mirror which enabled her to start up Biba properly.

She got this far with the support of her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, and Biba was a partnership between the two of them. This is interesting to me because it echos the story of Mary Quant, who was encouraged to start her business by her husband, Alexander Plunkett Green. In fact there are several reports that suggest he was "the brains" behind the whole operation. It fascinates me that two of the women that are plonked on a pedestal as icons for the generation that saw true independance for woman (in some form or another) were being held on that pedestal by business-savvy (and in Quant's cae, very wealthy) men. In May this year writing about the death of her husband in The Guardian Hulaniki said: "I wish Fitz was still around [he died in 1997]. It was so terribly hard after we'd been close for so many years. I had to learn to do all the things he'd done, like writing cheques"

Disregarding the finances (which sixties designers notoriously struggled with!) I wish I had been able to see Biba in its glory days; to soak up all the different departments (and they really did sell everything you could need) and the overall sense of cool. This description from The Independent is one of the best i've read: "Six storeys of Deco-inspired glamour, swathed in silk and satin, the walls painted black, plum and chocolate brown, with mirrored pillars and faux Tiffany lamps, ostrich plumes, peacock feathers and chrome fittings. Ten thousand feet of breathtaking opulence, the first fully developed lifestyle boutique, selling a retro-modernist vision of late-capitalist splendour two decades before anyone would fully comprehend the concept." But don't be fooled into thinking anyone would have been welcome through the doors of Biba; that side of the cultural revolution happening all around was squarely ignored. You had to be young, (and 30 was ancient!) hip, slim, and beautiful.

Biba's tagline in recent times is "a labour of love, a label, a lifestyle" and what a beautiful lifestyle. It must have been wonderfully exciting to be involved in this, and even more wonderful to wear the dresses, which are my new obsession.

If you want to know more about the Biba story there is a screening of the Beyond Biba film at the Lexi Cinema this Saturday, and the screening is followed by a Q&A with the director afterwards. Which is pretty exciting - I wish I could be there!

Hopefully more of this kind of post are to come - i'm feeling on a roll!
Love, Tor xx

Focus on: Mary Quant

"It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant"
Ernestine Carter - Sunday Times



My relationship with Mary Quant and her work has always been difficult, but I would like to start this by saying how much I admire and respect her. However I struggled through my first dissertation trying to marry the passion I had for the fashion movement in London in the 1960s and the importance it had to literature at the time, with the cliched woman I met, albeit briefly, on a cold winters evening in 2007.
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Mary Quant was a relic from a bygone age telling cliche stories that, though not all true, she had told so many times before that she made them true to herself. She was a woman convinced that Vidall Sasoon had "made her" with his clever scissors and five point hair cut, and who answered my question about why she chose to bring london the mini skirt with the reply: "because I had nice legs." Nothing to do with empowerment, as I had read in a thousand text books, then.

The miniskirt, by the way, was in fact not invented by Mary Quant. Although she popularized it by selling it in her Bazaar boutique, the French designer André Courrèges actually invented it! We can't hold that against her though; although we can blame her for bringing the world hotpants.
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As I started this piece by saying, I will always admire and respect Mary Quant for her innovation and for the youth fashion that she created and gave to the world: There wouldn't be such a thing as teen fashion without her, bearing in mind that before Quant girls wore miniture versions of what their mothers chose from the powerhouses such as Chanel and Dior. Quant began as an amateur, simply making clothes that she wanted to wear that you couldn't find anywhere else. Quant's popularity was at its height in the mid 1960s, during which time she produced the dangerously short micro-mini skirt, and plastic raincoats. In 1970 Bernard Levin called her the "High Priestess of Sixties fashion".

But what Quant became after her success undermines (for me at least) the independent spirit of the liberating clothing enterprise she and her husband (Alexander Plunkett-Green, agruably the brains behind the outfit) began. Quant was overwhelmed by the interest she received from American conglomerates towards the end of the 60s and bowed to their every demand. Mary Quant dolls, called daisy of course, jostling for a place next to her home range (in the same 2007 lecture at the V&A she claimed to have invented the duvet) and make up. In fact, the poster for her cry baby mascara is one of my enduring memories of my dissertation; when advertising was stepping away from the literal, this was a big deal. By the 70s Mary Quant was a joke: a leftover from an era that didn't mean anything to anyone anymore. Mary Quant make up is all that's left of her empire now. Although I have Mary Quant stockings (still in the packet from a charity shop) and a floppy hat I picked up at a vintage fair, I would love to try her make up range.

I'm going to finish with one of my favourite stories about Mary Quant. The reason Quant used so much pinstripe in her early designs was her desire to reclaim it from what she called the "suits" who worked around her store. She wanted to invert its meaning by making it feminine and sexy; in certain books you can see pictures of men looking aghast at mannequins in her shop window wearing tiny pinstripe mini dresses and bowler hats. This sums up to me everything that Quant was to London Fashion. Oh, and the Indian man from whom Quant found all these fabrics? Mr Curry of course! Only in London in the 1960s!

NB - Any facts and dates are facts, researched a couple of years ago, but all the opinions are mine, not to be confused with reality!
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Because of my undying passion for the 60s I thought it would be nice to do profiles on some of my favourite (or the most important) designers and authors from the era; a very pleasant way to spend a Monday evening! I hope you enjoyed the diversion!


Love, Tor xx

Paper jewellery - I feel like Fred Butler!

Two summers ago the V&A played host to a couture fashion exhibition from the sixties, and I promptly trotted down, both for dissertation research and of course personal interest. I have always been interested in sixties fashion and the social and literary influences surrounding it. Time magazine said in April 1966 that "In a decade dominated by youth, London has burst into bloom. It swings; it is the scene. This spring, as never before in modern times, London is switched on." To me London is still "the scene"; the city to look to for fashion innovation, and I guess that's why the sixties are both so important and so fascinating for me.

Although I had read all about them, whilst at that exhibition I saw my first paper dress. I was amazed at the vivid colours, the amazing patterns, and how thick the paper was! Paper dresses were a brief but spectacular Sixties sensation. They were cheap and disposable, and their simple 2-D shape was ideal for the bold graphic prints that were so fashionable. Some were produced as free gifts to promote paper products, and though prone to tearing and creasing, they were marketed as 'instant fun from London'.

What I hadn't heard of though was the paper jewellery that accompanyied these dresses and was popular in its own right. Of course I knew Fred Butler was making popular paper jewels right now, but I didn't realise it was something that had been happening for years!

But apparently by 1967 paper fashioning had become a full blown trend; Hallmark picked up on the trend and produced paper dresses with matching paper plates, gift wrap, napkins, placemats and other party paraphernalia for a complete party theme! Then along came paper jewellery, paper mache shoes and even paper dog clothes!!

Yesterday, tired of reading magazines and in need of more bread to go with my sickness soup, I had to (shock horror!) leave the house. Whilst out I happened upon an amazing book in poundland (of all places!) for just a pound; The paper jewellery collection; easy to wear and ready to make pop out artwear. It comes complete with all the metal findings and instructions and, as well as being interesting from a socio-historic point of view, taking away the status attached to wearing jewellery, it also seemed like a lot of fun! It's such a lovely book that I was tempted not to make the jewellery up and preserve it, however my desire to see how it would look got the better of me. Here are the results of my labours (no face shots of course, I currently frighten small children!):

I'm not sure about the eighties style necklaces and the bracelets feel like they'd break the minute I flexed my arm, but I am really pleased with the earrings and you can also make the matching brooches and hatpins which look great and which I can't wait to try...as soon as i've had another little nap!
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I hope you all have a great weekend!

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Love, Tor xx

Lets go round again

Hey all,

As anyone who reads this blog on a semi-regular basis will know (because I bang on about it all the time no doubt!) I have a minor, ok major, obsession with sixties fashion. I've just finished my MA dissertation on the interplay between fashion and fiction in the 1960s, with specific focus on the works of Nell Dunn. If you think that is a mouthful, you should read the full title!

Nell Dunn reading and looking fashionable: this stuff practically writes itself!!

The basic initial premise is that, as in much literature throughout history, in Dunn's works fashion is preemptive of behaviour; the guy on the motorcycle will try to sleep with you, the girl in the shortest mini skirt will let him and so on. (obviously i'm summarising and simplifying, but you get the idea!) More interestingly, Dunn (who is, and presents herself as an "heiress from Chelsea") writes about the lives on working class women, who live for the here and now caring only for fast fun, appearance and looking good. They borrow there clothes or buy them on HP, with no intention of ever paying the full amount.

What with the credit crunch and all, it is easy to compare the working class women of Dunn's ficton with the lifestyle of the vast majority of todays fashion conscious woman. Looking good over all else: better to have the telltale red of a louboutin heel and a massive credit card debt than shop in topshop like everyone else, and have noone know you're "in vogue". Just as Dunn's women coo over 'genuine' Italian leather shoes for £5, so do we coo over the latest 'it' item in our glossy magazines and wonder what we'd have to sell or which credit card we'd need next to afford them (and i'm as much a victim of this as anyone else).

So maybe it's not just fashion trends that are cyclical (and the speed of these cycles are increasing dramatically) but our attitudes to fashion and the way we buy it.




And noone would argue that the trends aren't cyclical; looking at the pictures i've collated above, I can't see a single trend I haven't rocked; in fact i'm wearing white tights today (although as I chose the photos this could be clever editing of course!) I'm not going to go into the age old discussion that nothing is truly new or innovative any more, mostly because I dont think its true, and secondly because it's hard for certain trends not to look alike, inspiration not to be taken from icons, and perceptions of "uniqueness" are all relative anyway. Ever thought you had a unique style and you'd put together an amazing outfit then seen a girl on the tube wearing something identical? I rest my case!

So moving back to the concept of our buying habits being as cyclical as our style ones, what's is interesting to me now is that rather than moving forwards we seem to be moving back. The naughties representation of the over consumptive sixties with cheap fabrics in throwaway styles (replicated by the modern day primark) is now giving way not to the seventies (lux fabrics and free love, if you believe the hype) but the conservatism of the fifties; recycling fabrics, make do and mend, create your own. Why spend money on something you could do beautifully by yourself seems to be the new mantra.

At 24, i've spend my whole life engulfed in this overconsumptive public attitude of affluence and plenty. Now armed with a pile of old floral patterned childrens clothes (too small for Abbie, who thinks i'm a bear) and a needle and thread, i'm eager to see where winding back my sixties obsession a decade can take me.

Much love,

Tor