A Couple of Kinks in 60's Fashion

For weeks now I've been searching for just the right words to accompany the dreamy unlikeliness of these mid-60s images. But I think after all they can do most of the talking for themselves.

The Kinks' drummer Mick Avory, endearingly wooden and the most ham-handed of dandies, models for John Stephen:





(Seen here with singer Kiki Dee.)


And teenage lead guitarist Dave Davies, adapting to the singular lack of props with leonine grace, notches up this Terylene campaign on his tally of adventures - sartorial and otherwise - in Swinging London. You could just tell that Dave would spend the remainder of the sixties not chatting up dollybirds, but assessing their outfits for Terylene content (doesn't it make you want to rush out and buy something in Terylene?)




Notice the intriguing ghostliness of his face in the middle image. I'm sad that the last picture had been cropped of text, and have also seen an ad from this series featuring a member of The Hollies. (Do you know of others? I'd adore to see them!)

Make It Sew

I stumbled upon this unquestionably wonderful piece of embroidery recently - it was captioned, quite rightly, "Set Phasers on Stunning" - and fell to romanticising about people clever enough, and passionate enough, to pay homage to Star Trek in textile form. I didn't go down the "why Carmen Miranda headdresses" path though, for who am I to question art?

Okay so in villa Silver Visions, Thursday nights are inviolate bastions of Next Generation viewing. If one of us has to be out that night, they expect a scene-by-scene recount the next morning. We'll fondly discuss plot points over the intervening week, but it kind of stops there. I've never considered undertaking a Star Trek craft project, and I think I can say that my true love hasn't either (though maybe he could write a song about them). But I'm so glad that there are people out there who felt compelled to share the joy, and picked up a needle - be it sewing, tapestry or knitting....

A pair of spocks!

Phaser embroidery (love the sound effect)

I admit that the quilts scare me a little, mostly because of the hours/days/weeks/months of work which must go into them (which is why all quilts intimidate me) - also because I don't think I'd necessarily sleep that well beneath any Enterprise personnel. But I do love this threadwork giving the effect of transporter beams....


And so, on to the Next Generation:

cross-stitch

charming simplicity - brilliant colour choice

And my personal favourite....

Perfect!

The Real Astro Boy

I came across a vintage photograph on eBay today which has me captivated. Although its link to vintage textiles is tenuous at best, what we can see of the subject's collar indicates he's wearing a pretty damn groovy shirt so he merits a place here. Besides, I think he's absolutely awesome.

Who knew that Astro Boy was based on a human prototype? And his real name wasn't Tetsuwan Atomu at all - it was Kenneth.

Indignity In Extremis - His'n'Hers Fashion

If Time would part its swirling mists at just the right place we might witness the admirable thriftiness of a pioneer woman transforming a pair of worn-out curtains or an irresistably priced (if fairly unpleasantly patterned) width of cloth into a serviceable shirt for her husband, and an apron or shirtwaist for herself.

The paucity of professional photographers available in frontier towns, coupled with the pioneering man's innate self-respect, resulted in a sad dearth of early images commemorating this clothing phenomonen (if you have any - please get in touch!) but that frugal long-ago seamstress has a lot to answer for.

At least that's my theory, although others believe the questionable sartorial custom of couples wearing matching outfits to be of extra-terrestrial origin....


Mid-century his'n'hers (or "partner dressing") had an undeniable charm, a soda fountain wholesomeness of innocent teen commitment which was the logical extension of letter sweaters and class rings. Adolescents could get away with (and look adorable) wearing matching pieces of knitwear which brought just the right degree of unity to otherwise completely different outfits....




Then, as now, it was when they went for head-to-toe co-ordination that warning lights began to flash....


Resort wear and Hawaiian themed clothing have long been beloved by his'n'hers designers - of course it becomes difficult to lose a family member in an unfamiliar place if they're wearing the same bold pattern as you are....

Throughout the 1960s his'n'hers style remained on an even keel, retaining its air of sunny naïveté... although one gets the feeling that the female partner was always the instigator, at least the fellows continued to handle the look with relative aplomb....

Cue the 70s - Sexual Revolution - Liberation - nothing shouted "equality" more categorically than a confident woman strutting out in the same outfit as her man. Much of the time both of them looked fabulous....








But there were always going to be exceptions. These usually involved jumpsuits....




Apparently they ran out of wool before they could draft a "shorts for him" pattern - if only he didn't look so pleased about it....


When the 80s came around a natural consequence of architectural shoulder pads and power dressing for women was the cruel emasculation of men by means of fashion. The tables abruptly turned, and where the previous decade's his'n'hers style had been about women having empowering fun with adaptations of what their men were wearing, suddenly men found themselves being dressed up in barely altered versions of womens clothes. And although they obediently bobbed along on the tide, they weren't happy about it.

A penny for his thoughts....



No longer did matching outfits state a simple "we're together".

Now they screamed possessively "he's mine - you can't have him." To which the unspoken response was "if he dresses like that you can keep him - I don't want him."

This is the period in which you'll notice the male partner no longer smiles into the camera - sometimes he manages to force some kind of upward-curving oral grimace but his eyes are invariably either resentful or brimming with panic....





The passion for his'n'hers dressing is almost extinct in the Western world these days, (or executed so subtly that no-one notices . . . a couple strolling along wearing white t-shirts and jeans doesn't draw a second glance) with the notable exception of one high profile pair who obviously derive such joy from dressing alike that it might just come back into vogue one day soon....



In fact in the not-too-distant future every man and his dog may again proudly sport his'n'hers outfits....