Granny chic

Accuse me of living in the dark ages, but I stand by my (old-fashioned) word: they just don't make clothes like they used to.  I know I'm at risk of looking like a granny: my glasses are from the 1950s, my capes are from the 1960s and my blouses are 1930s silk (when I can find them). But I don't care. Which is probably why being paid a compliment by Julia McKenzie today was so much nicer than anything any  tanorexic little tart off t'telly could have said. And now I do sound old.

Julia and I were discussing the outfits she wears as Miss Marple (her next film is due out later in the summer) at which point she was admiring my black and white Biba blouse and my Mary Quant cape (one I bargained for at Hammersmith Vintage Fair for 30 quid). She said she'd quite like to steal it for the character. Ahh! She's so lovely, I probably should have let her. The cape she wears in the next film was one she picked up in Gray's Antique Fair . So thanks for the shopping tip, Ms McKenzie, or should I say Miss Marple. Might have known nothing would get past you...

Like you've just stepped out of a salon...

If there’s anything that gives me a bigger kick than buying a new dress, it’s getting a new hair cut. I’m probably a nightmare for my hairdresser. Not because I have unrealistic ideas of how I want my hair styled or awkwardly wave about torn out pictures of celebrities from a magazine which is usually the case, but because I like him to experiment. He (Steven at Dapper) knows I love the sixties and works with that. Even when it’s 6.30pm on a Friday evening (or worse, 9am on a Saturday morning) - he’s a keeper!

Many of the styles he’s emulated are reminiscent of the work of the great Vidal Sassoon, seen here working his geometric magic on Mary Quant. 

Vidal Sassoon: The Movie has just previewed at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, and yesterday there was a really nice interview with Vidal, now 82 (and currently writing his autobiography) published on Dazed Digital.

The film was made by Michael Gordon, founder of the Bumble and Bumble salon, and alongside interviews with Vidal and his family and friends which chronicle his journey from the Israeli army in 1948 to fashion forward hair cutting techniques in the 1960s, is an interview with Mary Quant. Apparently she’d just had a hip operation and it was touch and go whether she’d be able to talk. After agreeing to ten minutes, it lasted an hour and a half. From one visionary to another. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall.

‘I hope such projects will not only inspire but also help a lot of young people thinking about their lives,’ Vidal told Dazed. ‘And realising when they feel down that the possibility of rising again and doing something truly worthwhile with their life is in their power.’

For the full article, click here.  

Can’t wait for the film now. If you can’t wait, try going to your hairdressers and asking them to experiment. You might end up with a dodgy perm, but you could encounter the work of the next visionary. I’ve just booked another appointment.  

The reinvention of polyester

Wash and go... go, go, go! 

It's official. Polyester is having a moment. I never thought I'd see the day, but that was until I got my hands on the March issue of In Style who felt it worthy of a news announcement. And I, for one couldn't be happier.

The fashion pack always complain how rummaging through rails of polyester dresses isn't their idea of 'vintage' but if you blacklist this forgotten fabric and its various forms, you're denying a whole wave of designers in the 1960s (Mary Quant, Jean Muir) recognition, not to mention the icons (Jean Shrimpton, Patty Boyd) who wore it so well.

Cut to SS10 and collections by Lanvin, Bottega Veneta and Jil Sander have left die-hard fashionistas gasping in disbelief. A fabric that can be chucked in the washing machine with any other colours and doesn't require ironing? Oh, the glamour. So you can't picture it on the red carpet? Then start...