Knitting with Dame Joanna

Part of the reason I do this blog is to encourage me to study and learn more about the history of fashion - I'm sometimes learning this stuff at roughly the same time as some of you reading these posts. Occasionally, though, it's fun just to post something because it features a future star. Here we have a set of images of a happy family, with the yummy mummy being played by none other than Joanna Lumley. Despite the 10p price tag, which would in theory date this as being from 1971 or later, I know this is earlier as after finding this one I came across one priced in pre-decimal coinage - I didn't buy it as the condition was considerably worse. So this is the future Dame Joanna Lumley not only before she played Purdy in The New Avengers, but also at some point before her screen acting career began with the 1969 films Some Girls Do and the James bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.




Joanna first came to fame as a model in London's swinging 1960s, where she was photographed by the greats, including her friend Patrick Lichfield and particularly by Brian Duffy. She was designer Jean Muir's muse and house model for several years before carving a career as a freelance model, becoming one on the busiest British models of the decade.











Joanna in 1966 from a photoshoot for the popular high street fashion chain Dorothy Perkins.







Here's another shot from the Harmony Arran knitting pattern book in silly hat and an outfit which can best be described as unflattering!






And here's Joanna on the back cover, looking embarrassed while wearing a spectacularly ratty wig. As you'll see from the following two pictures, she was used to wearing wigs of various styles during modelling assignments, but they were normally a lot better than this one!





And finally, here's Joanna in 1976 in a photoshoot for The New Avengers along with co-stars Patrick Macnee and Gareth Hunt, wearing a dress from Bus Stop designed by Lee Bender.

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