Knitters of Yore

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 wa...

  Sometimes you see an image which looks quite ordinary, but with a little background knowledge a fascinating story emerges. Take the chap on the cover of the knitting pattern below. He's clearly very pleased with his new knitted waistcoat, but check the other details: the small collar, the thin tie with bang up to date pattern and the neat, but stylish haircut. Our hero aspires to Mod style. Similarly, check out the young man on the right. Banished are the chunky cable-knits, pipe and the general impatience for the arrival of middle age which were so often the hallmarks of the knitting pattern aimed at young men. Instead we see a close fit, a stylish  houndstooth check pattern and an air of youthful confidence and style.  If you grew up in the seventies, as I did, there was always the feeling that the sixties was a huge party to which you weren’t invited. The music was better (sixties Soul and Jazz versus seventies Disco – no contest!), typography and graphics were crisp...

Here's Tania Mallet, model and occasional actress, modelling The Shetland Look for Patons Publications. Related to Russian nobility and a cousin of Helen Mirren, she only appeared in two productions: the major role of Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger (1964), and a small, uncredited part in the 1976 The New Avengers episode The Midas Touch.