Astral Boutique's blog

From A To BIBA

I got a fabulous birthday gift this year from Jen at Honey Kennedy- From A to BIBA, the autobiography of BIBA founder Barbara Hulaniki. 

I have had an obsession with the English 1960s/1970s era boutiques (see my post on the book Boutique here), and BIBA is one of the most interesting stories out there. It was started by Barbara as a small mail order business, but it grew incredibly fast and, in the end, incredibly large- she had to keep moving the store into bigger and bigger digs to keep up with demand. The final incarnation was a dream come true, an entire multi-level department store (known as Big BIBA) that had everything from a restaurant to a housewares department. Amazingly, Barbara oversaw the design of every detail and every single product! 

One of the first incarnations of BIBA 

I love the theatricality and the fantasy of the clothing and the styling... all those lovely 1920s/1930s glamor puss looks channeled through the overblown, psychedelic lens of the 60s and early 70s. Who can resist?

Here is some more BIBA eye candy for you to enjoy:

 Here is an amazing makeup tutorial from modern makeup artist Lisa Eldridge, using genuine vintage BIBA makeup:

The BIBA look has experienced a huge comeback lately- in fact, Barbara Hulaniki is making new designs for Top Shop. Viva la BIBA!

Ultra glamor babe Barbara Hulaniki

 

Avenging Style

I am so excited, because my cousin Erin just told me the most fabulous family story! If you are familiar with the popular 60s British spy-core TV series The Avengers, then you know the character of Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg) and her amazing leather catsuit. Even if you don't know the name or the actress, these images are probably familiar to you, as they have become iconic in popular culture. Come to find out that Erin's mom Mary (who is, properly speaking, my mom's first cousin) was actually the brains behind this signature piece!

 

Here is the lowdown, in Erin's own words:

"The story is that the BBC - which really doesn't have a huge budget, it relies on TV license money for it's production budget, it doesn't show ads, in other words - wanted fresh ideas for the Emma Peel character and my Mum was in design school in London. She made a few things, one of which was a leather catsuit and they loved it. She also made the yellow tracksuit. She was basically paid for her designs (I think it was about 100 pounds, which was a decent amount of money) and then Rigg mostly looked after her own costumes. She just did the designs and made the original items and attended some fittings (obviously). I have the boots that were used for the fittings and rehearsals."

Um, hello, cousin, you have Emma Peel's freaking boots?!?!?!?

The Wikipedia, naturally, makes no mention of the little design school girl with Big Ideas, and instead gives all the credit to the major designers who were involved later on. But that is history, written by the victors-- as usual! Well, consider this a major addendum, Wikipedia, cause I am giving credit where credit is due!

Erin, incidentally, is the spitting image of Diana Rigg. You see what I mean?

 

Before Maggie Gyllenhaal came along, she used to get the Diana Rigg comparisons all the time. By the way, I have to brag about my cousin a little-- not only is she darn cute, but she lives in Los Angeles and is a screenwriter. She is my big glamorous heroine. Look for her name in lights soon!

Mamma Mia! Part 1

I just love looking at pictures of people's mothers "back in the day"-- I think it's a universal fascination. My mom, Mary, has always been an exceptionally beautiful, well-dressed woman, and these photos of her in what are now "vintage" fashions thrill me to bits. She thinks its really funny that I love her "beehive" hairdo, but I guess that's what happens when you live through history-- if someone today was excited about my perm and teased bangs circa 1984, I would be mystified!

My mom grew up in County Kerry, Ireland, and moved to England for nursing school as a teenager. This was one of few vocations available for women in the late 50s, and it was a job that promised good pay and career opportunities around the world. Many of my aunts took the same path, and nursing brought three of them to the U.S. 

 

In Nursing School in Rochdale, Lanchestershire, England, late 1950s

 

My mom (far left) and her classmates, Birch Hill Hospital, Rochdale, Lanchestershire, early 1960s. Nursing school is no piece of cake these days (some of my friends are becoming nurses, so I hear all about it), and at this time things were run basically like boot camp. The head nurse was a terrifying figure, like an army sergeant! The upside was that the students were always fed really well.

 

Christmas card, early 60s
 

 

England, early 60s, with a friend's hairdresser

 

My mom and my Aunt Betty came to Red Bluff, California, in 1964, having secured positions at the local Catholic Hospital. Red Bluff is in remote far northern California, and it was every bit the "Wild West" they had seen in the movies, with real cowboys and people speaking with a country twang! Here she is in their apartment, decorating the tree.

 

Passport photo, early 60s- I just love black and white passport photos. They were so glamorous! But then again, so was plane travel... 

More pictures coming soon- and a big thanks to my mom and dad, who scanned these photos for me!

        

It's a Swing Thing, You Wouldn't Understand

I thought you all would enjoy this ad campaign from an issue of 'Teen magazine in 1969. Remember, this is pre-photo shop, kids-- back when selling stuff to people was all about Artistic Concepts and Enthusiasm! 

 
 
Chris did edit out the small text in some of these so you can see the images better. Now who wants to Glisten with me? Cars make me feel so.... floaty! It's like my knee socks are made out of helium!
      

Oh My Goth!

I am always highly amused when friends in the blog community share their high school pictures, so I thought I would finally return the favor!I found these recently, while rooting through some boxes at my parent's house. The first one is me (on the left, with red hair) and some friends at The Twilight Zone, our favorite goth club in Alameda. The second is me at my senior prom- and yes, my date is a guy! (Brave man.)

 
 

On this Gothic note, I remember the first time I met a girl who was a Gothic Hippie-- she had Egyptian tattoos and thick eyeliner, waist-length dyed black hair, but she also wore a tye-dyed butterfly shirt and smelled like patchouli. I was confused and almost offended at the time, though she was so nice that I couldn't exactly dislike her for breaking the "rules". At the time her look was totally pioneering, though these days it is somewhat de rigeur for Tribal Belly Dance enthusiasts. I've been thinking about her lately, and maybe it is a message from the Style Gods. I am a hippie at heart, but I love high drama, and I am curious how I can better combine these two looks in my current wardrobe-- without being a cliche. I did have tons of fun dying my hair (temporarily) black for my Wednesday Addams Halloween costume, but I am not sure I want to spend my life wedded to the dye bottle, especially because we now know that black dye is carcinogenic! I will let you know if I come up with any ideas...

Boutique, The Book

This week, I have been really enjoying the beautiful book Boutique by Marnie Fogg. It chronicles the history of the boutique phenomenon in the U.K. in the 1960s and 1970s, and it is full of fabulous tidbits from the lives of the people who were part of this unique development in the retail world. 

 

Window display of the first boutique, Mary Quant's Bazaar on King's Road

In the mid-60s, the U.K. experienced a surge of baby-booming teens with money to spend and a desire to Express Themselves through clothing. The institution of the humdrum department store simply did not know how to cater to this sudden, desperate need for hip threads. Boutiques were the natural response-- started in low-rent areas, by maverick designers and members of the In Crowd, they were places not just to shop for clothing the Saturday night dance, but to "hang out " and be seen. The window displays were provocative and shocking to parental units, and the dimly lit interiors with the amateur yet painfully cool shop assistants were made to keep Squares away.

The boutique phenomenon was not confined to women- far from it! The "Male Peacock" was a voracious shopper and had a keen eye for fashion. He had to have his suits, hair, and ties just so, and he had a row of shops catering to his tastes on the famous Carnaby Street in London. These were the days when every town had a "Top Mod" who set the style for the rest of the Mods. If you did not have precisely the correct width of collar or trouser leg, you could instantly become a social outcast! 

Later in the 60s, of course, styles became androgynous. Boutiques were the first clothing stores where men and women were not strictly segregated-- in fact, the whole idea was to pick up on each other while shopping! Clothes were mixed on the racks, and dressing rooms were unisex. 

 

Biba was one of the most successful of the boutiques, eventually expanding into a full department store with five levels. Biba's designs were always fresh-- the owner, Barbara Hulanicki, designed one million styles during the lifetime of the store, but none of them were made more than 500 times! There was even Biba for children:

 

While most boutiques were confined to the big city, some outlying eras had their own happening scenes. Nottingham, with an art college and a history of textile industry, had a burgeoning boutique culture. The printed, graphic t-shirt-- a staple of life on planet earth-- was first popularized by an art student from Nottingham! A flyer from the famous Birdcage Boutique:

The Pollyanna Boutique in Barnsley:

 

Boutiques carried not only new designs, but the vintage of the time, which would now feel like delicate antiques to us-- (truly) Victorian and Edwardian blouses and hats, and the military garb so popular with the fellows, captured so perfectly on the cover of The Beatles Sergeant Pepper album. Here is everyone hanging out in the famous boutique I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet:

Music and fashion went hand in hand in the 60s, and The Beatles even financed a boutique of their own-- The Fool. The idealistic designers/owners were more skilled at art than business, and the enterprise folded quickly, but whenever I see pictures of their amazing fairy tale clothes I find myself catching my breath:

 

Rock and pop stars of the time all clothed themselves at their favorite boutiques-- Mick Jagger's girlfriends all had open accounts at Top Gear on London's Kings Road. When he broke up with them, he stopped paying their bills!

Speaking of Mick's girlfriends, here is Marianne Faithfull (far right) with model Penelope Tree (second from right) and Christine Keeler and David Bailey.

The boutique eventually died, due to the shifting socio-economic climate of the U.K. in the 1970s, and perhaps no less to that fact that every store reported that almost half of their stock was shoplifted (by upper-class girls!) on a regular basis. (All those dark, mysterious shops, and no ant--theft technology! What a fatal combination.) Most designers who remained in the clothing industry eventually moved into runway fashion, giving us our Betsy Johnsons of today.

 Thank goodness for the pictures that document this heady time. I hope you enjoyed them! You can find Boutique here. 

   

Here Come The Cossacks!

Confession: I am obsessed with wearing giant puffs of fur on my head. Black fur, white fur, striped fur, you name it-- I have no less than six fuzzy hats in my closet. What's more, I wear them all the time in the winter... and even sometimes in the summer, on special occasions! I am utterly unfazed by the cries of "Russian hat!" whenever I walk into a crowded party; it's part and parcel of being an eccentric dresser. 

 

Candace, the "face of Astral Boutique", and myself, this summer at the Yuba River

Come to find out, this furry finery is known properly as a "Cossack" Hat, from the style of headgear worn by the Cossack peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia.

While purely practical gear for these Northern warriors, the world of Fashion loves a dramatic statement, and these hats have enjoyed several resurgences in style over the past 40 years. Check out these pictures from the fabulous blog Nibs!

These appeared in Look Magazine in 1967, when the Cossack Hat was enjoying a golden moment in the fashion limelight. They were taken in Russia, during a time when few people were allowed behind its borders-- ah, how the love of a furry hat can melt the heart of the staunchest bureaucrat! The coats were designed by Vyacheslav Zaitzev.

 

The Cossack hat is back again today, and over the top, as in this great photo from the 2008 Fashion Rocks of Dhani Harrison (yes, he's George's son, as if you couldn't tell!) and model Sasha Pivovarova. I'm not into killing an animal in this day and age just to wear it on my head (these look pretty real to me), but I do love the styling!

 
  
 
Here are some of my latest finds for the shop; you'll notice that I just couldn't help but pair them with the fuzzy headgear:

Keep those ears warm this winter, kids!