Romeo and Juliet ~ Leonard Whiting & Olivia Hussey ~ Romantic Fashion 1968

Posted by & filed under Fashion, Vintage.

Perusing through my stash of vintage Seventeen magazines, I am now utterly convinced that 1968 was the year of the Romantic in fashion, movies and advertising.  The key players seem to be the stars of the movie Romeo and Juliet, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting.  They were gloriously featured, not only in the film, but in advertising and fashion campaigns.

In the September 1968 issue of Seventeen, an editorial fashion spread captured the opulent Romantic Renaissance 1968 fashions modeled by Leonard and Olivia.  This first picture shows them both in lush velvet.  Olivia’s dress accented by pearl sleeves and a Maltese cross brooch, Leonard’s shirt trimmed in gold braid.

Here they are in brocade and velveteen.  Olivia’s dress featuring a fleur de lis print, and Leonard’s velveteen Nehru jacket topped with a heavy Maltese cross necklace.

Olivia models a navy blue rabbit coat, with Leonard wearing a white satin shirt and jeweled necklace.  Gorgeous!  What a fabulous era in 60s fashion.  Alas, short-lived, but utterly memorable. 🙂

~Marilyn Huttunen

Vintage Laundry and Tide – No Rinsing Needed?

Posted by & filed under Daily Life, Fashion, Frugal Living, Vintage.

This is a fab vintage Tide ad from Ladies’ Home Journal,  January 1951.  I love how it portrays neighboring housewives comparing laundry over a white picket fence.  Of course they are drying their laundry on clotheslines, as most households at that time didn’t have automatic dryers.  Hearing tales from my mother and grandmother, it was quite common to ‘compare’ or at least judge the neighborhood laundry that was put on the line for all to see.  Since I am the only one who currently uses a clothesline for miles around, I have never even seen any one else’s laundry on the line much less being able to compare it!

But, I digress.  I am amazed that they advertise Tide as needing NO rinsing.  That Tide actually ‘dissolves’ dirt out of clothes…and holds dirt ‘suspended’ in the sudsy water.  What?  Oh, and when you put the clothes through the wringer (they were obviously still using wringers then too), the dirt ‘wrings out’ with the wash water.  Really?  And the pièce de résistance is that you get to hang up the kind of bright, clean wash ‘that makes neighbors look twice!’  Oh the joy!  Nothing like NOT airing your dirty laundry!

I wonder when Tide went to recommending rinsing the laundry?  It just seems weird to think that somehow everything would miraculously rinse clean in the wash cycle.  Maybe it was just another advertising ploy, but seriously has laundry detergent advertising really changed all that much?  I think not.  We all still like a good, clean laundry to this day.

~Marilyn Huttunen

The Romantic 60s ~ Heaven Sent Fragrance and Yardley of London Slickers

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Fashion, Vintage.

What people tend to forget is that not all of the 1960s was Mod or Hippie style.  The late 60s had a real Romantic element to it, inspired in part by blockbuster movies such as Romeo and Juliet.  Of course, the advertisers got caught up in this by creating particularly beautiful ad campaigns.  I really loved this era, er, year of 1968 where magazine ads portrayed such loveliness.

This 1968 Helena Rubinstein ad for Heaven Sent Fragrance is especially lovely.  I think this one is burrowed in my memory because I remember it so well.  It is a Polaroid portrait by Marie Cosindas showing a gorgeous blonde in black velvet and lace clutching a bouquet of flowers.  She is gazing dreamy-eyed at nothing in particular, deep in thoughts of love and romance I am sure!  Her poetic musings complete the ad, “I like long nightgowns, French accents, the first day of any vacation, and my brother’s best friend…

Another great one is this one by Yardley of London for Face Slicker Frosty Blusher, “It shimmers.  It softens.  It glows up your face.”  It also features another romantic looking blonde in flowers and lace.  But this one has the addition of the dashing young gentleman – suitably mustached and mod shaggy-haired.  And the prize for wearing this frosty slick on your face?  Why, him!  “What you get is a gentleness.  A face soft-spoken.  And him, love.  And him.”

Sigh… 🙂

~Marilyn Huttunen

Olivia Hussey ~Juliet~ for 60s Yardley of London

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Fashion, Vintage.

Olivia Hussey remains one of the most iconic beauties of the 60s for me, along with Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.  God, she was sheer perfection.  I was a very awkward 13 year old in 1968 when The Franco Zeffirelli production of Romeo and Juliet came out.  Of course, I trundled off to the movies and saw the fantastic production starring her and Leonard Whiting (who was extremely dreamy).  It was completely riveting!

Not only being a movie fan, I was an avid fashion magazine devotee.  Playing off her Juliet role and exquisite beauty, Olivia Hussey had a great advertising run with the iconic Yardley of London.  They had the new Poetry Collection of lipfrost lipsticks, with shades such as Juliet’s Blush, Romeo Red, Balcony Amber, and Poetic Pink; Yardley’s new love poem for lips, and soft and silver-touched.  All so wonderfully romantic for us dreamy-eyed teens.

Olivia also advertised Yardley’s Next to Nothing Makeup.  With her flawless English complexion, she was perfect for the ad.  But for me and my pimples, this was truly stretching it to think it would ever work for me.  But I did get to dream a bit of having perfect skin, ethereal beauty, and a Romeo of my own.  The enigmatic and gorgeous Olivia Hussey made me think it so.

~Marilyn Huttunen

Mod 1963 Fluffy Mohair Sweaters

Posted by & filed under Fashion, Vintage.

I normally post the knitting instructions to vintage sweaters I blog about, but these groovy sweaters from the October, 1963 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal didn’t have the instructions in the magazine.  Instructions were available by sending 25 cents to LHJ, but since 49 years have passed, I’m quite certain that the instructions are no longer available!

Anyhoo, I just really like the look of these sweaters.  Most are knit in 100% mohair and are shown in bright jewel-tone colors.  My favorite is the pink turtleneck.  The models’ striped cropped pants and bright ballet flats are especially fab!  Of course, it was the 60s so cigarette holders were de rigueur; along with the perky flip hairdo.

One thing I know for sure is that fluffy sweaters will always remain in style!

~Marilyn Huttunen

 

Diane von Furstenberg and the Iconic ’70s Wrap Dress

Posted by & filed under Beauty, Fashion, Vintage.

The iconic Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress remains a classic to this day, and is just as fresh and bold as it when it debuted in the 1970s.  I ran across this September/October 1976 issue of Vogue Patterns magazine at Goodwill yesterday, with a striking pose of the fabulous Diane von Furstenberg on the cover.  Of course, being a huge DVF fan through the years, I snapped it up as quickly as I could.

The article (“The Princess and Her Prints”) tells the now well-known tale of how the newly-married (to Prussian Prince Egon von Furstenberg) Princess showed three dresses that she had designed to Diana Vreeland, then Vogue’s editor-in-chief.  One of the dresses was featured in Vogue magazine in 1970, and that, with a $30,000 investment, was the start of her dress empire.

Being a teenager in the early 70s, I remember the sartorial splash that the DVF wrap dress generated.  At the time, I was really into wearing Betsey Johnson, Kenzo, and the like;  I felt like the wrap dress was more suited to “older” women — you know, like those in their 20s and 30s (ha!), so I never wore one then.  Plus the fact that I remember the cost of the DVF wrap dress as being way beyond my teenaged babysitting budget.

The really cool thing is that Vogue patterns made the wrap dress pattern in 1976 (Very Easy Vogue pattern #1548).  You could make up your own dress in the classic bamboo, dalmation, geometric and floral DVF  knit fabrics by Cohama.

Pattern #1548 is still kicking around.  You can find it on eBay from time to time, usually bid up to a high amount, it’s very popular.  I’ve had the luck of finding several Vogue #1548’s over the years and, since I don’t sew, sold them on eBay to very happy buyers.

The DVF wrap dress continues to be in the news.  Republican Ann Romney was shown recently wearing a vivid DVF wrap dress.  Since Diane von Furstenberg is die-hard Democrat, I don’t know how she felt about that.  But lets hope the wrap dress will remain bipartisan!

“Feel like a woman, wear a dress!” ~ Diane von Furstenberg

-Marilyn Huttunen