The Fashion Harvest

I'd like to introduce to you a brand new blog created by my talented (and beautiful) niece Faye. If you like fashion, vintage, thrifting and making, you will like this. And if, like me, you are no longer a Dedicated Follower of Fashion, you probably know someone who is. So hop over to The Fashion Harvest and take a look. I'm amazed at how fast Faye has become an expert blogger and she has already picked up a band of Followers - I'm jealous!

Faye is just 16 and has her eyes set on a career in fashion journalism. I think she's already on her way! And looking back at my 16 year old self I can see Faye and I would have had a lot in common. It was 1964 - I'd just started a college course in fashion and textile and spent hours drawing, cutting and stitching clothes using any fabric I could get my hands on. Of course there were no charity (thrift) shops then but we did recycle our clothes. I featured my favourite recycler Capable Kate here last year and many of you seemed to enjoy her then, so I give you three more pages from her notebook today.

Ahhh, those were the days! I loved the drawings of Moira Macgregor - the creator of Capable Kate in Honey magazine, and based my own drawing style on hers. I devoured all the teenage fashion magazines of the time - Honey, 19, Petticoat - and idolised the new designers, Mary Quant, Ossie Clarke, Barbara Hulanicki at Biba, Foale & Tuffin and others. And of course we all wanted to be Twiggy or Patti Boyd or any of the other iconic magazine models of the day.

You have no idea how flipping through my small collection of those old magazines takes me back to that time. They say smells are a memory jogger - and of course they are, but every page brings back such a strong memory I can almost believe I'm 16 again and wearing my op-art black and white dress!!!!! Yes, I'm afraid only half of me was caught in this photo - but I quite like it that way.....

I'm having blogger issues today and have reverted back to the old interface as I've lost this post three times! Shame - the new version has some excellent features.