The Irish designer Sybil Connolly is most often associated with the fifties; however she was designing into the late sixties and even seventies as well. The photograph above is from 1966, but the combination of sixties’ makeup and fifties’ cut makes it look oddly modern; it would have been perfect for a recovering goth girl round 1991 or so. Lovely style; the indent at the waist makes all the difference and the cut of the shoulders and sleeves are beautiful.
Waists were Sybil’s strong point and I’m not sure she ever adjusted to the mini-skirted boyish sixties; also, the eighteenth-century flourish which was the essence of her style was difficult enought to translate into ready-to-wear, never mind made-at-home. I don’t think these patterns do her particular talent full justice; but the elegance and simplicity of the designs shown are a lot better than most of the stuff available even at the high-end of the market today and I also love the gloves and the hats. Enjoy!
Ah, those were the days. When clothes were apparently designed to flatter women and make them look more attractive!
I think there were problems with those days too, Siobhan, the main one being that everyone was supposed to follow the same style. The dresses in the pattern pics would look lovely on someone who was small breasted and relatively narrow hipped with slim legs – otherwise they would not look so good. Equally the one in the black and white pic would not look good on someone who was very tall or very short (or at least the skirt and sleeve length might need adjusting).
Now people can wear different styles which is marvellous – unfortunately this means that people have lots of different styles of clothes only some of which flatter them! Also unless you are very rich lots of clothes means lots of clothes of inferior quality! We are expected to have a variety of outfits; in the past people would have spent more money on clothes but had less of them. So difficult in a different way.
All very true. It’s just that sometimes it’s very soothing to watch some of these old films, or stories set in a more glamorous era, and see women looking groomed, rather than sporting the ubiquitous ‘hair cut with a knife and fork’ look. I saw a picture of Michelle Dockery (she of Downton Abbey fame) at some event recently, and she’s a very pretty girl, but didn’t look half as nice in the modern party frock as she had in those beautifully cut twenties costumes or with the coiled, elegant hairstyles. But you’re right, that was not available to us all; no doubt in that era I’d have been going around in a sack tied together with a bit of baling. I suppose the thing that irritates me is that people pay good money for that look now!
Yes, exactly! Some of the high-end stuff really is just sack and baling as far as wearability is concerned, very frustrating to see good material go to waste on horrible styles.
Other examples would be January Jones or Christina Hendricks who look amazing in Mad Men but are never as well styled at award ceremonies.
In case you’re interested, I’ll be giving a talk about Sybil (who I knew in her later years) at the Little Museum of Dublin on July 24th, to mark the 60th anniversary of Dunsany Castle fashion show which launched her international career.
Sounds fascinating! Thank you for letting me know… will look forward to it!
sybil connolly was my Godmother and I knew her well, my mother wore her clothes in the 60′s and always looked so chic..l have afew of her pleated linen ballgowns left, sadly no balls to go to alas..Love your stories about Dublin, I used to live in Kildare years ago, would come to Dublin to photogragh the little street urchins for my portfolio..great fun.
Thank you Sheila for commenting! Such a lovely story and how lucky you are to have pleated linen Sybil Connolly ballgowns in your wardrobe. If only every woman could be so fortunate.
Glad you like the blog! Sorry for the delay in replying, I thought I had put up a comment when I received yours, but obviously it didn’t go through – my apologies!