The Best Fashion Collection

L.A. Woman

The atmosphere of life in L.A. was captured perfectly in the 1969 edition of the Pirelli Calender. L.A. was the hippest and wildest place to be in the late sixties and seventies. For many musicians going to L.A. was a real treat. The popular hangouts: Rainbow Bar & Grill, the Whisky, Thee Experience, London Fog, The Troubadour, etc. I included some photos of some of the other colorful characters that haunted the strip.

L.A. Club

Jim and Pam

Pamela Des Barres

Gto's

Morgana Welch

Thee Experience

The Trip

L.A. nightlife

(photos from hollywoodhangover.com, and by Harri Peccinotti)

Redlands & the Aftermath

Redlands: was the infamous home of Rolling Stone Keith Richards. Keith bought the property in 1966. There were two incidents which made Redlands part of The Rolling Stones lore: the 1967 bust and the fire in 1973. The Bust: It began on a quiet Sunday in February when Redlands, the Sussex country home of Stone’s guitarist Keith Richards was raided by a force of twenty police officers. Richards was hosting a weekend party attended by Mick Jagger the Stone’s singer, a couple of the Beatles and other friends and notables of swinging London.The raid came after a tip off by a tabloid newspaper. Jagger and Richards were busted for drug possession. The raid became known as the Redlands Bust.When the case came to trial the police luridly played up the image of Marianne Faithfull as Miss X wearing nothing but a fur rug which she deliberately “let fall” from time to time during the raid. Jagger and Richards were convicted and sentenced to prison for three and twelve months. There were many protests by Fans and others in the Pop community. The fire occured six years later. In August 1973, sometime in the early morning, the house burnt down. It was a desperate scene, with the dry thatch quickly going up in smoke above their heads. Keith and Anita managed to escape to the garden, where she apparently berated him while police and fire engines clanked up the lane. "Fucking hell, Keith! Fucking hell! the only reason for coming down here was so we could get some rest, and now look at it! Go on. Look at it!" "Not too good," Keith was forced to concede, as the roof fell in, sending up a shower of sparks, just as Spanish Tony managed to lug the huge refectory table out onto the lawn. Everyone spend the rest of the that night giving statement, and then dozing fitfully in the guest cottage. It would take three years to rebuild.
Keith with his dog Ratbag

Marianne's innocent image before the bust.

The day of the bust

Terry Southern: "Morning after the Redlands bust is what I make of this shot." Keith: "So it would appear." Terry: "I can just make out the headline: Naked Girl at Stones Party. And that girl was, correct me if I am wrong, a certain Ms. M. Faithfull. Keith: "Well, I believe it's a matter of, how do you say, public record. Actually she was covered with a fur coat" . Terry:" She may have flashed. Flashed the coppers." Keith: "Marianne? Not bloody likely." Terry: "Flashed the coppers to craze them, you see. She fabulously endowed by all accounts." Keith:"But it wouldn't be like Marianne to flash the coppers, or anyone else for that matter. Too much class. In fact, I think she had gone to bed and had the coat over her." Terry: "As a simple coverlet." Keith: "Exactly."

Girl in the Fur Rug collage

Anita and Brian visit Redlands

The Fire

Anita yelling at Keith

among the ruins
..among the things saved: the fur rug Marianne was wearing during the raid

Redlands now

(photos by Michael Cooper, from Faithfull, rollingstones.net, www.geocities.com/Heartland/Woods )

Suit-able for Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a major factor in making menswear looks popular for women. She wore a tuxedo and top hat in her first American film Morocco, made in 1930.

She continued to wear trouser suits off screen as well as on. Travis Banton designed many of them, which she would wear with a man's shirt and tie and a fedora style hat. No one but Marlene could manage to look so feminine in such severe styles.

We just listed this 1940's tuxedo style suit at our site. Certainly Dietrich worthy, it will look great with or without that shirt and tie!

See this suit and more at Couture Allure Vintage Fashion.

California Dreamgirl

I've already done a post on Michelle Phillips but, since it's summertime I thought another post on the ultimate California sunshine girl would be nice. Michelle “stepped out of a dream,” John Phillips would rhapsodize in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. She was “the quintessential California girl.… She could look innocent, pouty, girlish, aloof, firey.” Michelle says, “John was 25, married with two children, from an East Coast Catholic military family. He had gone to Annapolis, he performed in a suit and tie—he had never met anyone like me!” Her uniqueness in John’s eyes was no small thing. Michelle to John was a fascinating hybrid just over the Zeitgeist’s horizon: a street girl, to be sure (“She would have fit into the Ronettes or the Shangri-Las perfectly,” he’d later say), yet seasoned in high culture and political idealism—and with that angelic face. John used to tell Michelle she was the first flower child he had ever met. Michelle went on to be John's muse for most of the hit singles for they're group The Mamas and the Papas.