Bell Street: sixties

Showing posts with label sixties. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wedding inspiration: Ten 60s celebrity weddings

It's no secret that I love the sixties. I've blogged before about sixties style, hair, dancing, guys, boutiques, and even how to have a sixties Christmas.

Now, here's some awesome sixties wedding photos for you to enjoy and possibly take inspiration from.

Audrey Hepburn & Andrea Dotti, 1969

Cilla Black & Bobby Willis, 1969 (She wore the amazing feather trimmed dress to her church ceremony and a red velvet mini with white tights to the registry office).

Elvis & Priscilla Presley, 1967

Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash, 1968 (her dress was blue lace!)

John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1969

Lulu & Maurice Gibb, 1969

Mia Farrow & Frank Sinatra, 1966

Patti Boyd & George Harrison, 1966

Pete Townshend & Karen Astley, 1968

Raquel Welch & Patrick Curtis, 1967

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Abra & George's Sixties Wedding

I have had these photos on my portfolio page for awhile, but only just realised that I haven't blogged about them yet. I got an email from Abra at the end of last year asking about a dress in my shop. Turned out she was planning an amazing sixties mod wedding and needed some very colourful bridesmaid dresses. This was a project I was VERY interested in (sixties dresses? bright clashing colours? yes!) so I offered Abra a bunch of options and she gave me the job. Yay!

I love how the dresses look on the girls, and hey - doesn't this look like such a fun wedding? I mean, we had a bit of a sixties theme at our wedding, but it was mainly reflected in the music. Every detail of this wedding is just so mod and I'm so proud to have played a small part in the overall look. The day was captured perfectly by photographer Mary Elam.

I really like doing custom projects like this so if you're interested in getting something made, don't hesitate to contact me!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Have a Very Sixties Christmas

Hello... Merry Christmas! Our shipment from Australia arrived yesterday so we've been busy unpacking and setting everything up... the apartment finally feels more like 'our place'! I've been distracting myself by making a sixties Christmas playlist (it's at the bottom of this post) and looking at lots of vintage Christmas cards and photos from the sixties.

How to bring a bit of sixties style to your Christmas day:

Pick two colours (red & white, maybe?) and wear only those colours from head to toe. There was no such thing as being 'too matchy-matchy'
Use LOTS of sparkle in your decorations. Glittery ornaments, silver wrapping paper and lots and lots of tinsel!
Go old-school with your pre-dinner nibblies. Try some devils on horseback, or cheese cubes and cocktail onions on toothpicks. Actually, anything on a toothpick is a good idea!
Make some ridiculously strong punch. Make sure it's pink!
If you're in a warm climate, wear a big silky dress or kaftan with lots of sparkly jewellery. In a cold climate, put on your best Christmas jumper with a pleated skirt and warm knee-high socks.

Hook some Christmas baubles onto a pair of earrings. The bigger, the better!

Listen to the Retro Christmas playlist I made specially for you!

Enjoy your Christmas festivities! On Christmas day we're going to a big Christmas buffet at the Shangri La restaurant. We got invited to it right after we'd bought all the food to make our own Christmas dinner, so we'll do our dinner on Christmas Eve instead. We'll be trying to recreate a good Aussie Christmas dinner (actually lunch but we call it dinner) with turkey, ham, all our favourite salads, and pavlova for dessert. We've got lots of fun drinks to invent some Christmas cocktails and we'll spend the day watching all the Christmas episodes of The Office and QI, and working our way through some movies - Love Actually, Elf, The Santa Clause, Muppets Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th St. Then we're going out for drinks with a friend and when we come home, we'll open our presents at midnight and have some more food - apparently it's the Filipino thing to do!
What are you doing for Christmas?

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Pete Townshend

I have mentioned plenty of times on this blog that I love The Who. They've been my favourite band for a long time, and they've been around for even longer! I was introduced to The Who by my year 11 English teacher who used to give us Who lyrics to analyse in class. Then he'd show us videos of them performing to give us a bit of context (and I suspect partly because he just wanted to show us videos of his favourite band).

I was hooked straight away and I've been a fan ever since. In 2009, they finally came to Australia (yes, with only half the original members still alive, they still tour in their sixties!) and my Dad and I saw them play. It was amazing!

Now, my favourite member has always been the lead singer, Roger Daltrey... but, like a fickle teenage fangirl, I'm mad at him for cancelling his Australian solo tour last year. As for Pete Townshend - the guitarist, the songwriter, the grumpy old artsy guy - I always thought he was really arrogant. However, I've been reading his book lately and found he's always been just as insecure and crazy as the rest of us.

So this post is dedicated to Pete, in all his weirdness, and to Mr Jenson, who passed away a few years ago but we'll always remember him for introducing us to The Who, David Bowie, and postmodernism.

I've had this picture on my wall for a really long time. I just love the union flag jacket!

I don't know the story behind this picture, and I don't really want to. All I see is Pete dressed as a Pearly King, performing a banjo concert for his cocker spaniel and some toys. That's good enough for me.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Sixties hair inspiration

I love all the amazing hair styles of the sixties. There were the super edgy, modern short styles popularised by Twiggy (top & bottom left), Edie Sedgwick (centre) and my idol, Mary Quant (top right)...

... the hilarious, so-much-hairspray-I've-created-my-own-helmet look seen on TV housewives...

...and the cute blunt fringes (or bangs, as US readers would call them) favoured by Cathy McGowan (top left) and that girl holding a giant pocket watch for no apparent reason (bottom left... as if she needed pointing out).

My favourite style is the loose, slightly messy layered styles full of volume, done to perfection by Brigitte Bardot (left), Jean Shrimpton (top right) and Steph from Quadrophenia (bottom right). How perfect is that beehive-ponytail in the orangey-yellow photo? I can never get my hair to do that.

I can, however, get a pretty good half-up-half-down beehive going when I make the effort.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Dancing Mods

This post would probably be more accurately titled 'Pictures of people in the sixties dancing and looking awesome'. Because I just love looking at pictures of people in the sixties dancing and looking awesome. I hope you do too.

Oh yeah, I also love The Who.

All of these photos come from the Dancing Mods Tumblr... which I actually made myself a few years ago, before I realised how time consuming tumblr is! I did leave it online though, and there is a button to submit so if you come across any pictures that fit in, send 'em in!

If you want to see GIFs of people in the sixties dancing and looking awesome, check out my Quadrophenia post and my 'Dance Like a Mod' post.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Reversible Skirt featured in WILD FIRE Magazine

Just a quick note to share these photos of Bell Street's blue & green reversible skirt featured in WILD FIRE magazine. WILD FIRE is a free online Vegan, Fair-Trade, Fashion, Food & Wellbeing magazine based in Melbourne, Australia. It can be downloaded from kohiilove.com or viewed on their Facebook page.

I love the location and styling of the sixties-influenced shoot.

Want the skirt? get it here!

Only three more days until I fly to Manila... and life has been crazy. Planning a wedding, finishing a master's degree and organising an international move is a lot to do in one month. I'm ready for a bit of a rest!