Retro Girls - photographs with style by Carole Evans

My very talented sister, Carole Evans, is a photographer whose project, Retro Girls, is being exhibited at Silverprint, 12 Valentine Place, London, SE1 8QH, telephone 020 7620 0844.

Retro Girls is a series of portraits of women who dress in the style of the 1940s and 50s. Reminiscent of high street portraiture of the era, the photographs are about style, nostalgia and female identity. For more information visit Carole's website and blog and Silverprint.

(All photographs courtesy Carole Evans who retains all rights to them - )

Tweed & Fair Isle - fusty or feisty? We can all be geography teachers now

In my recent sort through my wardrobe I came across a Fair Isle pullover that I'm pretty sure I bought in as a teenager in the early seventies from the long-missed Kensington Antique Hypermarket (there were a number of similar markets at that time that were treasure troves of sixties clothing).

I've hardly ever worn it, but it has missed the attention of our particularly voracious moths, so, influenced by the recent BBC Young James Herriot series, I thought I'd try it on (above).  The tweedy Fair Isle look reminds me of the clothes my teachers used to wear at school (yes, the geography teachers did wear tweed jackets with leather elbow patches).

Photo BBC

Photo BBC

A man of my age might be worrying about tweed and Fair Isle being too fusty* (see below), however, the look has been taken up seriously by the fashion industry, led by designers such as Ralph Lauren.  What do we think?  Fusty or no?

Here are some photos found on the web, sorry I don't know whose they are -

* fus·ty adj. fus·ti·er, fus·ti·est
1. Smelling of mildew or decay; musty.
2. Old-fashioned; antique.
[Middle English, from Old French fust, piece of wood, wine cask, from Latin fustis, stick, club.]
fusti·ly adv.
fusti·ness n

(From The Free Dictionary)