Barbara, the clothes, and a guest on the blog

Barbara Cartland is the gift that keeps giving.

Last week I did a post on Matthew Sweet's wonderful new book, a biography of Barbara, The Great Dictator.

Barbara Cartland: Give Pink a Chance

I was going to do another post about her anyway, specifically on her books, but then an equally important aspect took centre stage.

The author liked my review, and also asked about Barbara's fashion sense. 

And then.... blogfriend Daniel Milford Cottam, staunch supporter of Clothes in Books and remarkable fashion expert (he's a regular on here) revealed in the comments that ....

... he owned some of Barbara's outfits, which were sold off at auction after she died

Well! Of course I immediately asked him if he could send some photos, and he was most obliging. 

So in a first for the blog, this is going to be mostly pictures, with some comments from Daniel. (We'll look at the books in a future post)

Daniel Milford Cottam: so I got them out of storage and took some quick record shots for you. If I was doing proper formal photography I'd be presenting them a LOT more nicely on properly padded figures with steaming on the creases, but these are good enough I think. [CiB: they are most certainly good enough, they're lovely, with fast turnaround]

The coat isn't exactly the same one in the signed photo [top of post, this was the photo she gave out as part of her press pack to visitors and interviewers], but it is a 1960s Norman Hartnell. Not 100% sure what the fur is, but I suspect it's arctic fox. 

The pink dress and coat are also 1960s Norman Hartnell and I took a pic of the wear on the sleeve cos you can tell she wore these clothes for decades and really looked after them even when they began to show wear. There are signs that the dress has been very carefully let out all over to accommodate slight increases. 

Here's the dress worn under the Hartnell coat:

...and a later (I'd say 1980s/90s) floaty wool dress with embroidered appliqués made by a "Court Dressmaker" called Patricia Sears. The back of the dress has this floating pink hem-length capey drapey overlay hiding the zipper, which is also a VERY Queen Mum style detail

CiB: Thanks so much to Daniel for getting them out and photographing them just for  us. My view of her fashion choices is that she decided what she liked, and what suited her, and stuck with it - good for her. She dressed to please herself, and did it with style and panache.

 Here's one final joyous detail from Daniel:

"I love this mannequin, it's VERY useful for (let us say) more 'matronly' garments as when I put these on my more fashion modelesque mannis, they look absolutely daft and way too large."