Serial Influences Fashion

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 2

Serial Influences Fashion

British women are keeping a close watch on the wardrobe of Emma Peel, heroine of the television series “The Avengers”, for fashion trends for 1966. In the earlier series the heroine was Cathy Gale (played by Honor Blackman) whose black leather outfits brought a tremendous demand from women viewers for copies. It is expected that whatever Emma Peel (Diana

Rigg) wears will create a similar interest. If the Cathy Gale look swept Britain, the Emma Peel look is all set to conquer the world, says the British publication, “A Woman’s View.” Copies In Stores Throughout Britain major stores are opening up new departments featuring Emma’s wardrobe with the accent on pop art, carried out in striking black and white geometrical designs. Early in the New Year copies of her dazzling clothes and accessories will be on sale wherever the series is shown. The man behind the Emma

Peel styles is John Bates, one of London’s leading young designers, whose Mayfair salon bears the title “John Bates and Jean Varon." The fashion house makes only day and evening dresses, but Bates has designed everything Emma wears and gets rival firms to make them up for him. Dazzling stripes and target motifs are the main pattern interests of the clothes made with skirts four to six inches above the knees. In some scenes Emma wears a short fur coat of black and white rabbit in bias-cut stripes with one sleeve black and the other white. She also wears a black and white catsuit in crepe. The leather look has not entirely disappeared and Emma wears it for a trouser outfit with a black jerkin slashed to the waist over a simple white crepe blouse. The girl who plays opposite the secret agent, John Steed (Patrick Macnee), faces tough fighting sequences most of her screen life and favours black stretch jersey outfits (trimmed with shining cine) for coming to grips with the viMians. With them she may wear a thigh-length raincoat in glistening white vinyl. In one episode she is invited to a banquet at a Scottish castle and arrives in belter hipster pants of ice blue lame

with matching brief top and boots. With it she takes a matching modesty jacket to overcome disapproval and to keep out draughts. Dateless Styles In designing this wardrobe John Bates has had to keep in mind that the series will have a screen “life” until 1970 —or perhaps longer—and the clothes must have a fashion look that is going to last. So he has set the seal on the short skirt and touches of shiny vinyl as allied fabrics and every variation on the trouser suit as being integral parts of women’s wardrobes throughout the 19605. The Emma Peel look in accessories includes black leather gloves slashed with white insets or scallops, and berets in white wool with a target motif covering the crown. White stretch stockings take shadow stripes to make the legs look long and slim and accentuate the short skirts, while low-heeled white vinyl shoes with instep straps vie with striped leather ankle boots for the fashion focus. And Steed the secret agent, is certainly not left out of the style picture. Many of Ms dapper nails and coats owe their peacock elegance to Steed himself as Patrick Macnee has had them tailored to his own designs.