Sindy Our Pedigree Girl Of The 60's

By the 70's, Sindy was a household name and just about every little girl wanted or had a Sindy doll and her fabulous clothes and scenesetters.  Here's a couple of pictures of Pedigrees shelf layouts for toy stores from that period, how I wish I could tavel back in time and raid those shelves !.........

The 70's was a decade that certainly had fun with fashion ! This was a decade that didn't take itself too seriously, although there were some beautiful formal wear creations.

Jeans were a MUST by now and started off the decade with a  gentle flare, which went up to a REALLY wide flare by about 1975. By now Teenagers were customising their jeans. Sew or stick on patch's were very popular, usually a slogan, flag or smiley face. Embroidery was also used..tie dye became very popular, mostly on T shirt's and often on cheese cloth shirts, cheese cloth being a big fashion fabric in the early 70's.

Skirts and dresses were worn in a variety of lengths from mini, to midi, to maxi, popular fabrics were tweeds, velvet, gaberdine, denim, tartans and florals.

Shoe's and boots were worn platform style for most of the decade, the higher the better !

With decent heating in cars, and houses being built with central heating already installed the need for coats and layers wasn't so great, so car coats and thick heavy coats for car travel disapeared and jackets and lighter mac style coats were more popular. Velvet jackets were a big fashion item, with wide lapels.

Pheasant style was very popular, with flowing skirts and gypsy tops, gathers, puff sleeves and layers with frilly petticoats and frothy lace were all used to great effect.

Sindy as usual, followed fashion..Here are some of her 70's creations.....

Pinny Party really captures the spirit of the early 70's with it's 'Hippy'/ peasent / Victorian look. A full length cotton dress covered in bright colouful daisy type flowers with elasticated cuffs is covered by a pinafore dress of shorter legth in canary yellow lace with smock top and frilled 'sleeves' and hem. So pretty and so of it's time, a prime example of Sindy really emulating the fashions oif the time. Even Sindy's hair, in it's soft bouncy curls was perfect, just like she had spent an hour under her hood hairdryer with her barrel rollers in.

Theatre Time gives us a similar look, this time the overlaying dress being shorter still, using the popular fabric of the time, velvet, in a dusy pink to pick out the stylised flowers on her skirt and sleeves, again the top has a 'smock' style to it and gathers are used at the top of the sleeves. A very pretty outfit that would have looked stunning in the theatre bar inbetween performances.

This outfit, 'Night Spot' or in the USA 'Lets Have A Dinner Party', uses brown and ivory satin trimmed with gold braiding to great effect, the perfect dinner party oufit for the popular hostess, all Sindy needed was a hostess trolly to make the scene complete, but she had to wait until the 80's for that ! In complete contrast to the last two outfits, this one used very pared down, simple tailoring, letting the shimmer of the rich satin, and sparkle of the gold braiding do all the 'hard work'. You can just imagine Margot Leadbetter in this creation !

  In 1973 Sindy wore 'Lounger' for those dinner parties and social get togethers. Gypsy style, or peasent dresses were the height of fashion and this is an excellent example of the dresses women were wearing at that time. Sindy's dress was made in nylon, but the blue and yellow paisley print version shown here on the left, was made out of fine cotton. 'Lounger' came in a variety of patterns and colours, these is just four of quite a few variations. They have lovely detailing, The contrasting 'satin' front edged with white lace, more of the same near the hem of the dress and at the 'cuffs', the soft gathers aound the bottom of the 'skirt', and the up to the minute trendy patterns, just so of their time. This is a very popular dress with collectors.

 Here's Vicki in 1973's 'Summer Party', this is a versatile dress in that it can be worn by a long haired Sindy, in  hippy style look, or, as seen here, by Vicki, in a more 'Empire' style look. Made of stretch bouclé type nylon with shiny metalic silver ric-rac braiding near the hem and half way up the puffed sleeves this is a very fashionable dress, and the beautiful lilac colour sets it off a treat.This also came with a silver sequined headband and a matching lilac dolly bag.

The Mini was still very much around in the early 70's and Sindy got very daring with this fine needlecord 'Tangerine Dress', this is often mistaken for a top ! This version is pictured with a home made scarf, as the original is hard to come by and when it is seen, commands a kings ransom to buy !Sindy can definatly be seen at the latest pop concert, Top of The Pops, or at the discoteque in this racey little number.

 The ´Coat Dress´ was a very fashionable item, worn either as a mini dress or light overcoat. This beautiful design was introduced on 'Walking Sindy' in 1971...made in a  nice thick cotton it has a three brass popper front fastening and is in a rich inky blue, peppered with stylised green, pink and white daisies, the pink collar matches exactly the pink dasies, mauve kitten heels were worn with this coat dress. Also issued with this outfit and walker was a yellow ribbed turtle neck sweater, green and yellow hounds tooth checked mini skirt and knee high yellow boots. This particular Sindy is a 1968 new look, not a walker.

These goregous bright and beautiful togs came from Sindy's budget and pocket money ranges.All are numbered rather than named and all have that 70's fashion fun element, bright colours and/or bold 'pattern', all perfect for either day wear or the disco !

'Puff Sleeves' was released in 1972, more smock type effect and gathered sleeves again, so popular way back then. The colours are fantastic, a real carry over from the 60's psychedelic  era. Another easy to wear dress for day time or disco, this one was sure to get Sindy noticed in a crowd !

1972's 'Floral Dress' went for a 'Victorian' look but brought bang up to date by cutting it way above the knee !Pretty patel pinks and blues were used in this dress, (although there are a few other variations as well ) finished off with delicate white lace at the collar, hem and gathered cuffs.This was a really pretty party dress and you can imagine Sindy dancing away with friends around the Dansette in the Living room. Or maybe out for a summers evening walk with Paul.

In 1974 Sindy could 'Feel Free' in this beautiful summerey creation. Light cotton in the most delicate of designs was fashioned into a cool, easy to wear summer mini dress, slightly 'smocked' at the neck, with litttle puff sleeves and bright yellow detailing on the sleeves and around the open neck, Sindy would always remain cool and comfortable during the long hot summers of years gone by, ideal for those beach walks, or tripping though a meadow with the smell of fresh mown grass and bird song in the air, bliss.

1975's 'Summer Smock' carried on the smocking, gathered sleeves, lace and pretty flower design, this time with a tiny pattern of  forget-me-not type flowers,a beautiful mixture of blue's with a hint of white to pick up on the pretty lace hem, another lovely dress for summer walks. I've accessorised this dress with the hat,(from Hat,Bag and Shoes) and Lace Stockings (from Nylons) from 1968.

Day Dress from 1971 really captured the style of the time, a twist on the smock top, an inverted pleat from just below the bust in bright pink cotton, with a funky take on a sort of William Morris design for the bodice of the dress. Fabulous flower power style top with a smart 'skirt', a great comination that looks great when Sindy pops to the shops or goes out for coffee with friends, or even goes dancing !

 In 1975 Pedigree introduced Sindy's Carry Case, a great way to store all those gorgeous Sindy outfits, and better still , a great way to take Sindy on holiday, or in fact, anywhere, with you ! The case was made in hardboard, covered in 'Sindy Pink' vinyl with a little PVC window for Sindy to look out of whilst travelling, 'Sindy' and a heart in white where printed on the front. Handles for this case came in either white or black.Here we see some beautiful Sindy's from 1974 and 1975, Pretty Pose Sindy on the far left, she was my sisters as a child, and I've had to 'rescue' her hair by means of a boil perm and hair cut, she looks almost 'Patch' like now, so cute. She is wearing 'Summery Days' from 1975.....1974 'Funtime' Sindy is wearing 'Wavy Navy' from 1974...and 1975 'lovely Lively' Sindy is wearing the outfit she was released in.

 When you opened the Carry Case it was divided into two sections, and covered in white vinyl.Sindy had her own space to travel in, and next to this was her closet space, with chrome metal hanging rail to hang her outfits from. A beautiful blonde 1975 'Pretty Pose' Sindy lives in my Sindy Carry case. Here she is, seen in the oufit she was released in (the yellow top in not the original, but a very cose match)

In this section you can look up which outfits were released each year, there will only be pictures of the outfits I have in my own collection though, for the others listed please look at Lorna's wonderful site, click on this link (below) and once entered in the site, click on Gallery, then choose the year/s you want to look at, each year is seperated into the outfits, and the Sindy's released that year. Many, many thanks to Lorna for this pricless mine of Sindy information.

Please note that some outfits in the gallery, which are original pictures from the various Sindy syle books released each year, were not actually issued, or were issued in a different variation to that shown, or were issued in the pettern shown, as well as other variations.

http://www.mysindy.com/enter/

 1970...........The year is 1970, a new decade, and Pedigree hailed in the new decade with three new Sindy's

 Firstly, 'Centre Part Sindy', as she is known to collectors. She was released in no less than 6 different outfits and available in brunette, titian and blonde. She had the old style Sindy head like new look 'sidepart' with 'real' eyelashes, but instead of the side part, her hair was, as the name suggests, centre parted and held down with an elastic 'Alice' band into a shoulder length flip hairdo. The outfits she was available in were, 'Fun Furs', 'Midi Look' ,'Sunshine Girl', 'Miss Sindy', 'Fashion Girl' and out from the back of the closet came 'Weekenders' again.

Also new for 1970 was Lovely Livley, a brand new concept in Sindy, she could now rotate her wrists, shoulders and hips, easily bend her arms and legs, as well as move her head on a new ball joint as opposed to the usual head and neck all moulded in one, as in the Centre Part Sindy's.And also twist her waist ! She was released in a deep pink patterend jumpsuit with white belt worn on the hips, I have yet to see this version in 'real life' so I am only going by catalgue pictures for this particular Sindy.

Lastly, but certainly not least, and a HUGELY popular Sindy with collectors, was 'Walking Sindy', centre parted hair, wearing a houndstooth check mini skirt in bright green and yellow, with ribbed cotton jersey yellow turtle neck sweater and knee length yellow boots, she had a mechanism in the top of her legs where they joined the torso which allowed the legs to 'swing' and kick forward when she was 'pushed' along a surface, not 100% succesful to be honest, but novel, and imensley popular never-the-less.

Click on this link to go to my other Sindy site and a page full of 70s fashions year by year...

http://pic6.piczo.com/SindyOurPedigreeGirlOfThe60s/?g=32676897&cr=6