Sindy Our Pedigree Girl Of The 60's
The English Rose in 60's Clothes
Sindy's very own fashion designers, and designers to the stars !!!!
Sally Tuffin and Marion Foale were very up to the minute fashion designers by the time Sindy was ready to be launched way back in the early 60's. And so Pedigree approached them to design outfits for their brand new teenage fashion doll, Sindy !
The very outfit Sindy was sold in, Weekenders, was designed by them ! What an amazing start to Sindy's 'life'..her very first outfit designed by well known fashion designers of the time. In their original design for Sindy's jeans, the stitching was real stitching, but this provved to costly to produce, hence the printed version we see today. Also, Sindy's Matelot top had to be specially printed ! Usually manufacturers went to fabric suppliers and just chose small prints/stripes etc...but this particular strip in this scale couldn't be found.
Sally and Marion also designed 3 of Sindy's original outfits...Shopping In The Rain, Dream Date and Lunch Date...and two of her separates..Cape and Leather Looker. But who were/ are these popular fashion designers ?? Lets find out...............
A potted History Of Sindy's first designers...
Throughout her childhood and teens, Sally Tuffin designed and made clothes, firstly, as many children do, for her dolls..and then later, for herself.
In 1954 Sally enrolled in the Walthamstow school of art, with the intention of being a painter, but at the last moment she ended up on a fashion course ! It was here that she met Marion Foale and they became great friends. She did the three year course and then moved on to The Royal College Of Art, where she won a silver medal.They left The Royal College in 1961.
Sally Tuffin 14th April 1965 Marion Foale 14th April 1965
In the early 61 Sally and Marion began designing in a bedsit in London's Gloucester Road, at a time when clothes were quickly becoming a symbol of independence for teenagers.They both wore identical Vidal Sassoon Hair cuts ! It didn't take long before a move to bigger premises was in order, and so they took up a narrow house and shop front in Carnaby Street.They had 2 sewing machines and a steam iron ! And made clothes to order as fast as they could !...They designed for the 'Ready To Wear' market, filling a gap in the market with individual, fashionable clothes for young people. Looking back on the late 50's, Sally once said.."There were'nt clothes for young people at all. One just looked like ones mother !"
They were an imeadiate hit and they shunned Paris Fashions, and turned to 'fun clothes' ..saying "We suddenly didn't want to be chic, we just wanted to be ridiculous"...Marion Foale said.." We made swinging 60's clothes"...Soon they were selling all over the world and were employing two factories of outworkers, although their main priority was always to work for enjoyment rather than large profits.They were amongst the first designers to design trouser suits, and were well known for their lace dresses with cut outs under the arms, fine tailoring, smocking, and careful placement of bust darts.
Their designs were taken up by Woolands store, fashion shop 21 and New York trendy boutique 'Paraphanalia'...Even David Baily got in on the act and photgraphed their fashions fo Vogue magazine !! Sally and Marion were 'unusual' at the time, as they didn't want to have the customary male business backing. And, by 1963 they had fullfilled their ambitions of running a successful business without the help of a man !
Geometric prints were very much in fashion in the 60's and they were hot on this trial, their designs were very successfully promoted in the 'Youthquake' tour of May 1965 in the USA, which also featured designs from Mary Quant, modled by Sandra Moss, Sarah Dawson,Patti Boyd and her sister Jenny
'Double D' mini dress by Sally Tuffin and Marion Foale
Amongst Sally Tuffin and Marion Faole's most famous clients were singers, Cilla Black and Francoise Hardy, TV presenter Cathy McGowan and actress Susannah York.They actually designed Miss Yorks wardrobe for the 1966 film Kalidascope, in which she played 'Angel McGinnis'. In 1967 another movie comission followed when they designed part of the wardrobe for Audrey Hepburn in the film 'Two For The Road'.
Early 70's Tuffin and Foale clothing label
Yellow Towelling beach outfit 1968
Their clothing range was still going strong in the early 70's, but by the mid 70's they were both married with children and began to explore other avenues rather than clothes designing. Although Marion did keep a foot in the fashion business, designing knitwear, for which she is well known for. Also Sally ran a company from 1976-1982 called 'Tuppence Coloured', which did childrens mail order clothes.
Sally also designed pottery ! She and her husband Dennis rejuvanated Moorecroft pottery along with Hugh Edwards in 1987, Sally was designer and art director, among her famous designs are, 'Cluny', 'Penguins' and 'Finches'..in fact some of her china is so highly prized that when Phillips autioned a footbath in their first ever 'Sally Tuffin' auction, the bath, with 'Polar bears' design, fetched £2,300.00 ! Which was four times more then the estimate ! In 1992 they left Moorecroft and in 1993 began to produce their own range under the name of 'Dennis China'.
Also in 1993, Sally designed a vase for The Body Shop, in a rain forest pattern. The shape of the vase is ' Shape393/" ' and the pattern is called 'Brazil Nut'..There were only 100 made of these.
In 1996-98 Sally also designed for Poole pottery, and her range is still a best seller, so much so that British Airways chose one design for the tail fin of their planes ! The design featured Poole harbour and Sally's signiature, Sally said..." Fitting the image to a Boing 757 the size of a three story building was quite different...But I enjoyed the challenge"....I think that after fitting a 'clothing factory' into a bedsit in Gloucester Road, anything is possible !What amazing women.
Here's a link to interviews with Marion and Sally, it makes great reading...