'70s Stylespiration: Thea Porter Exhibition

L-R: British Vogue, 1970; British Vogue, 1969; British Vogue, 2005

L-R: Thea in her workroom; Persian print maxi coat; Model in window of Thea Porter Decorations Ltd., Greek Street, c. 1970

L-R: British Vogue, 1975; British Vogue: 1971

Ok, you know how I keep promising to stop banging on about '70s style? Yeah, well, about that...

Today, I was introduced to the designs of Thea Porter at the Fashion and Textile Museum's retrospective exhibition of her work, and it turns out that, despite her relatively low public profile, she played a pretty darn crucial role in giving us '70s boho chic as we know it, by bringing the fabrics and cuts of her formative years spent scouring the souks of the Middle East to the streets of Soho, and "Swinging London"...

So not to give her some well-deserved credit would just be plain rude, no? I mean, just look at those '70s Vogue editorials up there... what stylist/designer/photographer wouldn't kill to have these shots in their portfolio right now (and wouldn't life be so much more fun if men still wore coats like that)?

Anyway, scroll on down for my shots from the exhibition (which you can still catch if you're quick - it closes on Sunday) - aside from dresses galore (obvs), there are reams of gorgeous extracts from Thea's personal scrapbooks on display - it's a (nosy) vintage lover's paradise!

The Clothes...

This coat was made from an actual Iranian carpet!

Thea's actual living room mirror... sporting Thea's actual face - genius.

Still setting the style agenda into the '80s...

The Scrapbooks...

Were you already aware of Thea? What do you think of her creations?

Join Me On: