Dusty Springfield

Every now and then we get pretty obsessed with a vintage icon, a woman (or man) who really defined an era with their style. One of those people has to be the glamorous Dusty Springfield. Famous for her soulful singing in the 60s, Dusty also created a strong look with her blonde beehive, panda eyes and lavish dresses. And interestingly, this look was all thanks to another great soulful singer... 

Dusty Springfield's look epitomised the style of the Swinging Sixties as much as her songs did....one night in 1965, after sharing top billing with Shirley Bassey, Dusty sneaked into the Welsh singer's dressing-room to find out who made her stunning outfits. - Louise Sleigh

It turns out that the designer of all these lavish ball gowns was Eric Plant of Darnell of London, who is pictured above. Apparently the two would spend hours decided exactly what Dusty should be wearing on stage, especially at her TV performances. From the long beaded gowns to the Quant inspired sequin mini dresses. The footage and photography from this era was often in black and white so we can't see the gorgeous colours and glittering details, so I'm really excited to have found this colour photo (photographer unknown).

Here are two more of Plant's Darnell designs that Dusty wore during the 60s and 70s while performing on TV. Just look at all that heavy embellishment! Ridiculously glam.

You may have noticed that Springfield's hair was ever changing in the 60s, here is a lovely quote from her obituary explaining exactly why that was!

She had three wigs for different occasions. Wig Number One was called Cilla, Number Two was Lulu and Number Three was Sandie. I found her tossing one of the wigs all around the dressing room. I said, "Hi Dusty, am I interrupting something?" She said: "I'm just giving Cilla a good kicking!" The odd thing was you wouldn't recognise Dusty without her wigs, false eyelashes and make-up. I think that was a kind of mask that helped give her confidence. Chris Welch

As soon as we venture into the 70s the hair starts to flow down to the shoulders and she is often seen in gorgeous maxi dresses in metallic lurex fabrics just like this one from a session by Harry Langdon. And check out that head dress! So pretty.

We will leave you with a load of images of Dusty and her fabulous style, it's fair to say she epitomised the fashion of the era with her outfits as well as her music and soulful singing. So here you go, enjoy, be inspired and get ready to buy some sequinned minis!

Gina x