We did it first
Intricately sewn floral patterns are all the rage, but we remember fashioning the embroidery trend first time round on everything from trousers to blouses to bags
Walk into any highstreet shop today and you’ll find yourself face to face with a familiar look... Embroidery is everywhere – on blouses jumpers, jackets and even on boots. The celebrity world is lapping up the look as the likes of Holly Willoughby, Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried and royal fashion leader, the Duchess of Cambridge, step out in pretty, embroidered styles. But hang on a minute! Doesn’t this feel like a strange case of déjà vu? Rewind back to the Sixties and Seventies and we can clearly remember going to town with our very own embroidery trend, well before many of these modern-day stars embracing embroidery today had even been born… While embroidery had been going on for centuries it was the Sixties that saw the style really take off. Almost overnight, the ‘it’ girls (and boys) of the decade emerged with their outfits newly inscribed with pretty little embroidered details. Everything denim in our wardrobe suddenly became worthless if it wasn’t emblazoned with some snazzy embroidered design. As we moved into the Seventies and hippie fever took hold, the popularity of embroidery soared even further as it brought life to everything from a flowery kaftan to khaki pants to a peasant blouse. Actress Raquel Welch, pictured top right, was one star to truly epitomise this Seventies’ embroidered look when she wore a fringed, florally embroidered (slightly risqué) kaftan. But embroidery was definitely not just for hippies and almost every sub-culture of the Seventies found a way to make embroidered fashion their own, so much so that you could spot a punk rocker or a disco queen a mile off by the style of embroidery on their togs. To help us figure out how to wear the embroidery trend properly – without looking like Annie Oakley or a Pearly Queen – we took inspiration at the time from the likes of Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner, actressmodel Candice Bergen and actress Charlotte Rampling who all loved the trend and helped spread its popularity far and wide.