Timeless

Yours truly making a statement

 
I just bought the October 1967 issue of Glamour Magazine that had been eluding me for years. I was a "house model" (meaning I worked there so didn't have to be paid) and appeared in several issues, especially in the early days of my 25 years in the art department.

Somewhere from here to there I lost my collection of magazines and have been trying to replace as many as I could remember. October 1967 finally appeared on ebay. Let's just say what was 50 cents then cost fifty times as much to replace and is worth every penny.

Besides revisiting my much younger self, it was great fun to flip through the whole issue. 1967 was not entirely the swinging era we think of as the '60s. There are plenty of ads for girdles, home permanents and other implements of torture as well as several for silver patterns and china to fill your hope chest. The fashions, however, are eerily modern and would not seem terribly out of place today.

Take a look at this gallery of "after" models in their 1967 looks:

Oh boy, do I still love this one...

 
The feature I appeared in was a makeover story. Glamour (and its readers) loved makeovers, and we did as many of them as we could dream up. For the most part they were 100% authentic. I remember one where we even made-over 50 employees in a mid-western bank.

This one, called "Please Make Me Over" was followed by an interview, "Men Talk About Makeovers," and a quiz, "Do You Feel/Act Like a Beauty?" Many of the thirty subjects came from Glamour's staff and friends. I did not ask for a makeover, but who wouldn't want some free fashion advice and a day off work?

We shot in Central Park. Designated for the October issue, this was probably in mid-June, thus the incredible lushness of the surroundings. My story's "hook" was, as a small girl (5' 3 1/2" at the time and smaller now), I was wearing a too-big coat. Well, that coat was really mine. I wore it all the time, and loved it. I'd worn it all through art school in frigid Cleveland and couldn't seem to let go. Today we'd call it "oversized", just another style option.

The "after" coat was a green, pink, yellow and black plaid with black velvet collar and cuffs. It was adorable and cost $100, or $718 in 2019. I would no more spend that on a coat today than I would have spent $100 in 1967, but there's probably not a winter goes by I don't remember it fondly.

It was impractical. Back then any purchase would have to go with x amount of things rather than be its own glorious statement. The years may have changed my tune some. There are times you just want to make a statement. But that was then, and the clothes budget was very, very tight.

I was, however, no fool. At the time I had just met my now husband of 51 years. He was headed off to Army Reserve summer camp, and that photo was the one I gave him to remember me by.