Orla Kiely coming to Q ?

[Brissles]

I've never heard of her too, but doesn't she have a range of 70's style shoes on the Clarks website, platforms and all that...reminded me of my old school shoes :mysmilie_17:

Have you not noticed the figure 8 leaf pattern in mainly greens and oranges, replicating the 70's design - its on crockery, curtains and other soft furnishings. You may have not known the name Orla Kiely, but she's the designer responsible for it all, in the same way that Cath Kidston is known for everything floral.

 

[Whatsgoinon?]

Recognised the pattern, now you've mentioned it and had a quick look at her website too...nice stuff, but very expensive.

 

[Totally Loopy Lou]

It cracks my mum up the way I love all the stuff which she too set up home with! My folks were married in '74 and mum always says there was SO much less choice that everyone had v similar stuff. The other day I was thrilled to get a bargain pair of vintage M&S curtains from eBay - white with teal and olive green floral/geometric pattern. I think they look fab with my 70's glass collection on a shelf to the side, but when mum saw them she nearly gagged because she'd spent a decade with a bedspread in the same design! If only she'd kept it

For their ruby wedding anniversary last year my brother dressed up in what my dad wore to the wedding - flares and conked brown platform boots and skinny jacket/tie and I squeezed myself in to mum's wedding dress with her brown dried flowers!! Their faces were a picture!!

 

[DunmowDizzy]

It cracks my mum up the way I love all the stuff which she too set up home with! My folks were married in '74 and mum always says there was SO much less choice that everyone had v similar stuff. The other day I was thrilled to get a bargain pair of vintage M&S curtains from eBay - white with teal and olive green floral/geometric pattern. I think they look fab with my 70's glass collection on a shelf to the side, but when mum saw them she nearly gagged because she'd spent a decade with a bedspread in the same design! If only she'd kept it

For their ruby wedding anniversary last year my brother dressed up in what my dad wore to the wedding - flares and conked brown platform boots and skinny jacket/tie and I squeezed myself in to mum's wedding dress with her brown dried flowers!! Their faces were a picture!!

You make it sound so lovely Lou, especially the brown dried flowers! LOL

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I assume that you mean that it was fresh flowers in 1974 but that they had been dried to preserve them? (I certainly hope so!)

 

[Totally Loopy Lou]

I assume that you mean that it was fresh flowers in 1974 but that they had been dried to preserve them? (I certainly hope so!)

Didn't realise someone had commented on this so only just saw it but I hate to break it to you, but they WERE dried flowers AT the wedding!! It was quite a look The colour scheme was browns/oranges (special!) and the bridesmaids were in high-necked, long-sleeved dresses (it was mid February to be fair) in a brown and cream patterned fabric. My God mum who was one of the bridesmaids was laughing with us about it the other day, but said mum's wasn't even the worse bridesmaid dress she'd worn because her brother put her in stiff peach taffeta in the early '80's!!
Mum's wedding dress was actually really pretty, it was an Edwardian original gown, so she did pull it off!

 

[Vienna]

Didn't realise someone had commented on this so only just saw it but I hate to break it to you, but they WERE dried flowers AT the wedding!! It was quite a look The colour scheme was browns/oranges (special!) and the bridesmaids were in high-necked, long-sleeved dresses (it was mid February to be fair) in a brown and cream patterned fabric. My God mum who was one of the bridesmaids was laughing with us about it the other day, but said mum's wasn't even the worse bridesmaid dress she'd worn because her brother put her in stiff peach taffeta in the early '80's!!
Mum's wedding dress was actually really pretty, it was an Edwardian original gown, so she did pull it off!

I had to smile at this because it brought back memories of being a bridesmaid at my sister`s wedding in 1969. The bridesmaid dresses were made from a multicoloured crimplene fabric and my sister`s wedding dress was in white crimplene. I hated my dress !!!

 

[Turandot]

Didn't realise someone had commented on this so only just saw it but I hate to break it to you, but they WERE dried flowers AT the wedding!! It was quite a look The colour scheme was browns/oranges (special!) and the bridesmaids were in high-necked, long-sleeved dresses (it was mid February to be fair) in a brown and cream patterned fabric. My God mum who was one of the bridesmaids was laughing with us about it the other day, but said mum's wasn't even the worse bridesmaid dress she'd worn because her brother put her in stiff peach taffeta in the early '80's!!
Mum's wedding dress was actually really pretty, it was an Edwardian original gown, so she did pull it off!

Brown and orange was all the rage in the late 70's, this post reminded me of our first flat.There was an orange feature wall in one room with a chocolate brown shag pile fitted carpet. In the bed room the feature wall was chocolate brown .But it's true there was much less choice.For wedding presents we got three stainless steel tea sets.Happy days !

 

[Whatsgoinon?]

Brown and orange was all the rage in the late 70's, this post reminded me of our first flat.There was an orange feature wall in one room with a chocolate brown shag pile fitted carpet. In the bed room the feature wall was chocolate brown .But it's true there was much less choice.For wedding presents we got three stainless steel tea sets.Happy days !

This has brought back memories...my dear departed Dad had his first heart attack in the early 70's whilst on holiday in Wales, because it was school holidays Mum and I stayed with relatives throughout the summer nearby and my sister and cousin had to return home because of work. They decided to decorate the hall and landing for our return, you can imagine our surprise when we opened the front door...it was bright orange!! They worked in Woolies and got a job lot :mysmilie_17:

 

[theresa b]

I remember my Aunt having her stairs and landing bright orange in the 70's - it certainly woke you up.... lol
:mysmilie_13:

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

When I married in 1971 the Anne Boleyn look was a real high end designer look for wedding dresses so I quite liked my dress as it was totally different although what I would have really liked was a Edwardian riding habit look complete with hat and face veil but God only knows where I thought I was going to get that I dont know!

I've always been interested in interior design (makes up for inability to have fashion due to crap body shape ) and in the 70's paint was the cheapest method of changing styles so I used to repaint everything with every colour combination under the sun! Even orange although TBH orange and yellow are the only 2 colours I don't really like. Now purple, that featured very heavily!

Most of the paint came from Woolies as that was the best quality/value at that time.

 

[Craftalot]

When I married in 1971 the Anne Boleyn look was a real high end designer look for wedding dresses so I quite liked my dress as it was totally different although what I would have really liked was a Edwardian riding habit look complete with hat and face veil but God only knows where I thought I was going to get that I dont know!

I've always been interested in interior design (makes up for inability to have fashion due to crap body shape ) and in the 70's paint was the cheapest method of changing styles so I used to repaint everything with every colour combination under the sun! Even orange although TBH orange and yellow are the only 2 colours I don't really like. Now purple, that featured very heavily!

Most of the paint came from Woolies as that was the best quality/value at that time.

Blue interior woodwork?

 

[Vienna]

We had a purple and lilac bedroom and an orange, beige and brown living room when we married in 73. It was the tiniest flat and we had no room for a 3 piece suite so we had an orange swivel chair and a regular armchair and a couple of bean bags. No dining table (no room for one ) just a nest of small teak tables and the kitchen was so narrow you struggled to turn around in it and could stretch out your arms and touch both walls. We also shared a bathroom with 2 other flats. When I look back, we had nothing but were really proud of what we did have, every item saved for or passed onto us by parents or friends. No fitted wardrobes, no fitted kitchen, no automatic washing machine, in fact no washing machine at all and a weekly trip to a launderette, no microwave, no car, no freezer bar a 6 inch space at the top of the secondhand fridge !

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Blue interior woodwork?

At one time yes! Of course I shall call it "my blue period" if it's good enough for Picasso it's good enough for me.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

We had a purple and lilac bedroom and an orange, beige and brown living room when we married in 73. It was the tiniest flat and we had no room for a 3 piece suite so we had an orange swivel chair and a regular armchair and a couple of bean bags. No dining table (no room for one ) just a nest of small teak tables and the kitchen was so narrow you struggled to turn around in it and could stretch out your arms and touch both walls. We also shared a bathroom with 2 other flats. When I look back, we had nothing but were really proud of what we did have, every item saved for or passed onto us by parents or friends. No fitted wardrobes, no fitted kitchen, no automatic washing machine, in fact no washing machine at all and a weekly trip to a launderette, no microwave, no car, no freezer bar a 6 inch space at the top of the secondhand fridge !

I didn't have either a washing machine or a launderette, all hand washing until I got a Burco (sp?) boiler which boiled the bejesus out of everything, then later a spin dryer and then came the day when I got an AUTOMATIC, how posh was I, passed right over the twin tub. My mum didn't like it at all because it took so long for the wash cycle unlike the twin tub which she had a relay system of clothes in and out and in and out.

 

[Vienna]

My Mother swore by a twin tub until one year, by which time she was in her 60`s she badly broke her arm in a fall and couldn`t lift anything or get her plaster wet so we all clubbed together and whilst she was out with my Dad we had an automatic washing machine plumbed in for her. She hated it on sight and spent the rest of her life moaning it took too long to wash a load and she could have done a full week`s washing in the same length of time with her good old twin tub.

 

[Craftalot]

I had a secondhand Rolls Rapide twin tub, which at the time I thought was the bees knees. What annoys me now is that kids setting up home today (including my eldest daughter, I might add) assume that as a right they should have all the latest, newest mod cons, new sofas, new carpets, new EVERYthing. Indeed, my own was most put out that she couldn't afford a Miele oven in a tower AND a top-of-the range washing machine like her mother, and when I suggested very nicely that she might like to save up for it she told me 'oh no, we'll just have to extend our overdraft'! How expectations have changed. But then we didn't have to save years-worth of salary for a deposit on a flat, like they have.

 

[Tangle foot]

Q set me a survey to complete a few weeks ago asking who you would like to see on Q I think the choices were Orly Kiely, The White Company or Cath Kitson. I replied The White company but the questions were all about orly Kiely. I don't like her stuff too chintzy for me. I won't be buying.

 

[BusyLizzie]

What memories reading this thread! We got married in 1971 too and scrimped and saved for the deposit on our first house but had hardly anything in it....we had each other and that was the most important thing for us. We appreciated all the things given to us by family and friends such as my late parents' kitchen/dinette set. Couldn't stretch to a three piece suite but loved the two Vono swivel chairs with our shag pile rug and glass-top coffee table. Thought we were the bees knees when we did up our dining room and splashed out on Nathan Teak furniture which was the 'in' thing of the day. No washing machine either, not even a Baby Burco....used a great big pan on the English Electric cooker to boil up towels and flannels, all the rest was done by hand. We were so excited when we'd saved up enough money to buy other things because we loved seeing building up our belongings which were all ours....nothing on credit. The only 'debt' we had was the mortgage and that was our way of life. Hard to believe that 44 years have now passed by but those memories will remain in my heart forever.

 

[BusyLizzie]

Meant to say....when we could afford it we splashed out on our first washing machine, the Hoover Keymatic. Anyone else remember those? I have to say that it was the best washing machine I have ever owned, no tangling of clothes or whatever. I fail to understand how the model I have today can manage to turn things inside out once put in the machine, it drives me nuts!