Pippa Dee parties etc in 1970's/80's suburbia!

[merryone]

You can thank Duke of Cheese for making me think of this with his War on want/Richard Shops analogies. Being a child of the 70's being raised in Suburbia I was no stranger to the Tupperware/Pippa Dee party - I remember my mum hosting the latter on a couple of occasions and being super excited when a woman dragged a rail of polyester/Bri-nylon goodies into our front room along with a couple of similarly packed suitcases. Those lacy negligees and baby doll nighties just ooozed sophistication in my 11 year old eyes and of course I wanted everything, I remember the lady saying she'd brought along some children's clothes and opened a suitcase full of nylon nighties laced up to the collar and as long as you like, yep my mum bought me a purple/mustard stripey one with lace (itchy lace) collar and cuffs - cheers mum! She settled for a halter neck jumpsuit which was silver lame on top and had flared black legs I thought it was wonderful, and one day she said I would be able to wear it, and yes, that day came - Junior youth club disco, I didn't care that the socks needed constant readjustment and the pins kept digging into my ankles, but I thought I looked the "bees knees"! At a subsequent PD party my mum bought me a brown and white vest top and some matching shorts - So 1970's!
Any memories of these "parties" folks?

 

[merryone]

Hey, am I on my own? Gotta say some of the old stuff like Pippa Dee, and Tupperware was pretty good quality and lasted for years. In fact there's still some Tupperware bowls in the family from the 1960's and they're still serviceable! When I was old enough to host my own such party it was Anne Summers which was absolute junk, I can't vouch for any of the "hardware" ahem as I only ever bought a nightdress, and a few novelties.
I remember going to a perfume party I think the company was called Echoes, and you could buy dupes of all the expensive stuff. I bought Channel 19 and Giorgio of Beverley Hills, yes they smelt exactly the same but the fragrance only lasted about 5 minutes, so they were a real false economy. I actually wonder whether the testers were better quality than what the customers got when their order arrived.
Also does anyone remember "Cabochon" jewellery, it was another party plan company and it was really expensive. I remember ordering the cheapest thing, a pair of earrings to save face and sadly they never turned up, the host was really apologetic but I was actually quite relieved!

 

[mediastar]

I had a pippa dee skirt and blouse, the blouse was fuchsia and silky and the skirt was navy and pencil shape with kick pleats on the side seams where you might normally expect a split, I had it until well after I came up here in the early 80s. Tupperware we had in abundance, my mum did wedding catering and so storing leftovers was important and I also recall a really fancy vase, this was, I think, three separate parts that clicked together. The base was like a serving dish, although you could lay some flowers in it then there was a wider shorter vase with a tupperware take on the rose bowl cross hatching and a circular cut out in the centre of that so that a taller slimmer vase with another rose bowl cross hatch "lid". I think Mum used to arrange flowers in all three sometimes linked and other times separately and sometimes just the top two and she would use the base as a food platter!

 

[merryone]

I also remember going to Oriflame (cosmetics) parties too, the make up was pretty good, but it wasn't cheap and the reps were really pushy and weren't satisfied with just sales, they wanted to recruit new reps and a couple of my friends actually signed themselves up, so there seemed to be a party on a weekly basis. One of them got so fed up with the rep who recruited her constantly being on her back that she jacked it in quite quickly, she had to pay up front for her start up kit and in order to make any real money from it you needed to be super pushy, that certainly wasn't her and she ended up out of pocket. The other girl seemed to do okay though probably because she had a huge family and a lot more contacts. I used to love their mulberry crush lipstick.

 

[mediastar]

I remember Oriflame and Amway, I remember the whole point of the events was not so much to sell the goods as to be recruited as a sales person. Basically a legal pyramid scheme known as multl-level marketing I believe?

 

[merryone]

I remember Oriflame and Amway, I remember the whole point of the events was not so much to sell the goods as to be recruited as a sales person. Basically a legal pyramid scheme known as multl-level marketing I believe?

OMG! Amway was definitely just this, at least Oriflame consisted of parties despite the hard sell and the rep trying to recruit people, they were informative and fun. When I was renting a flat many moons ago, my landlady got involved with Amway and was forever trying to flog me the sort of stuff you could buy in the supermarket at least 10 times cheaper. I remember there was washing powder for about £20 a box and washing up liquid that was almost the same price, as according to her you didn't need to use much so it saved money in the long run - I said if you want me to be able to pay my rent then I suggest you stop trying to flog this stuff to me, I'll stick with my 39p Squezy thanks!!! I've met a few people who've got themselves caught up in similar schemes and it turns them into crazy sales people who talk about nothing else, eg. you meet them for a coffee and they spend the whole time trying to sell you stuff - Not ideal!

 

[donna255]

I remember going to an Oriflame party at a friend's in the early 80s. I found the products very expensive.

Bought a lovely black dress at a Pipadee party, it had a high collar though plain could be worn for a night out.

Another one I remember but cannot remember the name was one they sold smell alike perfumes which were excellent. White bottles is all I remember.

You always felt like you had to buy if you went to a party at a friend's.

I remember going to an Ann Summer's one no tea and coffee it was wine all round

 

[alisonwt]

I definitely had some Oriflame either cleanser or toner. We had loads of Pipadee items when we were children, I seem to remember a lot of bedwear. I sold Tupperware for a while when my youngest was tiny, held a few parties but wasn't pushy enough to get more parties so I mainly bought stuff myself at reduced 'staff' prices. Still have a lot of it. Went to a couple of Ann Summer's parties but was more embarrassed than entertained. Got guilted into running a party for a friend who did them but was ill when she was booked to do one. I did manage to sell a bit of stuff but I don't think the guests got quite the party they expected! That really has brought back memories I had long since forgotten.

 

[merryone]

These parties have definitely died a death, the last one I went to was a "partylite"candle party, and what's worse is that we didn't realise that we were going to a candle party. We thought we were going to hubby's workmates's birthday barbecue, yes, it was a barbecue but she'd decided that she'd combine it with a candle party. The rep took over the whole afternoon and it was bloody awful, and the candles were horrendously expensive, needless to say we didn't buy anything. I actually wrote a whole thread about this dreadful experience entitled "a surreal evening".
As I'm typing this does anyone remember "Sam parties"? Velour track suits with a little label with the word Sam on the arm, everybody in my suburb had at least two of them. I had a black one with a cowl neck and a cobalt blue one but that had a skirt instead of trousers. It was the law that you wore loads of gold jewellery with them -80's chav fashion!