15 Sept 1964, VOGUE Magazine page 100-101

BRITISH BEAUTY:

the new confidence that's catching

The way our girls are looking now is affecting good looks around the globe. Where influence once came from Hollywood, then from the Left Bank (with a bit of Bardot), then from Italian films, English girls now not only have the nerve to be themselves but can enjoy watching others copy them. Our models - Jean Shrimpton, Celia Hammond, Tania Mallet to name but three - are a rave in New York. The list of young actresses who are more and more in demand (e.g. Hayley Mills, Sarah Miles, Susannah York, Smantha Eggar) is getting longer each month (American Vogue writes . . . "dream looks from London where rising fashion spirit is larky, romantic, British to the core"). This new self-confidence is catching. Nothing succeeds like success and it's certain that self-confidence is the most important ingredient of good looks, just as it is of being a Beatle or a Rolling Stone or a desingner like Mary Quant or Gerald McCann. In those big beauty competitions the English girls were, like Daisy Ashford's heroines, "pretty in the face" but they often failed to please the judges because of sloping shoulders or a flat look through the diaphragm. Now nearly every girl enjoying a holiday success in the Mediterranean could measure up to James Bond specification in length of her leg and handsomeness of torso. This is not to say they are narcissi-like in their new goold looks. Their self-confidence extends to not thinking it neccesary to gild the lily overmuch. But if they go light on make-up they are fussy about all the details. They put their eye make-up on using magnifying mirrors; they are particular about the precise kind of pale pearliness of their nails, they try all the new perfumes to get the one that sings. They're worth watching.

JANE ASHER

is more than a chum of Beatle Paul McCartney and sister of Peter, the other half of Gordon. At eighteen, her luminous little face has shone in a dozen feature and TV films. Asked how she would describe her looks she says, "I don't". Pressed further, she admits, "Although I hate the idea, they could be rather Alice In Wonderland". Her looks remain as they were pre-Beatle. Her hair is the stunning feature - very straight, very long, very red. She wears it just as it grows - but brshed and clean (Breck shampoo for dry hair) and goes now and then to Vidal Sassoon to get fringe and ends snipped. She also posesses a brown wig, straight and a little shorter than her own hair which she wears for occasional amusement. Her problem is a skin so fair and fine that five minutes sun is more than enough. her freckles don't fade, even in winter, and she finds Max Factor pancake in Cream 2 helps even up th colour. She swears by Leichener eye make-up, never uses shadow but likes mascara. Currently she is not using lipstick.

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