P.S. from Jill and Sally: Patterns for fashion and young female selfhood in the early pages of Petticoat magazine

Petticoat magazine (1966-1975), a weekly British fashion title launched in the mid-1960s by Fleetway publishers, was aimed specifically at a growing market of younger women who ranged from the teens to those in their early to mid twenties. A sister publication to Fleetway’s already successful monthly magazine Honey (1960-1986), Petticoat’s initial strapline was: ‘for the young and fancy free’. Fashion, beauty, careers and advice were some of its key elements, alongside its own home sewing patterns feature the ‘Dead Broke Department’. In addition a new weekly feature entitled ‘P.S from Jill & Sally’ (September – December 1966) was started which encouraged yet another set of homemaking and craft skills, largely in the form of accessories making, with some sewing, knitting, sticking and customising involved.

Often fitted within a single page towards the backend of the magazine, this D.I.Y fashion feature was arguably made more compelling by the voice of Jill and the face of Sally, the two self-proclaimed youngest members of Petticoat’s fashion department. Whilst relatively short-lived this fashion feature provides insight into the relationship between paper and clothing and how practices of making and designing were communicated through a humorous, intimate and individualised discourse to a particular historical audience. Furthermore, this paper addresses how in this process between clothing and paper the figures of Jill and Sally also provide readers with patterns for young modern female selfhood at this time.