Mayflower

Following my previous long-form post (Pattie Boyd 1961 - 1962) I have finally pieced together a part deux! Please, do let me know if I’ve missed any important details xx

- Early 1963, Pattie moves into a flat with four other models in South Kensington, London

“I made lots of friends among the other models. When one of the girls left to get married, I moved into a flat in Stanhope Gardens with four other models. It was girly and disorganised. There were people coming and going at all hours, boys turning up to take us out - and leaving with broken hearts - everyone borrowing everyone else’s clothes, so nothing was ever where you thought it was and no system for cleaning or shopping. You never knew whether or not there would be any food.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“One minute the fridge was bursting, the next it was empty. I was earning three pounds an hour (which roughly translates to £51.26 as of 2023) but often the money didn’t come through for weeks and with rent to pay, I didn’t have a lot to spare - particularly if I’d treated myself to a nice pair of shoes, my weakness.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Pattie starts dating her very first boyfriend, Jean-Claude

“I had met him on the King’s Road where I had been doing a modelling job with a girl called Sonia Dean. When we had finished she said: ‘Let’s go to the Kardomah coffee bar’, which was a great meeting place - everyone hung out there. Off we went and I still had my makeup on, including false eyelashes. It was so smoky in there that my eyes watered. I couldn’t bear it, I wanted to leave, but she was waiting for some guy. So we stayed and suddenly, a beautiful young man was standing over me, grinning. Jean-Claude introduced himself.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“And for a little while, I fondly imagined he was my boyfriend. He took some wonderful photographs of me and introduced me to all sorts of people.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“One night we were supposed to be going to a party at De Vere Gardens and I waited for Jean-Claude to collect me. He didn’t come and didn’t phone and the hours went by. Finally, I decided to go on my own. I arrived and found Jean-Claude already there, dancing with another girl and I knew that was it. I thought, she’s so pretty, no wonder he’s dancing with her. I was very upset, but I don’t think he ever realised I’d felt as I did about him.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“My first boyfriend was a photographer, Jean-Claude. He was handsome and encouraged me to be a model. We only kissed and he left me for another girl. We are still friends.” - Pattie Boyd (May, 2018)

- Eric Swayne

“I started going out with another photographer, Eric Swayne, who was quite a bit older than I was.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I was a virgin when I met Eric Swayne.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“Eric was not good-looking but quite cool - he had long dark hair and a straight, fine nose - and good company: he made everyone laugh. Eric was thirty and came from the East End of London. He looked up to David Bailey, who was from the same era.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I think Eric wanted to do for me what Bailey had done for Jean (Shrimpton) - he wanted to be my style guru. He wanted to show me how to do my hair and makeup and to help me with my modelling.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“In the end he became too controlling and I think he was quite dark in some ways. Eric and I didn’t sleep together for quite a while. He kept asking and I kept refusing. Eventually, I felt pressured and knew I’d have to give in, so although I didn’t really want to, I agreed. He was kind and sweet, but it wasn’t the big deal I had imagined. In fact, it was pretty painful and I regretted it. We didn’t use any contraception - I didn’t think about the possibility of becoming pregnant until later, when I panicked a bit. Mostly, I felt I had let myself down.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“Eric didn’t have much money so we would go to restaurants like the Stockpot, where the food was cheap and filling.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

[’At The Bar’ by Eric Swayne - Paris, 1963]

“He had long, dark hair, a straight, fine nose, and was a decade my senior. I wasn’t really into him. He was controlling and in truth, quite dull at times.” - Pattie Boyd

- Clothes, clothes, clothes!

“On Saturdays, if you weren’t parading up and down the King’s Road, you would migrate to Portobello Road in Notting Hill, to meander up and down, looking at the market stalls and people strutting their stuff. You could find some real bargains: bits of silver, antique jewellery and knickknacks, wonderful old clothes and pieces of lace and velvet. Everyone looked glorious and was so relaxed and friendly.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“They sold paintings, posters and clothes - crushed velvet trousers and fitted jackets with thin arms in wonderful greens and burgundies. Everything was tight and men wore boots, jackets and shirts with big collars - Regency, almost. There was an amazing number of new shops for men, who were refusing to be like their fathers.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I loved Hung On You, the shirt makers Deborah and Claire in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, Foale & Tuffin for dresses, Anello & Davide for boots and Mary Quant, Ossie Clark and Biba.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“We went to the Chelsea Antiques Market. On the first floor there were second-hand clothes, delicious silks and chiffons. There was another great market in Kensington High Street and a shop in Langton Street where we used to buy Afghan coats. And patchouli oil - that was the smell of the sixties for me. We wore it all the time - probably to take away the terrible smell of those Afghan coats!” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Ossie Clark’s muse

“I can’t remember how I met Ossie. I don’t know how he ever made any money - he was enormously talented but a hopeless businessman. People say I was Ossie’s muse. He liked to make clothes for women who look like women, with busts and waists, narrow hips and long legs - and I had all of those. He used to say I had ‘glass ankles’ and some of the designs were called Pattie.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Diet

“I was very thin and I worked at keeping myself that way. I would hardly eat and then I discovered these diet biscuits that you could buy from the chemist. They were so filling, I hardly hat to eat anything else. I was a size eight - 34B/24/34. I have a narrow back and at that time, I had a tiny ribcage. Recently, I found some of my clothes from the sixties and I can’t begin to get into them! They look as though they were made for a child!” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“For me, as a model, no two days were the same and my eating pattern went haywire. Some days I would eat, other days not and I never had more than a cup of tea for breakfast. I was still preoccupied with keeping my weight down and I had found a doctor in Hackney Street who gave me some pills that speeded up my metabolism, so I was thirsty but not hungry. I’m sure it was all very bad for me, but that didn’t cross my mind because we all did it.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- March 1963, Pattie moves from Stanhope Gardens to a even bigger flat with even more roommates, before moving back home for a short while.

“After three short months, I was short of money and went to live at home for six months. I thought it very shabby and I was angry on her (Pattie’s mother) behalf.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- November 1963, Pattie is casted in a television commercial for Smith’s crisps, directed by Richard (Dick) Lester.

“In this film, I had to pick crisps out of a packet and put them into my mouth, lisping about how much I loved Smith’s crisps. It was the first television I had ever done and the first time I had a speaking part. For someone who was as crippling shy as I, it was quite an ordeal and in the end, they used someone else’s voice.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- December 1963, Pattie moves to Chelsea with Mary Bee

“A few weeks later, I heard that a girl called Mary Bee was looking for someone to share a flat. So in December, Mary and I moved into a gorgeous but tiny flat in Oakley Street, Chelsea, with one little bedroom that we shared.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I was working flat out, not getting back until late and needing an alarm call to get me out of bed in the mornings.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Late 1963

“I was still going out with Eric Swayne and doing a lot of work for him, but I wasn’t in love. He could be very severe and the longer I spent with him, the more domineering he became. Most of my friends found him a bit creepy.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I didn’t find older men attractive. I felt safer with people of my own age, boys who, like my brothers, would be friends and playmates - and photographers were usually pretty playful.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

I couldn’t find much detailed information about lovely Pattie from 1961-1962, so I decided to put together this long form post. Please, do let me know if I’m missing anything. Thanks!

- June 1961, Pattie leaves school with three GCE O Level passes and is living at home in Wimbledon, with her single mother and four siblings

- Late 1961, Pattie’s mother pulls some strings and gets her daughter a job at the Elizabeth Arden hair salon in London

“After school, I got a job at Elizabeth Arden in Bond Street, London - because I wasn’t qualified to do anything and my mum knew the CEO there.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

- In the new year, Pattie moves to London and begins working as a ‘shampoo girl’ / ‘trainee beautician’ on a small wage of £4.50 per week - which roughly translates to £97.53 as of 2023

“I thought: ‘I must get out, I must try and be independent’ - so I got a job and shared a flat with about five other girls.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

“I shampooed people’s hair and took their coats. I was a general dogsbody, but I must say that it was terribly glamorous because it was where I first saw fabulous magazines - like Vogue, Tatler and Harper’s Bazaar.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

“The job at Elizabeth Arden was deadly boring. I was training to be a beautician, but my heart wasn’t in it and I’m not sure I would have made the grade. Elizabeth Arden herself came in one day and berated me for my makeup. She didn’t like the black pencil under my eyes; it was not the ‘Elizabeth Arden’ look, she informed me.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Early 1962, Pattie had been working at the salon for roughly two months, until a Cherry Marshall Model Agency staffer took a special interest in her look

“A client who worked for Honey magazine asked me if I’d ever thought of becoming a model.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

“Imagine my excitement when a client came into the salon one day and asked if I had ever thought of being a model. I said: ‘No, but I certainly could.’” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- The following day, Pattie was scheduled for a test shoot

“When I arrived, she had arranged for her in-house photographer, Anthony Norris, to take some test shots of me. He had set up some lights in a little studio and she gave me a couple of outfits to wear - I remember a beret and having to look sultry, smoking Gitanes. [a French brand of unfiltered cigarettes] They were black and white, moody shots, with a bit of a Parisian feel.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

- Anthony Norris sends Pattie along to a secretary at Cherry Marshall Model Agency and a personal meeting with Cherry Marshall herself is arranged - Pattie was signed to a modelling contract the very same day

“A successful model has just got to be strict with herself and lay off all fattening foods. That means no bread, butter, spaghetti or sweets! Watch out for ‘puppy fat spread’ - eat proper meals at regular times, with lots of lean meat and green vegetables.” - Pattie Boyd (April, 1965 - Letter from London)

“My fairy godmother phoned Cherry Marshall, who then ran one of the top model agencies and she said she was sending me to her. Anthony Norris went with me and told Cherry he thought she should take me on.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“My secretary brought Pattie’s picture into me and told me Pattie was waiting outside. ‘I’ll see her’ I said - and there was Pattie, a shy 17-year-old who when she spoke, bubbles with impish charm. It would have been a mistake to change a thing about her. All we needed was to groom her rebellious hair and slim down her puppy fat. She started training immediately, the following Monday.” - Cherry Marshall, 1964

“She was shy until she started talking and then she bubbled over with enthusiasm, as she spoke of her ambition to be a model: ‘I know I’m a bit plump - but I can’t stop eating sweets!’ I said: ‘Pattie, from now on you cut out all sweets - and I want you to report on Monday at the school for training’. I wanted her rebellious hair groomed into a straight gleaming bob and she had to be taught how to apply photographic make-up. Nothing else should be changed. The name was right, the look was right and it would have been crazy to do anything to subdue her sparkling personality.” -  Cherry Marshall, 1978

- Pattie attends Cherry Marshall’s modelling school - graduating within three short months

“So that’s the advice that I’d pass on to all of you who dream of becoming models: train at a school that has proved itself - not just one of those places that give you a paper diploma and nothing else - and don’t try to sell yourself when you have qualified. Let your agent do that.” - Pattie Boyd (April, 1965 - Letter from London)

- Pattie attends test shoots and works to build her portfolio - unpaid

“I knew I had a winner - everyone in the office agreed with me and they immediately swung into action. New pictures were taken, photographers and magazines informed, casting agents bombarded, press alerted. Here, we told them with absolute confidence that Pattie Boyd was the girl for the swinging sixties.” - Cherry Marshall, 1978

“Finding an agency was easy; finding a job was the hard part.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“We were too experienced to expect things to happen overnight, but we were impatient because Pattie was already seventeen and that wasn’t the youngest anymore. All we needed was to get one top photographer mad about her and she was made, but few of them would risk using an absolutely new girl on a job. They’d take test shots to find out what she was like and give her pictures for her portfolio, but no money. It was invaluable experience, but Pattie had to earn her living and we didn’t have much time.” -  Cherry Marshall, 1978

“My agent would phone me last thing in the afternoon and tell me my jobs for the next day and my diaries would be quite full. But not to begin with - I had to work quite hard, going around to photographer’s studios and showing them my portfolio.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

[Rayment Kirby, 1962]

“Everyday I would go out with a list of photographer’s names and addresses and trudge around with my portfolio, hoping they would like what they saw and use me on a job. And if one did, I would try very hard to get him to give me some prints at a low rate, so that I could add them to my portfolio. I must have travelled on every bus and tube in London and when I was out of money, I walked. My diary for those days is full of IOUs for the odd fiver.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“Within three months her diary began to fill up and she (Pattie) was in constant demand.” -  Cherry Marshall, 1978

“If I had a job, I had a big, tall bag - no wheels in those days - with dark shoes, light-coloured shoes, all sorts of jewellery, wigs and hairpieces.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

“I was lucky. The trekking around worked and soon my diary was full of jobs. Modelling was fun. I loved trying on clothes and fiddling with my hair and makeup. We had to do it ourselves - there were no hair stylists or makeup artists and certainly no chauffeur-driven cars to ferry us around. We were not celebrities in the way that today’s top models are. For advertising jobs, we even had to bring our own accessories. I have my old appointment diaries about what I had to take to a shoot. Usually, it was light and dark court shoes, flatties, gloves, costume jewellery, hats or caps, boots, makeup, wigs and hair pieces. You could spot a model a mile off from the heavy bags that she was carrying.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“I went on to do lots of lovely shoots, although I never enjoyed posing for Freeman’s catalogues. They’d book you in for three or four days in a row, which meant lots of money, but the clothes were hideous and far too big - they had to have clips on the back.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

“I rang Norman Parkinson, the king of them all - and asked if he’d see her. A model had to be really good before he could be approached, particularly as he was not impressed by an agent’s idea of who was photogenic. We knew that, superficially, Pattie had certain drawbacks - she was un-modelly in the accepted sense, her face was too round and she had a gap in her front teeth. She came back to us in tears, eyes swimming with disappointment, all set to give up. She finally blurted out: ‘He asked me if it’s fashionable these days to look like a rabbit!’” -  Cherry Marshall, 1978

“One day I went to see the great Norman Parkinson. He looked at my book, then looked at me and said: ‘Come back when you’ve learned how to do your hair and makeup properly’ I felt so humiliated.” - Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight

“Seeing myself in magazines was so exciting. I couldn’t wait to show my mother and she was totally amazed, saying: ‘How on earth did you do that?’ - she had no idea that I’d been trampling the streets trying to get jobs and hopping on buses and trains to persuade photographers to take pictures of me.” - Pattie Boyd (December, 2022)

- Late 1962, Pattie began working for Honey magazine, which led to many other opportunities...