Flipping through some Nova magazines from the archive, we came across an article based on various fashion editors published in1966. And there she was, the real Claire Rendlesham who was played by actress Helen McCrory in We’ll Take Manhattan. The film, directed by John McKay, and broadcast on BBC4 last week presented Rendlesham just how we might imagine a fashion editor: with that stereotypical ‘Prima-donna-esque’ personality. The Nova article by Cherry Farrow explains how “the fashion editor’s power is understandable”. David Bailey stayed true to himself and didn’t allow anyone’s authority sway him in any direction other than his own. This consequently catapulted him into the world of fashion photography. 

We also want to dig out and revisit the original copy of David Bailey’s Jean Shrimpton shoot in NY published in Vogue. The images really capture how Bailey fought back Rendlesham’s bigoted approach to fashion photography and defined a new era. It no longer had to be about ‘that privileged group of women’. By 1966, the fashion editor for Nova was eager to ‘do something for women with bosoms and bottoms – not the ready-made-mistress type’