A fashionable young woman models a radical fur hat on the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne on her way to a staged blind date. This Tyne Tees TV news magazine feature takes a witty look at one of the wackier creations of Simone Mirman, a milliner who learned her trade with Schiaparelli and designed hats for the royal family, actors and aristocrats. The off screen vox pops with shoppers and the commentary add some mischievous banter to this piece, highlighting gender relations on the streets of...

A fashionable young woman models a radical fur hat on the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne on her way to a staged blind date. This Tyne Tees TV news magazine feature takes a witty look at one of the wackier creations of Simone Mirman, a milliner who learned her trade with Schiaparelli and designed hats for the royal family, actors and aristocrats. The off screen vox pops with shoppers and the commentary add some mischievous banter to this piece, highlighting gender relations on the streets of the North East in the 1960s. It is not known if this item is a final edit. It appeared in a Look of the Month compilation broadcast on 28 October 1968. A fashionable mini-skirted model wearing a strange fur hood that completely covers her face waits to cross Blackett Street at a busy junction in central Newcastle upon Tyne, opposite Old Eldon Square. She saunters along the street, attracting the stares of a bunch of young men. Two of the men start to follow her, one glancing towards camera. The model continues along a street in Newcastle, Turners Photography store on Blackett Street in the background. The two young men overtake her, still aware of the TV camera filming. A close-up of her knee-length boots walking the pavement pans up to show the bizarre hat, which has no noticeable eyeholes. She walks carefully, glancing left to right. The reporter’s voice-over offers a mordant observation: ‘Well, what would you do with this? Ask it out for a date or put it on a lead and take it for a walk.’ He explains that the design is known as the ‘Yeti Look’, and will keep your ears and nose warm in winter. It will also help you avoid the embarrassment of meeting people you do not like. He wonders if it is a gimmick or practical headgear. He believes that it will conceal a fair few aristocratic faces in the coming winter as the hat was designed by Simone Mirman who numbers Princess Margaret and the Queen amongst her clientele. The model continues to make her way back towards Eldon Square, turning heads on the street. In voice-over, she comments on what it feels like to wear the hat. She feels very hot and ‘caved in’. It is very limiting and she is unable to smoke. In voice-over, the reporter conducts vox pops with people about the Yeti Look. One man comments that he knows quite a few people who would shoot it. When asked by the reporter whether she thought the queen would wear the hat, a group of women don’t think she would, as she wouldn’t be able to get her crown on. The young woman sporting the Yeti hat meets up with a well-dressed young man waiting street-level beside a Victorian underground gent’s toilet, her ‘blind date’. He strokes her furry Yeti hat. She turns to show off the fur tail attached to the back of the hat. In voice-over, the model says that it’s one of the more ridiculous fashions and is too ‘way out’ to catch on, particularly at a price of around 50 guineas. The model takes off the hat. Her date smiles approvingly when he finds out she is attractive. In the background, a group of men and women are watching the couple. She hands him the hat, smiles and smooths down her long hair. The couple walk off arm-in-arm, the man swinging the hat.