Peter Schlesinger documented the jeunesse dorée of the 60s and 70s - and some not so young icons of his stylish world - in a delicious book of intimate portraits called A Chequered Past [pub. Thames & Hudson London 2003]. Our images of these people, like Manolo Blahnik, may have moved on so I thought it would be good to see the way they were. Many years ago I saw Cecil Beaton on Salisbury station wearing that very hat. You wouldn't have snapped such a great man on a camera phone even if they had been invented by then.
Wayne Sleep then Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet. Paris, 1970. He is remembered for dancing with Princess Diana at the Royal Gala Performance at Covent Garden in 1985.
Fashion photographer Eric Boman with Paloma Picasso au naturel 1971
Moments later: Paloma after she had stumbled down the front steps in her wedgies and lay giggling on the gravel, not realizing that she had broken her foot.
Min Hogg, founding editor of World of Interiors 1978. The actor Rupert Everett cites her as a wicked practical joker. Who would've believed that?
Manolo Blahnik in a stylish take on pyjamas 1973
Blahnik revisits the famous image of Nancy Cunard for a drag ball at The Porchester Hall swimming pool and Turkish baths 1972
The fabulous socialite Lady Diana Cooper who had a penchant for yachting caps. This is in London, 1977 and not the Cowes Week Regatta. That would have been too utterly predictable.
Celia Birtwell, textile designer, whose partnership with Ozzie Clark was iconic in the 70s
Hockney draws Cecil Beaton at Reddish House 1969Top: Cecil Beaton and David Hockney at Reddish House, Beaton's country house in Wiltshire
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