Vicky Aram is the author of 'Coal Mines, Confessions and Dance Halls', one of the most searingly honest memoirs I have ever read. This, the County Durham-born lass's latest publishing venture,collates for posterity the cuttings of her first career, more than half a century ago, as a fashion artist. Her first published line drawings of models at London's couture collections appeared in 'Fashion Forecast', a respected trade magazine of the day. Indeed, the book is dedicated to its late editor and Vicky's mentor, Nina Hurst. Although still only a teenager in the 1950s, there was such style and maturity in Vicky's illustrations that the observer might be forgiven for thinking that she must have been considerably older when she drew them. It occurs to me now, perusing them again, that the woman Vicky was seeing in these lines, a little further down the line, was herself. Capturing the elegance and flair of Dior, Chanel and the rest in her own image, she lifts them to an uber-chic dimension with her own highly-stylized take on physical features – particularly limbs, eyes, lips and hair (she even sketched haircuts for Vidal Sassoon.) In the long-legged, provocative languidity of 'Midnight Hour', she captures her free-spirited future self perfectly.
Sketching her way into the next phase of her life, Vicky met and married the distinguished architect David J. Wager, with whom she had three children. She began to draw for newspapers, notably the Daily Telegraph. As well as Royals, celebrities and personalities in abundance, her pencils and pens now recorded locations and events. A political tea party in Hampstead and a Windsor ball for HRH Princess Alexandra are irresistibly evocative. She later taught fashion-drawing at Hornsey Art College, was hired by Mark Boxer to draw for Queen magazine, and did some particularly exquisite colour work for Flair. She even digressed into dress design, when Yves Saint Laurent's Lady Rendlesham mistook her for a designer, and her suit range actually went on sale in Harvey Nicks. Emboldened by this diversion, her developing style again took a swing, embracing pop-art quirks and surrealism. Her book also features many of her gorgeous portraits.
Hands up: I got to know Vicky when I interviewed her for a book of my own: 'Ride A White Swan: The Lives & Death of Marc Bolan' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012). Vicky, by the late 1970s a singer-songwriter and pianist with a prestigious engagement at the Berkeley Square private members' club Morton's, was the last woman to see Marc Bolan alive. She has never overplayed her part in the tragedy, and only recently went public with what really happened on the night of the 20th Century Boy's death, 16th September 1977. Her reticence renders her memories all the more remarkable.
At seventy eight, knock twenty off that when you meet her,Vicky is still drawing, writing and recording as if there is no tomorrow.
I'll have what she's having.
