Mrs.Peel's clothes

Her outfits were the most fashionable at the time. And, they age better than the outfits worn by Joanna Lumley in the 70s "Avengers"... loved her character but HATED her wardrobe. And, Rigg's fashion was perhaps not nearly as bad as the horrid hairstyle of Tara King.

You must remember that in the context of the Swinging Sixties, fashion was as important as rock music. Carnaby Street, and King's Road in London were its epicenter, where the mini-skirt and virtually every other innovation was born. Diana Rigg was an absolute icon back then, with Twiggy, of course.

Her clothes.... Keep in mind that the Avengers only went to colour when it 'jumped the pond' and was shown in America. The black and white episodes were so much better. And her leather suit...... Ouch.

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BlondeIsBetter is right, she's an icon. I totally love her clothes too.

It always made me smile, you knew exactly when she going to be in a fight when she donned a jumpsuit or the like. Heaven forbid she got into a grapple in one of her posh frocks.

Most of the clothes Rigg wore in Season 4 ( including the fighting suits which were named “Belt-up” and “Black Bottom” ) were created by John Bates ; a recent book about the life and style of the designer includes a chapter about the Avengers phenomenon . Some of his models were pretty good I will admit , the season 5 tracksuits sure I wasn’t a bif fan of , but at least I liked the fact that the disappareance of Mrs.Peel’s leather catsuit meant that one of Cathy Gale’s stolen credentials was given her back . Actually Elizabeth Shepherd wore a red costume when she originally played Emma in “The Town of No Return “ before being cast out in favour of Rigg and I would have preferred if they didn’t change that but , as usual , the big bosses were too afraid to try to be original and Emma Peel had to copy Cathy Gale in this also .
Now Diana sure looked good with it but , it goes without saying , not as much as Honor , being quite flat-chested and lacking her predecessor’s wasp veist .
An ironic thing that not everyone knows is that Honor’s original leather catsuit was green , not black cause it was supposed to televise better . Fortunately with the improvement of the lightning techniques black was soon adopted . Patrick Macnee had the idea that Cathy would have worn leather , still the day the legendary catsuit was inaugurated he arrived on the set unprepared and he apparently “ paled and forgot his lines when he caught sight of Honor in her gleaming outfit” !
I found this funny anecdote on the original theatre programme for the premiere of “Who Killed Santa Claus ?” , a 1969 piece by Terence Feely starring Honor alongside her back then husband Maurice Kaufmann .
Cathy’s costume was definitely more fetish than Emma’s . Honor remembers that back in her Avengers days she once visited the wardrobe department at the studio to find her catsuit wasn’t there cause the studio boss used to take her trousers and throw them among the men at dinner’s parties . Wow , that’s kinky !
Tara King’s harlequin look was quite atrocious as her haircuts were , making her looking thirty years older than her actual age .
And Purdey’s bob .. well , it is quite impossible to wear unless you have Joanna Lumley’s perfect features . Since I wasn’t alive in the 70’s I do not dare to imagine the horrors you could see in the street back in the day with this haircut being the most popular around !