The Hippie Era

 

1960’s fashion emerged from a decade that was epitomized by sweeping changes throughout the world. It is a time in fashion history when ideas and images were generated that still seem contemporary today. Up until the 1960’s fashion had been mainly marketed towards the wealthy elite, but now the preferences of young people had become important. The beginning of the decade still saw the fashion scene dominated by Parisian haute couture, but the throne was soon to be usurped by the emerging pop scene in London.

 

The fashion trends that were doing the rounds in Britain were closely linked to music and the mod look was at first based on the simple geometric shapes that has since become indicative of the 60’s. For the first time young people could buy bright, boutique-style clothing at affordable prices - giving rise to the quintessential 1960’s fashion trends that took the US and the rest of Europe by storm.

 

Having originated on the West Coast of America, the hippy look would cross the Atlantic later in the decade. Both fashion- and textile designers were taking inspiration from non-Western cultures with regard to color, pattern and textiles.

 

Couture:

 

Mature women’s fashion trends were leaning towards the elegant, sophisticated apparel of French designers like Balenciaga and Dior. Public figures like Jacquie Kennedy were deviating from very formal fashion to include items such as shorter skirts. Accessories like hats and gloves became less popular.

 

The intercontinental influence also played an important role in men’s fashion trends. Italian design had inspired a sleek, smart look that was translated into the tailor-made attire favored by the Mods in Britain, the cut and fabric of which were chosen to create maximum impact. The younger generation were rapidly developing a unique style of dress and there was great demand for more affordable outfits in a less traditional style, with the result that the exclusive attitude of the existing couture houses were beginning to seem like a decidedly outdated approach to fashion.

 

Haute couture was eventually forced to imitate popular clothing labels, a direct reversal of the traditional ‘from the top downwards’ spiral which fashion had followed for the greater part of fashion history. Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent were amongst the couture houses that adapted successfully and most well-known designers were beginning to distribute ready-to-wear ranges in department stores.

 

Street Style:

 

 

Fashion trend setters were beginning to realize that young people desired a wardrobe that did more than copied adult dress. This market segment’s income was at the highest it had been since the end of WWII and the designs of Mary Quant and her contemporaries that had been designed with this consumer group in mind were becoming very popular. Quant’s Bazaar and Barbara Hulanicki’s Biba were providing young people with inexpensive clothing options that suited their busy, urban lifestyle. Separates were en vogue and people were no longer buying outfits for specific occasions or times of the day.

 

The miniskirt was without a doubt the most jaw-dropping fashion trend of the decade. Designed for the skinny female form, it was teamed with pale foundation and exaggerated eyes. The hairdresser Vidal Sassoon introduced the wedge, which gained popularity alongside the bob and traditionally long, straight hair.

 

Clothing- and textile designers were taking inspiration from the Modern Age by combining space-age silver with bright primary prints taken from Pop Art. New fabrics were also introduced, including PVC, easy-care acrylics and polyesters.

 

The Peacock Revolution:

 

1960s men’s fashion represented perhaps the most dramatic fashion development of the decade. For over 150 years men’s fashion trends had not deviated from the plain, dark and tailored look. Now, gay fashion was flinging this notion out by the bootstraps, introducing color, frills and cravats. Collarless jackets were worn with vividly printed shirts, slim-fitting trousers and boots. Next, lapels and trousers went boldly where no garment had ever gone before, becoming increasingly exaggerated as the decade progressed. Unisex fashion became popular as men and women shopped for similar items as the same boutiques.

  

Celebrities:

 

The 60’s was an ear when models could become famous in the blink of an eye. The most iconic of the 1960’s models has to be Lesley Hornby, who went by the name of ‘Twiggy’. She shot to fame at age fifteen when her large eyes and under-developed figure was touted as the most extreme version of the Mod Look.

 

The pages of Vogue and Elle were filled with images of Celia Hammond, Penelope Tree, Verushka and Marisa Berenson (the granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli). Black models like Donyale Luna and Naomi Sims broke the mold and challenged the accepted concept of beauty.

 

Photographers who were favored at the time included John French, Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy, Ron Traege and David Bailey (who first introduced the informal pose in fashion magazines).

 

Hippies:

 

The term ‘hippie’ is generally used to refer to a subgroup of the 1960s American counterculture. They had become an established social group by 1965, only to dwindle in numbers later in the 1970’s. They, alongside the New Left and Civil Rights movements, represented a three-pronged breakaway from contemporary culture of the time.

 

Hippies were mostly Caucasian teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 that took their ethos from that of the bohemians and beatniks that went before. They opposed established institutions, questioned middle class values, loudly rebelled against the Vietnam War and promoted sexual liberation. They also embraced parts of non-Judeo-Christian religions and established their own communities, which lead to some authorities describing hippies as a religious sect.

 

Their politics were gentle and non-violent and they put much stock in peace, love and freedom of choice. They viewed dominant culture as corrupt and spoke out against ‘Big Brother’ and ‘The Man’. The hippie era greatly influenced music and the arts, to the extent that aspects of their dress reverberate through fashion history to this very day.