Мода 60х-70х

A Kaleidoscopic Liberation
Women's fashion of the 1960's
The youth culture dominated the fashion scene of the sixties. In fact, the operative word for the entire ten years was youth. The influence of this huge sector of the population was inescapable, and as the youths themselves changed, so did the meanings associated with the word. “For the first part of the decade youth implied- at least in the world of fashion- freshness, charm, simplicity, and ease. These associations continued to hold, although, as the decade wore on, the idea of youth became even more mock innocent as it simultaneously began to signify being hip, up to or ahead of the moment, in, with-it. By the late 1960s, it meant antiestablishment, rebellious, experimental, and even weird” (Milbank, 200).


For women, the women’s liberation movement was underway. As women became more liberated, so did their clothing. The miniskirt epitomized the liberation in the fashion sense, described as “one small piece of material for a woman, one giant leap for womankind” (Yapp, 228).

Overall, the atmosphere of the sixties was experimental- from hem lengths to materials. Society was in the midst of a youth rebellion and encouragement of expression; the fashion of the day illustrated this. “The freedom of expression encouraged by the idea that anything goes went hand in hand with the actual freedom of the clothes themselves in how they felt and were worn. Whether she was dancing the watusi or going to work, her clothes feed her”

Couture

Mainstream fashion in the early 60's was dominated by the Couture. Chic tailored suits were the staple uniforms for women and it was frowned upon to leave the house without wearing your hat, gloves and stockings. Purses, as well as hats, gloves, and even shoes matched to color of the outfit. Women young and old looked very mature, serious, and put together. Sylvia Plath’s character Doreen from the Bell Jar is a literary example of how teenage girls/young adults wore clothes similar to their mothers. The look mainstream American women strove for was that of Doris Day- the girl-next-door image.

By the mid sixties, the haute couture did not determine the trends in fashion. For the first time independent designers were the creative forces, and the couture had to adjust to the youth culture their competitors were catering to.

The first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, was definitely the trendsetter in the early 60s. “Her appearance was so simple and pared down that it looked young, and women greeted it as liberating, since it released them from the exaggerated femininity of the 1950s” (Milbank, 202). She donned the shift dress, which was cut straight up and down, darted at the bust, and fell at the knees. The shift dress was very comfortable to wear and the mainstream woman welcomed it. Jacqueline Kennedy also wore an overblouse with her shift dress; thus the style became known as the overblouse dress. Light colors and pastels in hues of purple, pink and peach were popular.

The shift dress was also gladly received by young swingers who wore it while dancing the twist. This dance started in New York in the Peppermint Lounge and was sung about by Chubby Checker (Mandy, online).

The shift dress, whose shorter skirt began the trend in rising hem lengths, is a milestone in 60s fashion because it marks the beginning of the youth revolution in fashion.

By the mid 60s the youth culture was in full swing. It was typified by the miniskirt, whose introduction in the early 60s became the staple of its era’s fashion and culture. The rising hemlines dictated all three directions of mid-1960s fashion. It was used for the grown-up-but-youthful conservative style as seen with the shift dress, and for the mocking innocent baby-doll look and the wacky and with-it boutique designs of the middle years.

Miniskirt
"Social historians relate the introduction of the mini skirt with the introduction of the pill. Women became sexually liberated because of the pill and for the first time free love became possible. As a result skirt lengths shortened and more skin was shown"

(Mandy, online)

Miniskirts were first adopted in England, coming out of London’s Carnaby street boutiques under the influence of Mary Quant, and aroused an enthusiasm that exaggerated their effect. No longer were dresses tailored for a certain length and for that length only. As the years passed, so did the hemlines until they fell just below the buttocks. The miniskirt and her sister, the minidress, were best worn by the young, but it caught everyone from young girls to grandmothers.

Two looks characterize this era: the baby-doll and the wacky and with-it boutique designs of the mod-girl.

The baby-doll look was quite literal: it featured very short skirts, high waistlines, puffed sleeves, Peter Pan collars, jumper or apron effects, lots of laces and ruffles, and sometimes even bloomers (Milbank, 204). Girls accessorize with elaborate doe-eye makeup, spiky eyelashes, rosy cheeks, and pale, frosted lips, with hair worn in ringlets around the face. Legs were clad in lacy pale stockings and feet in Mary Jane shoes. “Perky Girls” were similar in style to the baby-doll. This look was characterized by “squeaky clean, little-girl, A-line dresses and polka-dot, stretch, knit panty hose.” The girls used sheer lip-gloss, translucent face powder and false eyelashes to fake the natural look with cosmetics. Unlike the baby-dolls, perky girls wore their hair in the Bubble cut or the Flip-hair do’s (Mandy, online).

Funky, with-it clothes, influenced by Op art and Pop art, first began to appear in 1961. The look did not gain popularity until the middle of the decade, though, and small boutiques produced minis in this style to suit the increasingly adventurous tastes of its teenage buyers. Prints were freewheeling, kaleidoscopic, and psychedelic. Patterns, whether geometric or swirling florals, tended to be linear or hard-edged, outlined with black. Together, Op Art patterns and the mini became an essential part of developing the mod-girl image (Connikie, 41). Models such as Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton became personifications of the mod-girl look. See-through clothes also hit the boutiques in the mid-sixties. This wacky idea began in France Yves Saint-Laurent’s discovery of sheer shirts. The clear idea was also put into fashion using the already daring minidress made even more provocative by large see-through shaped introduced into the body of the garments. Some of these innovative clothes were made of transparent plastic materials. Boutique fashions also included dresses made out of strips of plastic set with battery-operated lights; skirts fashioned from counterfeit dollar bills; and do–it-yourself dresses of plastic and metal rings.

A new emphasis on the leg was seen as a result of the rising hemlines. As more leg was shown stockings became increasingly important. They decorated the naked leg with bold textures and bright colors that coordinated the outfit and psychedelic patterns soon became the “with-it” way to dress. As hemlines rose, stockings had to evolve too. Garters and thigh-high nylons were replaced by pantyhose, which covered the entire leg from toe to hip.

The final years of the decade are most commonly associated with the hippie look. However, designers were not all geared towards the peasant look. The space age influenced fashion briefly and many futuristic designs hit the runways and boutiques. These garments were made of alternate materials such as metal and plastic. Beyond this, designers were experimenting with paper, reflecting the throwaway culture of the sixties. Pants became an accepted fashion garment for women, which mirrors the women’s liberation movement. The mini was still popular but the maxi, a skirt that touches the floor, was also in vogue.

Space travel had a huge influence on the fashions of the time. The use of “modern” materials was felt to be terribly important. For example, Paco Rabanne launched a line of tiny link dresses made of metal or plastic links (Mandy, online). Although this look never caught on, people did start buying chain link belts and other metal accessories.

"As the decade went on, the unisex aspect of the space age was the big experiment, and flared loon pants and boots replaced the mini and its kinky boots and kitten-heel slingbacks. Those who didn’t want to surrender their femininity opted for the GoGo skirts in leather and plastic and a cape"

The hippie lifestyle is the epitome of the youth quake of the sixties. Its rebellious rejection of mainstream life appealed to a large number of young people. “Flower power and free love were the main ideas of the Hippies. They were rebelling against the establishment” (Mandy, online). The hippies made their own their own garments, sometimes batiking fabrics and then later tie-dying fabrics. Long flowing hair and faded denim jeans (jeans and a T-shirt was the uniform of the youth) with army surplus shirts and combat jackets clad young protesters at anti-war rallies. “The hippie woman did not wear a teasing miniskirt, but a floor-length one accessorized with love-beads and bells”

The movement, which started roughly in the middle of the decade, caught the attention of mainstream society and fashion designers towards the end. The relaxed, earthy, ethnic look attracted many designers who were forever looking for a new edge. The space age fashion was out, killed by the peasant look. In 12 months the space age look disappeared and was replaced with flower power, hippies and a return to earth lifestyle. Designers created swirling psychedelic patterns and exhibited fringe and tassel dresses worn with headbands in exclusive stores. “Kaftans were fashionable and manufactured transparent silks were worn draped around the body”. Yves Saint-Laurent's gypsy collection was gay, colorful, soft and exotic. (Mandy, online). Swirling psychedelic patters became popular. Afghans and Kaftans were fashionable and manufactured transparent silks were worn draped around the body. Fashion shows exhibited fringe and tassel dresses worn with headbands. By the end of the decade the hippies’ cheep, flamboyant clothes became expensive designer labels. The once condemned weird fashion sense of the hippie was being coveted by mainstream America. Teenagers everywhere wore tie-dye t-shirts. Long straight hair, beads, and flowing dresses were worn by “the girl-next-door.” It was not necessary to be a fulltime hippie to be fashionable. A girl could don the flower power maxi dress one day and then wear a mini the next. Many girls did just this. Ironically, the maxiskirt, a hippie spin-off, aroused the same anger as the mini, as both were seen as provocative.

Жуть какая... А все так симпатично начиналось...

The mini eventually evolved into the micro mini in 1967 which was nothing but a tiny strip of material that finished just below the bottom. By the end of the decade, with the two extremes of skirt length popular, as well as the midi length, Vogue proclaimed, "The length of your skirt is how you feel this moment" (Connikie, 57). Women’s hemlines of the 1960s were a barometer of contemporary attitudes: when the consumerist ‘Swinging Sixties’ was at its height, so were women’s hemlines. When people began to consider their lifestyle the midi- and maxi-skirts made their appearance.

Paper clothes were an experiment in fashion. The objective typifies the throwaway culture of the sixties. Many people bought the paper garments and then threw them out after one or two wears. CWRU art history professor Catherine Scallen told of her sister’s silver paper prom dress. It was strapless and she later disposed of it. Paper undergarments were also marketed, but were surprisingly not a success. “An example is the Andy Warhole inspired pop art, paper Souper Dress. It was made of wood pulp and cotton, screen-printed with Campbell's soup tins. "These dresses were very fragile and light sensitive" (Mandy, online).

In the 60s, pants became an accepted fashion garment for women. Although Courreges launched the trouser-suit for women in 1964, they did not become popular until the end of the decade. At this time, styles like hipsters, bell bottoms and sailor trousers were popular. Pants for women were part of the new unisex fashion style that was becoming popular and the distinction between men and women’s clothing became less and less. Trouser suits were created in the same style as men’s, with somber colors and pinstripes.

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Youth predominated the culture of the 1960's. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G.I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll or Dammit doll (named for it's creator, Joseph Dam) was a good luck symbol for all ages. Slot cars overtook toy trains in popularity.

In fashion, the 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade though, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legsl bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer and wider along with beards and moustaches. Menswear too had a much needed renaissance; bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue.
Фото:
Roaman's catalog, 1961

By 1964 the teenage influence caused the hemlines to creep up, and most teenagers were wearing mid-thigh length shifts as daywear. The sweater-dress was also very popular with young girls from 1961 onwards, until the mid-60s when other innovative designs were introduced. 1965 saw the premiere of culotte dresses in op-art or vibrant coloured patters (think Peter Max or Pucci) and these were most popular as evening or party wear; culottes had the freedom of trousers but the look of a full skirt. 1966’s dress was the tent, or "baby doll dress", sometimes in transparent chiffon, worn over a contrasting slip, and often sewn-in.

1966 was the year of the mini-skirt! Widely acknowledged as the brainchild of designer Mary Quant, within a year anybody who had the body to pull it off was wearing a mini, many of whose hemlines were 4-5 inches above the knee in New York and 7-8 inches above the knee in London! Throughout this time skirts were often paired with a matching sweater and matching set of tights for a uniform look. 1965 and 66 also saw the mini-coat, perfectly straight and virtually shapeless; also the pop-inspired dyed furs and PVC designs. By 1967 capes were popular, and were often made with matching deerstalker hats.

In the fall 1967 collections, the paper dress made its debut. Made of paper blended with nylon or other cellulose material, it was intended for everyday wear but was only ever widely used as holiday or lounge wear, due to its tendency to crease and also its, er, flammability.

In ladies' tops or blouses, from 1960 onwards the turtleneck, or polo neck, sweater was common, especially under a collarless jacket, and in 1966 Aran sweaters, with their thick knit, became trendy. Sleeve length was usually ¾ length, with long sleeves often pushed partway up the arms for a ¾ look (think Jackie O style suits and jackets). Sleeveless tops did not become popular until the mid 1960s.

By the end of the decade, men's ties, when worn, were up to 5" wide; most were patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was very popular, featuring the bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro; whites of both genders wore their hair either big and frizzy or long and straight.

Shoes: The prevalent shoe of the late 50s was the "winklepicker", a very very pointed toed shoe with a stilletto heel (also known as corner cockroach killers or 'shag me' pumps/stilettos) Low heels or pumps were only worn in the late 50s as casual shoes. In 1960 however, Paris and Italy showed the chisel square toe as an antidote to the painful winklepicker and by Autumn 1961 it was the shoe of choice. In 1963 a slightly rounder toe was introduced, paired with a Cuban heel, and ankle and calf-high boots became the rage, particularly black leather boots.

Фото
Chisel square toe shoe with cuban heel

By 1965 the chisel-toed slingback was the most common dress shoe (often with tongues or buckles) and appeared in bi-coloured models, models with two or more materials, or patent leathers of various colours. 1965 was also the year the white mid-calf kid boots were introduced, which came to be known universally as "go-go" boots. Additionally, it was in 1965 that boots reached above the knee to compliment the ever-shortening skirts of the time.