The ’60’s bought many diverse fashion trends. The early part of the decade saw the popularity of the bikini rise after being featured in the musical The Beach Party. Possibly the most famous fashion trend was led by Mary Quant and the mini skirt. Quant took the 1964 Andre Courreges short skirts and shortened them even more in 1965. However, the mini only became universally popular in the second half of the decade with many 1950’s styles such as the sack dress, with it’s below the knee hem line retaining it’s popularity well into the decade. The twist dance craze required a flowing skirt that saw kick pleats front and back which were inverted pleats allowing freer movement of the knee.
The middle of the decade saw box-shaped PVC dresses and go-go boots in fashion and the fashion centre was arguably London’s Carnaby Street and Chelsea’s Kings Road. The men too were becoming fashion conscious following the suit styles popularised by bands such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Styles for women often centred on bright colours and geometric patterns with icons of the day such as Twiggy in great demand to model shorter and shorter skirts and more and more garish colours.
By the later part of the decade the musical influences on design had shifted to the hippy movement. Bell bottomed jeans and ‘cheese cloth’ shirts became the norm for both sexes and the geometric patterns gave way to kaleidoscopic colour schemes. Like the decade before these were to hang on into the following decade, the1970’s.
The 60’s definitely had a look of it’s own, but arguably so too did the decades preceding or since. Many would say that the 60’s decade was the best to grow up in. Maybe, but most would argue the best time to be young was ‘my generation’!