Decades Series: 60s - Topic of the day 10/8/23
What do you think of 60s fashion? Do you think of any styles/looks when you think of the 60s? Do you take any inspiration from then? This is an ongoing spotlight series going through the decades.
15 Replies
Mad Men is probably my favorite show, and definitely the first thing I think of for 60s fashion. There was a blog (Tom and Lorenzo) that would write fashion/costume recaps of each episode as they aired, which I can’t recommend enough: https://tomandlorenzo.com/tag/mad-style/
Tom + Lorenzo
Mad Style Archives - Tom + Lorenzo
Oh hey. I absolutely love the 60s. I think its a period alongside the early to mid 70s where real innovation and exploration happened in every creative field. The period really seems to have a chokehold on lots of designers and creatives despite lots of people seeing the period as “ugly”
In general i think the strong shoulders, wide lapels, and flared legs are striking and beautiful. Its really a look that flatters. The strong swooping lines read as very elegant. Some of those didnt solidify themselves as the trend in tailoring until the 70s maybe but you can see it yves fit above. It also strikes me as the last period where it was fairly mainstream to be glamorous, and i hold a lot of unearned nostalgia for that period as the last time the united states had a true left before it got stamped out after the anti-war movement
I am slowly working on a little inspo album/writeup about these ideas but im not a strong writer and very scatterbrained so its taking a while
Here is a closer picture from that same set by the way!
Pretty outside what I would usually look to, but The Graduate was the first thing I thought of what I heard 60's
1960s style really gets reduced down to just hippie aesthetics in the minds of most and that does a p big disservice but it's also understandable for folks that weren't like alive or style-conscious at the time. A huge number of items and styles that are commonplace today were introduced in the 1960s thanks to designers like Yves as Weeg mentioned earlier.
Going beyond men's style, girl groups like The Supremes were really influential for showcasing hot new styles on stage. Here they are rocking the scarf neckerchief which folks like jimi hendrix couldn't get enough of
It was a really strong time for both men and women to experiment in style, and between folks like jimi and the beatles you can see menswear incorporating a ton of color especially in the late 60s
Compared to this iconic pic from 1963, but hey chelsea boots are still in style so
dividing fashion into decades doesn't really work, America has never been a monoculture.
I wanna see some countries that had some relative stablility's fashion of the 60s
USA, UK and France are what come to mind but what was crackin in Mexico
Aside from musicians, you've got actresses like brigitte bardot putting french chic on the map for everyday americans
Meanwhile mod style was popping off in the uk making its way up to the ranks of designers like ysl with his mondrian dress
ysl also had some big sheer moments in his 60s collections, which is still used very liberally by my favorite design house
This is not even to mention the massive influence the space race had on style, influencing what would become today's techwear style. Synthetic fabrics like polyester and vinyl became super popular during this time and still are today.
The Canberra Times, Oct 16th, 1966 | The Canberra Times, Sept 5th, 1969 | Vincent's menswear splurging on advert space for slimmer fits, The Broadcaster, Mar 29th, 1966 | The Canberra Times, Jun 7th, 1968 (this was right under a half-page splash of details on the Robert Kennedy assasination suspect? 😭 ... but hey, $50 suits!) | The Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 21st, 1968
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So, personally I'm not hugely informed about 60s fashion other than your typical hippie, mod, or really big name designer stuff. scrounged through some old aussie newspapers to see what was going on locally in menswear... not much. 
Mostly I was just reminded that newspapers used to be the central location for people to post their hot takes. Some fun illustrations though!
Mostly I was just reminded that newspapers used to be the central location for people to post their hot takes. Some fun illustrations though!
