Fashion in the sixties
Sylvia Ayton, a fashion graduate of the sixties once said “Suddenly it was the swinging sixties; it was the most exciting, wonderful and magical time. To be a designer then was fab. We kept our bras but we abandoned our girdles, pulling on pantyhose changed our lives even more than the pill.” The sixties was a decade of far reaching change and London was the centre of it. Thanks to a convergence of music, film, fashion and social change such as the civil rights movement, sexual liberation and feminism, the sixties became the decade for the young; it was the time of the Youthquake. Poster girls of the youthquake such as Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and Penelope Tree were often on the cover of fashion magazines such as Vogue. For fashion designers it was a time of great change, they were able for the first time to break many fashion traditions, mirroring the social movements of the time. Couturiers like Couregges and Yves Saint Laurent were among the few that embraced the new age of design and started creating clothing aimed at the youth rather than at their parents. They were also among the first that experimented with materials such as PVC and shortening hemlines.
In 1961 the LBD or little black dress which had become a genre in its own right was reborn by Hubert de Givenchy when his design featured in the film Breakfast in Tiffany’s. Givenchy designed the dress knowing the wearer well; he made the style fresher and younger and in doing so created an iconic fashion moment. Audrey Hepburn’s elfin looks and slight figure contrasted sharply with the smouldering sexuality of Anita Ekburg in her black dress in La Dolce Vita. Givenchy was anticipating a style to come. As was the designer Andre Couregges, with a background in architecture one of his first innovations in the Sixties was the white LBD, which heralded the start of a new age of space awareness. Couregges, along with designer Paco Rabanne and Cardin were some of the first designers to explore ‘space age’ looks and the use of different technologies and materials. In ’64 and as a direct influence of space travel the Parisian couturier Couregges launches his ‘space-age look’ which was both visionary and youthful in cut and appearance. The designer clothed his models; head to toe in shimmering white synthetics, - the colour, according to Couregges embodied the reflection of white - adding the colour silver which evoked the moons reflection. In addition to these colours he used slivers of Rhodid plastic plating, silver coloured sequins and vinyl discs, in the spring of ’65 Couregges’ ‘moon girls’ stepped onto the catwalk for the first time. The designer combined short slightly flared dresses with snow white wool coats, angular collars, futuristic glasses, and open toes white boots. This collection was made to be wearable and comfortable for young women; he also designed flat white boots - which are now known universally as ‘go-go’ boots - to ensure ease of movement. Paco Rabanne also used his training in architecture to push fashion technology further, the designer created sculptural dresses made from plastic discs and metal chains which often entailed using pliers rather than sewing needles during the construction. This radical experimentation was an increasingly widespread feature of elite fashion in the Sixties.
Diana Vreeland was an important figure in the Sixties; she was open to everything that was new, different and wild, thus she was an avid supporter of Couregges ‘Space Age ‘movement. She became the editor of American Vogue in 1962 and was the ‘Original High Priestess of Fashion’. Many influential designers and editors to this day describe her as the biggest inspiration for their careers. Her words were powerful and influential; she christened new trends and the people who made them with catchy headlines and metaphors. Her words such as ‘beautiful people’ and Youth quake’ sums up the creative, chic and rich vibrancy of the Sixties decade. Her arrival in ’62 had been conveniently timed, with her infinite energy and flair for the extraordinary; she not only captured the essence of the time but shaped them - putting unconventional beauties like Twiggy and Cher on the front cover, and featuring the Beatles and Mick Jagger on inside spreads, she turned Vogue into a magazine that no longer catered for just society women. Vreeland also changed the face of modern beauty, Jean Shrimpton and Penelope Tree were Vreeland girls and for the first time, models were stars and stars like Audrey Hepburn were models.
One of Vreeland girls, Jean Shrimpton was the first high-fashion model to also be a popular pin-up, her freewheeling style made it possible for a whole world of girls her age to connect with the elegant and expensive clothes she modelled. A graduate of the Lucie Clayton College, she was first spotted by David Bailey. As a couple the pair became emblems of London in the early Sixties. Bailey said ‘it’s almost impossible to take a bad picture of her and that even in her passport she looked a great beauty’. Shrimpton was a household name by the time she was twenty five, she is also credited with changing the course of popular fashion. The miniskirt may have been born on the catwalk but Shrimpton’s appearance in a mini dress at the Melbourne Cup in Australia ensured that every woman wanted one. Shrimpton was a totem for British fashion. British Vogue said of the Sixties and Shrimpton that “the world suddenly wanted to copy the way [Britain] looks. In New York it’s the ‘London Look’ and in Paris it’s ‘le style anglais”.
One of the most famous faces of the Sixties was Lesley Hornby Aka Twiggy. As a teenage model she weighed just six and a half stone, but her body matched Diana Vreeland’s description of the perfect contemporary silhouette ‘the smallest calves; the straightest legs; tiny, narrow, supple feet; beautiful wrists and throat’. Her career started as a happy accident, at 5”6 Twiggy had been told she was too short to become a model but after Leonard of Mayfair, protégé of Vidal Sassoon cut her long hair into a pixie crop for a promotional shoot, her career suddenly rocketed. This transformation twinned with the models own style of makeup which consisted of three pairs of eyelashes, painted dolly lashes on her lower lids and nude lips earned her the title of ‘The Face of 66’. Where Jean Shrimpton embodied the naturalistic side of the Sixties, Twiggy came to represent the Youth quake generation.
Across the water in America there was another Sixties icon, Penelope Tree. 1968 was the ‘Tree’s’ year, and she changed the notion of beauty. Tree not only challenged the conventions of beauty but also her illustrious lineage. Similarly to Twiggy, the Tree was created her own image, often shaving her eyebrows and attaching false lashes on the bottom rims of her eyes, she didn’t fit an ideal. In 2008 she said, “I felt I was an alien so I didn’t see anything wrong with looking like one,” Tree was also part of what a journalist in 1967 called modeling’s new “Personality Cult,” which valued qualities other than prettiness. Other iconic models such as Veruschka, who portrayed herself as an artistic bohemian and the exotic Donyale Luna, the first black model to be internationally successful were part of this ‘cult’. The Sixties was a turbulent decade for the African American community, civil rights activists used disobedience and non violent protest to bring about change. The federal government in America were able to make legislative headway with initiatives such as the ‘Voting Rights Act of 1965’ and the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1968). It was also a time where many leaders from the African American community rose to prominence including Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. They risked and sometime lost their lives in the name of freedom and equality. Donyale Luna’s success as a model heralded a change in fashions attitude to African Americans. The Sunday Times Magazine hailed her as the’completely New Image of the Negro woman. Fashion finds itself in an instrumental position for changing history’. Naomi Sims was another black model who paved the way for many, after countless rejections from agencies, during the 60s her persistence led to major runway and editorial success. In 68 she appeared on the front cover of ‘Ladies’ Home Journal and had a strong presence in the fashion world. The designer Halston told The New York Times that Naomi was “the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all social barriers.”
One designer in particular was a pioneer for coloured models, Yves Saint Laurent; he was the first ever haute couture designer to use coloured models in his runway shows. Saint Laurent’s reputation was built on his supreme tailoring; he was the first to feminise the tuxedo, with ‘Le Smoking’ in 1966. The designer believed that the trouser suit belied a sensuous femininity; paired with stilettos and a fedora the trim men’s tailoring only highlighted a woman’s figure. The timing of this new design was perfect: It appealed to the desires of the young woman who was just gaining access to birth control, political power, and an executive career. Saint Laurent power-dressing by a decade, the suit became a symbol of success for career women throughout the world. Pierre Berge, friend and business partner of Saint Laurent once said that whilst ‘Chanel gave women freedom, Yves Saint Laurent gave them power’. He was also renowned along with Couregges for pioneering prêt-a-porter. In 1966 Yves alongside his partner Pierre Berges turned away from the couture workshops and towards the accessibility of prêt-a-porter and in ’67 they opened a boutique called Rive Gauche in Paris. The Boutique sold Saint Laurent’s ready to wear collections and accoutrements like perfume, accessories and cosmetics. Also in ’66 after a brief hiatus due to the pirating of his design Couregges reopened his design house having created a tiered fashion system with three ranges, priced and manufactured on a sliding scale; Couture Future, Prototype and Hyperbole. This system was intended as a mass-marketed prêt-a-porter, with the integration of ready-to-wear into the fashion system and the cultural changes in the second half of the 20th century, this model was adopted by couture houses attempting to survive.
Mary Quant was another designer who shaped the way people dressed in the sixties, in 1964 she was responsible for taking the London Look to America and was renowned for being the British designer that made miniskirts the icon of the 1960s. Quant’s miniskirts were a far cry away from the architectural mini lengths of Couregges in Paris, she used easy jersey shapes in vibrant colours moving away from the fifties pastels. Quant also played with the proportions of classic fashion garments; scaling up cardigans and making t-shirts into dresses, she was also the first designer to dismantle the barriers between day and evening wear. Quant once said that “clothes should adapt themselves to the moment. Girls want clothes they can put on first thing and still feel good in at midnight.” (Boutique, A 60s Cultural Phenomenon, Marine Fogg). Not only was Mary Quant a pivotal influence to all female designers as an entrepreneur and an essential contributor to the youthquake movement she was an icon. She wore her own designs and epitomised the ‘dolly bird’ image of the young sixties girl and modelled the archetypal 1960s Vidal Sassoon bowl haircut that quickly became synonymous with her clothing.
Conclusion
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