60's Fashion

The fashion of the 60’s was spurred by the subculture of the decade stemming from working class teenagers in London who deemed the trend and style “mod." Men wore streamlined suits, often in bold colors, with narrow ties- usually black. Men religiously kept their suit impeccably clean. In terms of women’s styles, dressing in psychedelic prints, highlighter colors, and mismatched patterns was extremely popular. The hippie movement late in the decade also exerted a strong influence on ladies’ clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye, and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints. In the early to mid 1960s, the London modernists known as the Mods were shaping and defining popular fashion for young British men while the trends for both sexes changed more frequently than ever before in the history of fashion and would continue to do so throughout the decade. 

Fashions in the early 60s reflected the sophistication of the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Women wore pillbox hats, pastel suits with short boxy jackets, and over sized buttons. Simple, geometric dresses known as shifts were also in style. For evening wear, full-skirted gowns were worn and for casual wear, Capri trousers were the fashion for ladies.

 After designer Mary Quant introduced the mini skirt in 1964, the 60s fashion dramatically changed. The Mods, the leaders of the 1960s style, were characterized by their choice of style different from the 1950s and adopted new fads that were imitated by many young people. In the mid 1960s the bell-bottomed trousers were a new alternative to the capris that were popular in the early 1960s. For daytime outerwear, short plastic raincoats, colorful swing coats, and dyed fake furs were popular for young women. Suits were very diverse in color but were for the first time very fitting and slimming. Waistlines for women were left unmarked and hemlines were getting shorter and shorter. 


-Lauren Daniel, Clara Dow, Winter Warren & Katie Nichols