The 1960s was a decade of sweeping change, a revolt against the stuffy and staid 1950s way of life, a time when young people spoke their minds and demonstrated against the status quo in art, song, and fashion. Let’s take a look at some of those wild 60’s fashion innovations that helped to mould the future, and are in many cases still in style today!
Cut-Out Dresses
This popular 1960s look was considered quite risqué by the previous generations, which only served to make Cut out dresses, in which daring swaths of bare skin are displayed in sections literally cut out from the cloth, all the more popular with the rebellious youth!
Crochet Dresses
These subtly scandalous dresses were made of a yarn weave that featured hundreds of tiny holes that revealed bare skin beneath. Although most women wore underwear, that wasn’t always guaranteed, and a keen eye might catch a glimpse of a lot more than skin!
Halter Tops
Nearly every young woman of the time had a halter top in her wardrobe, they were made popular by stars like Goldie Hawn and Cher and came to be a symbol of the women’s rights movement. The more adventurous tied bandanas and scarves into an even skimpier version of the halter top that was sure to turn heads!
Paisley Prints
These swirly, hypnotic patterns hailing from ancient India and Persia were everywhere in the 60’s decade, on scarves, blouses, trousers, hats, and even boots! If the counter-culture hippie movement could be said to have a unifying look, it would have been paisley, there is hardly a better fashion symbol for flower power than it!
Geometric Black & White Prints
The counter style to paisley’s rainbow splashes of colour were the black & white stripes, chequers, and zig-zag prints made popular by the rock and roll bands of the British Invasion and mod spy chicks on TV! All black and all white were also considered to be hip, but salt loves pepper, and the black & white patterns were the epitome of “in”, baby!
Bell-Bottoms
Although they reached their apex during the ’70s, bell-bottom trousers got their start in the ’60s as a popular clothing item with both women and men. The style originated at sea, where sailors wore bell bottoms so they could easily roll them up to keep them out of the surf’s splash.
Fringe Jackets
These 60’s icons were especially popular with men thanks to British Rock band The Who’s boisterous singer Roger Daltry sporting them on stage. The hippie movement is said to have adopted the look as a homage to styles worn by the Native Americans they considered to be the originators of many of their counter-culture philosophies, and like their spiritual brothers and sisters, the hippies were persecuted for them.
Tie Dye
The other uniform of the 1960s hippie movement, these psychedelic designs were created by tightly tying strings around articles of clothing, then putting them through a series of dyes in the desired colours. While t-shirts are the best-known example, almost anything could be tie-dyed, and it all looked groovy, man!
In closing, we just want to wish you “Peace and Love!”
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