The 1950s | The 1960s | The 1970s | The 1980s

The 1960s began modestly, with only the vaguest hints of what was to come. Dissent was growing, but many were still happy to buy into the Camelot facade of the Kennedy era. Jackie Kennedy was a huge celebrity, famed for her gentility and classic Chanel suits. But, bubbling beneath the surface, the Civil Rights movement was brewing and revolution was hip. Music, literature, and art became hugely experimental. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Motown, Andy Warhol - all struck a chord within a society looking for change.
People thirsted for social freedom and self-expression. Just a few years into the 1960s, the pill-boxed silhouette of the Kennedy era was discarded for experimental fashion, pioneered by designers such as Mary Quant. Best known for introducing the mini-skirt, Quant also promoted the use of wild geometric prints on waif-like models such as Twiggy.
Toward the end of the decade, the hippie lifestyle gained popularity, and with it a more casual style of fashion. The Beatles, dressed in American Civil War era military style garb on the cover of their 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album, started a new fashion trend among young males - complete with the handlebar moustache. Their trendy female counterparts opted for American Indian-inspired clothing of the same era, with beaded jewellry, wraparound dressses and leather vests, purses, moccasins and thongs. Others adopted the "secondhand" look that was popularised by hippie dropouts.

Clothing

Miniskirts and Mini dresses
The Mini began the era of women's liberation and was the major fashion icon of the decade. Miniskirts achieved the height of their popularity around 1967. Following the lead of English designer Mary Quant, fashionable young women across the Western World were going mad for the Miniskirt. Featuring hemlines ranging from four to seven inches above the knee, the skirts were often worn with decorative tights or pantyhose. Today's younger generation might look at the mini and wonder what all the fuss was about when it burst onto the fashion scene, but when you observe the fashion standards of that era as illustrated in our look at 1950s fashion, you can see how radical a departure it was from the status quo. More ...

Raquel Welch	Knitted mini dresses	Decorative pantyhose	Miniskirts - 1967

Flares
These wide-legged pants, also known as Bell bottoms, were derived from Navy styled uniforms and became very popular with the young society in the late 1960's. Elvis Presley, Sonny and Cher helped make bell bottoms a fashion statement for the hippies and counter-culture audience. Flares were typically made of denim until they were produced with corduroy and polyester so they could be worn in any situation. Bell bottoms were still popular in the 1970's during the disco years and even in the 1990's when the Gen-X crowd was wearing them to be cool too. Super-Swedes ABBA carries the flairs fashion style through to the 1980s. In many ways, ABBA's demise brought about the flare's demise. More ...

Sonny and Cher	Flared jeans	Bell bottoms	Union Jack blazer, popularised by The Who

Midi and Maxi Skirts
The midi developed as a counter fashion statement to the mini. Aimed at consumers who were uncomfortable showing off their legs for a variety of reasons, but wanted to remain dressed fashionably, the midi skirt was nonetheless seen by many as ungainly, unflattering and unwarranted. For others, it was more alluring than the mini which was seen as very "in your face" - the sudden, gratuitous revelation of the upper thigh via the release of zippers and buttons, snaps and laces - or the bolder slit up one side, was far more daring and provocative. The maxi was similar to the midi, except even longer.

Mini and midi skirts	Faye Dunaway in the movie, Eyes of Laura Mars, wearing a midi pencil skirt with slits up to her thighs on both sides	Maxi dress	Midi pencil skirt

Tie Dye T-shirts
Nothing said 'psychedelia' better than the rainbow explosion of swirling colors and bold designs of the ancient art of tie-dye. Tie-dye is one of the oldest forms of fabric manipulation and design. The concept is simple: dye can only penetrate loose fabric, and when portions are bound off by string, rocks, clothespins, or rubber bands, the dye cannot reach that part of the fabric. That untouched section could remain the original color, or you could then dye the pristine sections a separate color to create works of art.
During the 1960s, the hippies' revival of old ethnic crafts resurrected the art and put a new spin on tie-dye. The hippies' tie-dye was no subtle handicraft - they tie-dyed with several colors, layering one on top of the other for wild bursts of color and crazy visual trips. Hearts, peace signs, bulls eyes-anything could be done with a little creativity. Tie-dyeing became the ultimate sign of the times.

Makeup
Eyes were a highlight, made up with dark eyeliner, Mod White eyeshadow.

Turtlenecks
Daily News Record magazine proclaimed 1967 the year of the turtle, as in turtleneck sweater. Favoured by beatniks and flower children. At its peak, the turtleneck was worn by such high-profile celebs as Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr., Senator Robert Kennedy, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

 

Decorative coloured tights	Nancy Sinatra wearing a miniskirt, go-go boots, turtleneck sweater and patterned tights	Steve McQueen in a turtleneck sweater

Shoes
Shoes reflected the rampant experimentation with color, texture, shape, and style. Many pre-Baby Boomers refused to give up their stilettos, but young people were gobbling up all the boots, sandals, and shoes that designers could throw at them. Everything from citrus-colored sandals to spacey, iridescently rainbow platforms to classic colonial or Edwardian-style pumps were in demand.
Go-go boots started with with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale in The Avengers, followed by Diana Rigg playing sexy Emma Peel. Sleek in black leather, their black boots became a trademark of the show and were used in promos. They started off ankle-height and moved up to knee-high by 1966. Nancy Sinatra's 1966 hit, These Boots Were Made For Walking captured the public imagination. Her flat-heeled boots were first created by designer Andres Courreges. Other designers followed suit with boots in a variety of colors, materials, and styles.
Whether the shoes were bright or boring, the socks completed the look. New in the 1960s, the idea of colorful stockings came with the shorter skirt which showed more leg. Textured, colored, knee high or full length - anything went! What was most welcome was the move away from garters and toward the pantyhose or tight style of stockings.

Fashion Accessories

Beatle boots	Fluffy dice	Safari jacket	Peace sign jewellery	Leonard Teale wearing a pork pie hat

Men: Beatles boots; hippy beads and bangles; 'bald' patches on jacket elbows; leather newsboy caps; nye caps; pork-pie hats; "make love not war" and peace sign jewellry; fluffy dice hanging from the car's rear vision mirror or around the neck; safari suits and jackets; zippered two-piece combo suits.

Chain handled handbag	Crocheted newsboy cap	Knitted suit	Linda Ronstadt wearing bracelet-sized earrings	Wide coloured belt

Women: gloves; handbags with chain handles; two-tone sling-back shoes; pill-box hats; hippy beads and bangles; bracelet-sized circular earrings; wide coloured belts; long leather boots; decorative buttons; plain ivy caps; leather newsboy caps; crocheted newsboy caps; wigs (particularly ponytails and beehives); "make love not war" and peace sign jewellry; accessories and jewellery with American Indian motif suede, denim, crocheted and knitted pant suits.

Hairstyles

George Harrison - mop top	Dusty Springfield - beehive	I Dream of Jeannie - French twist	Afro	Barbara Feldon - pageboy

Biff in Back To The Future - short back and sides	Ginger in Gilligan's Island - bouffant	Cilla Black - pageboy	Frankie Avalon - pompadour

• Beehive - popularised by singer Dusty Springfield (above centre) The syle developed from the 1950s pageboy cut which featured prominant bangs.
• Bouffant - first worn by Jacqueline Kennedy, but didn't become really popular until around 1964-65.
• Bob Cut - by 1963, the bob cut, where women wore their hair in a short cut just below the neck, had become popular.
• Hair Ironing - once the troublesome bouffant had begun to look old, young girls in the northeastern states staged a revolt. Taking up hot irons and ironed their hair dead straight. The ironed tresses lasted about an hour, this fad diminished in the early 70's followed by less dangerous styles.
• French braid/French plait/French twist - popularised by Jeanie of TV's 'I Dream of Jeanie' (above right).
• Afro - by the end of the decade, just about everyone had an afro. It was the hairdo of choice; the bigger the better. Even the girls had afros. Jimi Hendrix (below) popularised it.
• Beatle haircut or Mop top, after the fashion of the early Beatles (above left). The syle developed as a male version of the 1950s pageboy cut.
• Crew cut - similar to buzz, it went out of fashion with the advent of The Beatles.
• Pageboy - poularised by singer Cilla Black and Barbara Feldon (No. 99 of the Tv show, 'Get Smart').
• Short Back & Sides - also known as the Army Cut, it was the most common hairstyle for high school boys in the 1960s.
• Pompadour - big wave in the front, named for Madame de Pompadour aristocratic fashion leader of pre-Revolutionary France. Popular in the 1950s and early sixties, the style was popular among rockabilly singers like Elvis Presley and most male teen idols of the day. It was adopted as part of the dress code for Teddy Boys.

See also: See also: Fashion icons: Beehive hairstyle | Hair and Hairstyles of the 1960s | Hairstyling fashion of the 1960s

Fashion Icons

The Kennedys	Twiggy	Jean Shrimpton	Julie Christie	Mary Quant

• Twiggy
• Jacqueline Kennedy
• Julie Christie
• Mary Quant
• Alex Issigonis
• Pinin Farina
• Jean Shrimpton

  Movers and Shakers in Entertainment

Alfred Hitchcock	The Monkees	Jimi Hendrix	The Rolling Stones	The Beatles

• Bob Dylan
• The Beatles
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Jimi Hendrix
• The Rolling Stones
• The Monkees
• Robert Redford

  Movies that mirror the fashions of the 1960s

• Georgy Girl
• Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
• Petulia
• The Graduate

Motoring

• The major styling feature introduced during the sixties was the 'Coke bottle effect', in which the boot and rear door panels were swept upwards over the wheel arch creating a profile which resembled that a Coca Cola bottle. The first Australian car to incorporate the Coke bottle 'hump' was the XR Ford Falcon (right) in September 1966.
  Whereas the fifties were dominated by British made 4-cylinder cars, the sixties saw Holden, Ford, and towards the end of the decade, Chrysler, erode the supremacy of the imported 4-cylinder car and establish the locally built 6 as the Australian motorists' vehicle of choice. Nonetheless, all the major British car manufacturers (BMC, Triumph, Rootes Group, Vauxhall, Jaguar, Rolls Royce/Daimler) continued to sell their range of models in Australia, and were joined in ernest by the Germans (Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes), the French (Citroen, Peugeot, Simca and Renault), the Swedes (Volvo and Saab), the Czechs (Skoda) and the Italians (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari), who all moved into the Australian market for a slice of the action in the sixties.
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