1960, the year of the traditionalist where fashion was at its peak was one of the most important moment in the history books for the fashion industry due to its contributions to the modernism of fashion. After the Second World War, people started to return to their usual life and during 1950s and 1960s, economic boom started to happen. During this period, people started to take heed of the fashion industry trying to make it an important aspect of their life. Thus, the traditional fashion genre was born. This traditional fashion genre was built with respect to the fashion taste associated in the year 1950, though much of the 1950’s hierarchies started to dissolve and made a quantum leap towards modernization even though 1950 was the year that had set the foundations for the fashion industry.
During the year 1960, people were much more diverse and were more open about their fashion choices which made them come forward in the light and talk more openly about their choices and desires. This made people wear more fashionable clothes and also helped them grow fashion taste beyond their self-actualization and cultural aspect. Thus a new dimension in the world of fashion industry had been reached which created a foundation for modernization.
The year 1960 was not just like any other year, it was a year through which fashion was able to reach on a different height. On this year, not only just the fashion industry’s perception of seeing fashion had changed but also, its way of selling the clothes had changed as well. Due to the change in fashion taste, it is also important for the industry to make changes in their retail outlets otherwise they will not be able to meet the expectations of the consumers. During 1960, people always wanted something new and all sorts of new methods were highly welcomed. In Paris, retailers had to set up their shops from scratch in order to attract people especially the youth. At that period of time, small boutiques were very popular and every shop needs to keep them in their stock otherwise they will lose their competition and during that time it was very important to keep ahead of the game otherwise retailers will not be able to keep with the frequent change in fashion taste. Furthermore, retailers offered a new method for their shoppers to shop and have a different and good experience while shopping. Instead of using the old method of formal gestures such as the outfitters, now retailers offer a wide variety of options. People are able to move freely and look around the shop since retailers completely removed the departmental store concept. Due to this, now people had a breathing space while shopping. Moreover, after all these renovations, retailers keep more affordable clothes especially small boutiques since it was very popular in 1960.
Even though the fashion taste had changed quite drastically within a year, the fashion revolution of 1960 was able to survive due to the generation of youth. In 1960, the youth generation started to earn a lot and was willing to spend in the fashion industry to buy more fashionable clothes. This new sensation of economic power fueled the industries heart and in return, the fashion industry started to respond with a proper measure. The fashion industry could have easily copied their old works and easily converted them into the youth generations size but the fashion taste would have been really poor. In order to respond properly, the fashion industry took the youth generation very seriously and made sure that they are treated really well since they were their most important potential customers. If the industry wanted to stick with their older designs then they would be had done injustice towards the young generation, and dresses with designs which were simply preferable by the age group would have been a massacre due to the lack of acceptance rate among the young generation for the grown-up designs. Companies like Hubert de Givenchy was one of the very first companies who look forward into the future wanted to take the risk of choosing the youth generation group as their potential target groups and they were never left disappointed ever again. It was these certain risks which lead a company to be this big even after the year 1960. For a company of like Givenchy it’s important to take such risk and due to these reasons, they were able to stay ahead of their game.
In 1960, the boutique fashion was a powered hub and it was the main driving force in the fashion industry. Shops were always flooded with crowds admiring the boutique works. Eventually, people were so much into a boutique that they had to make it a part of their lifestyle. The boutiques were very slim fit and were very popular among the young generation. They say that these slim fit dresses make them look very ravishing. Due to the mass availability of the boutique shops, the boutiques are very much available at very affordable prices and this pretty much attracted the young generation since they are very much fond of this product. During 1960, shift styles were very popular. Shift styles were considered as one of the most iconic designs for the fashion industry. In Paris, this shift style created a revolution and the crowd went wild when this dress was announced from the fashion industry. Shift style covers the upper torso with a proper fitting leaving the lower half of the dress with the subtle A-line and ends up till the knee or above it. This gives the dress a much more elegant look. Another most popular fashion wear which was really famous was a pantsuit. From 1960 this dress had made a revolution and still now this dress is creating a huge impact on our fashion industry and our day to day life. In 1960, this dress was designed with respect to women empowerment in comparison with men. Pantsuit created a lot of buzz in the fashion industry and was one of the hot topics to talk about in the traditional age of 1960 and lots of controversies were heard during the traditional age. Today, there is not much a buzz for pantsuits since everyone accepted this dress to be very normal and is also chosen as one of the most iconic formal dresses of all time. Furthermore, now a day women’s pantsuits were made or designed with a feminine touch to make it much more comfortable, more wearable and attractive at the same time for girls to wear them.
If you ever saw leggings into any movies of the nineteenth century, don’t be dishearten since you will be glad to know that leggings were first introduced in 1960. Still, now leggings are very popular in the twenty-first century. There were mainly two categories of leggings, one type of leggings are very formal in nature. They had solid colors; the fabrics were made up of either jeans or solid color gabardine. Another type of leggings is made up of printed elements. The printed leggings were the most popular among the formal and all varieties of leggings. Even today, printed leggings were worn by girls to get the retro feel of 1960. During 1960, miniskirts were very popular and shops used to stock them up at very reasonable prices. Though many people consider lots of choices while purchasing leggings and miniskirts, the printed ones were the ones which were much more fashionable compared with the regular ones.
During 1960, due to the massive changes in the fashion industry, there were changes in technological aspects for making the clothes. Such example could be the ‘paper dress’. The paper dress was one of a kind dress which was made from complete polymers, plastics, and PVC. This dress created a publicity stunt when it was first launched in America by an American company whose sole job is to produce tissue papers and sanitary napkins. Due to these publicity stunts, this paper dress became very famous among the people and everyone was willing to get one. This paper dress sets a very good example for the technological advancements in the year 1960 for which we could still say that the fashion industry is very sophisticated and the advancements it had developed had reached into many heights. Furthermore, the fashion industry in the year 1960 had come across many barriers. People from the 1960 era were always thriving to try out something new all the time. Jackie Kennedy who was the first lady of the United States and a very famous public figure started to wear short skirts a lot of people began to open up and started to wear gloves and hats. Jackie Kennedy was also known for her iconic pillbox hat which became very popular in 1961.
The year 1960 was actually turning point form traditionalism to modernization. This, in fact, did affect the fashion industry in many different ways. It could be said that the year 1950 was actually the renascence period for the fashion industry in terms of 1960, and from 1960 the idea of modernization took place and made a revolution in the fashion industry. Like many famous fashion designers, Pucci an Italian fashion designer had a huge contribution in the fashion industry due to his amazing sense of colors. He created the psychedelic color pattern also known as the fashion industries color palette. Due to his amazing sense of color, he just simply changed the perspective of a piece of regular cloth wear into a masterpiece of artwork within a fortnight. The idea was absolutely brilliant and even in the 21stcentury his ideas about color are being carried down and borrowed from time to time. In London, the young generations were delighted about the massive change that took place in the fashion industry and was much more enthusiastic when they figure out the fashion industry were making fashionable clothes only just for them based on their taste, choice, and preferences rather than coping the same fashion from the older generations. This gave them a sense of freedom and joy while the teens of London were busy enjoying the thrill of the fun fashion and the complete freedom of it.
The fashion industry in the sixties had a major contribution in terms of music. During the sixties, two bands were on their very prime moments who were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Apart from them, there are obviously other pop musicians and some rock bands but they were not so much popular as these two bands were. Due to these two bands, London was rocking to its core and was later named “Swinging London” by its youth generation. This later became the hot topic all over Europe and America. Since the youth generation is thriving during the sixties, Mary Quant a Welsh fashion designer thought about the situation and created one of her masterpieces which are known as the “Quant and the miniskirt”. This masterpiece of her later became one of the most iconic dresses in the fashion industry and the fun-loving youth loved it. During the late sixties, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin contributed in the fashion industry vastly. During the Woodstock festival, they introduced the “Hippie” culture. During the show, Hendrix and Janis wore bell-bottom pants, bright colored printed shirts which were very loose. This sense of fashion moved the fashion industry and the youth generation felt relaxed. Furthermore, during the late sixties, Bob Dylan made his contribution to the fashion industry. Due to his infamous folk music, the youth generation started to follow him and almost copied his fashion sense. His fashion attire consists of denim pants, western shirts and military jackets which reflects the working class people of America. This eventually created another revolution in the fashion industry of the sixties.
In the end, the sixties were an era in which fashion took one of its major jumps towards modernization and the contributors who were contributed had marked a part of history with their contributions.
The 1960s were the years of massive political unrests. In those ages people were engaged with many curses of the society, for example, racism was at the top. People of those days were likely to remain engaged with the negativity and protests. Many protests took place like Vietnam movement, women rights movement, gay rights movement.
As per music has a large contribution to changing the world it set up to another progress. Music brought positivity to the youth of the 1960s. It turned them out of that negativity and make their lives fun loving. The impact showed a significance in the fashion line.
Especially youths started wearing color clashing dresses. Eccentric bold patterns clearly implied a fun loving attitude. The dressing sense was incorporated by the music industry as per the protest against the usual violent pattern of life. They started protesting through fashion. Less clothing in women dress up was one of the largest contributions of that era. A mini skirt, typically less clothing was targeted as fun loving personality.
However, only music makes a difference in the fashion industry. People who are music lovers, typically most of the people are in a way or the other is music lovers get influenced by choosing fashion style. The musicians dress up according to their genre of music. For example, Glam Rock is a style of rock and roll music. The 1970s band from England used to wear t-shirts with colorful faces on. The band tried to bring up firm protests throughout their dress ups and songs. The dressing phenomenon, in fact, got quite famous throughout the worldwide. Link- https://www.rebelsmarket.com/blog/posts/how-music-has-influenced-fashion-styles
The Beatles band was much famous during the 1960s. The band is still recognized because of its world-changing rock songs. It used to show politeness throughout the rocking show in the screens or in concerts. Long and loose courts were the fashion style of this band. Pants were skinny enough to show firmness. Also, the music used to be polite and romantic even though in rocking touch.
However, the 1960s fashion got quite boosted up by the Beatles. People used to wear skinny pants and west-coat most often the time. Whereas The rolling stones another famous band of the 1960s got quite famous with leather jackets and representing youth fashion most of the time. Mostly the songs of the band regarding the unfairness of the adults and the lack of independence in their lifestyle. So, they incorporated leather jackets to represent youth and power. They demanded the power lost to the adults.
