60s fashion and style

Like pop music, fashion went through a revolution in the 60s, but for most women little changed in the early years of the decade. The styles of the late fifties, the Chanel suit and the full skirt were still popular. By the middle of the 60s, the mini was in and short hair, in the geometric style of Vidal Sassoon, was the in look. By the end of the sixties, the look was long, flowing hair, hippy beads and kaftans.

For most men in the 60s, fashion still meant a trip to Burton, John Collier (formerly The Fifty Shilling Taylor), or Hepworth.

For younger men though, men's fashion also went through several transformations in the 60s. In the early years of the decade suits had changed little from the 50s, but the Italian look quickly took off: narrow trousers, narrow lapels and a thin tie. For the very fashionable, flares were in, lapels on jackets were wider and the kipper tie was hip by the end of the decade.

Full employment and a school leaving age of fifteen meant that teenagers had plenty of money to spend. They spent it on music, clothes, scooters or motorbikes. They were often married by their early twenties, so this period of freedom was short lived. The short term nature of the 'teenage' period meant fashions and styles quickly changed. There were several youth cults in the sixties, each quickly succeeding the other. First the Rockers with their leather jackets and motorbikes, then the ultra stylish Mods, who clashed with the Rockers at seaside resorts. Then the Hippy look, based on a growing drug culture and finally the Skinheads.

See also:

Early 60s

In the first half of the 60s, for women's fashion, the look of the late fifties remained. It was all about the glamour of American movies. By 1963, when this photograph, right, was taken, the wide skirts of the 50s had disappeared, but the look was still formal. The two girls in this picture look very grown up. The look was adult and glamorous, there was no real attempt to look that different from the older generation. This style can be seen in films such as 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' (1960).

The young man in this picture is in Mod gear: a smart suit with narrow lapels and tapered trousers, a slim tie and winklepickers. Fashion was very regional in the 60s. Styles adopted in the Capital took some time to reach the whole country. In the film 'Kes' (1969), about Billy, a boy growing up in Barnsley in Yorkshire, his older brother, Jud, still wears this style, right down to the winklepickers. In the early sixties, in some towns, the Teddy Boy style was still in vogue, whereas in London the Mod movement was beginning.

The photograph, above, from 1962, shows a selection of more casual styles. They range from a sports jacket and tie complete with hat for the man on the left, to open necks for the two in the middle. The hat was on its way out in the sixties and was mainly worn by older men.

Slim fitting trousers were also popular casual wear for women in the early sixties. This shot, right, is also from 1962.

For most men over thirty the smart suit remained the only way to dress for going out. Many went to tailors, such as Burton or John Collier to be fitted out at least one a year. Burton's suits were good value for money and lasted reasonably well.

Mid 60s fashion

By the middle of the decade little had changed in women's fashion. The Chanel suit, left, a hangover from the 50s was still very popular in the 60s. Hemlines might have been slightly higher. The bouffant hairdo (as worn right) dated from the middle years of the sixties. It needed a considerable amount of back combing and hair lacquer.

The smart suit and fairly formal look remained popular, certainly for women over thirty.

Hair styles

Below are some more popular hairstyles from the 60s. The flip was a classic 60s look that remained 'in' for most of the decade. The beehive was popular in the early to mid 60s; this girl has a typical 'Audrey Hepburn look'. The pixie was a short hairstyle, which was popular in the mid 60s, before long hair came back in the hippy era.

The mini skirt

The mini skirt was the fashion phenomenon of the sixties. Hemlines rose to 7 to 8 inches above the knee. There is some debate over who invented the mini. Mary Quant's boutique, Bazaar, on the King's Road, Chelsea was one of the first places that sold them in 1965. French fashion designer, Andr� Courr�ges, also added mini skirts to his fashion collection in 1965.

The mini skirt slowly caught on throughout the country in the years following 1965. Most women took a couple of years to accept the new look. For the mini to work, the old fashioned underwear and stockings of the fifties had to go. Women now wore tights, or panty-hose. A new male fantasy ousted an age old one!

London in the mid sixties was awash with boutiques with names like Countdown, Blast Off, Top Gear, Change Down, Glad Rags, Clobber, Quorum, Ad Hoc, Palisades, Barricades etc all in the wake of Mary Quant's original. There a girl could get the latest fashion, which according to 'The London Spy (a sophisticated guide book) in 1966, was a buttercup-yellow satin gymslip worn with orange boots!

Most of these boutiques were fairly expensive. A simple shift dress cost around £10 (read at least £100 in today's money). For those with smaller pockets there were Wallis, Neatawear and Top Shop. Top Shop's range in the 60s included designs by Mary Quant. If Swinging London was not to your taste, then Jaeger made sweaters, suits and coats that lasted forever. Marks and Spencer was known for quality and value, though some of their dresses and suits were a little too classic. M&S was also considered the best place for underwear.

This shift dress, left, is typical of the swinging London style of the mid sixties. The bright colours and geometric patterns epitomise this period. This look lasted into the latter years of the sixties for those not ready to join the hippy revolution.

The Mod style

The Mods of the early sixties took the suit to new levels of style. The tapered trousers and thin lapels of the Italian style, became a new youth cult in the early to mid sixties. To this look they added striped blazers, Fred Perry shirts and the Mod scooter, a Lambretta if possible.

Carnaby Street was their fashion centre. John Stephen had several shops there. His male boutiques became the equivalent of Mary Quant's Bazaar.

In the mid 60s, the London Mods congregated in Carnaby Street for a regular fashion parade. Pop music poured from the boutiques and men's shops along the small, narrow street. By the mid 60s, boutiques catering for girls as well as boys were common on Carnaby Street; the Mods usually brought their girlfriends along with them. Shops on Carnaby Street often came and went. Shops that were on Carnaby Street in the 60s included:

Carnaby Street also had a junk shop called Gear. It sold furniture from the Victorian past and reminders of the then fashionable Art Nouveaux era. Also on Carnaby Street in 1967 were a couple of old fashioned pubs, a health food shop, a toyshop and Button Queen, which sold old buttons.

For more on Mods see Mods and Rockers and 60s Mods

Hippy style

Mod fashions were mainstream youth culture by 1965. In 1966 the scene was changing. In January 1966, Granny Takes a Trip opened at 488 King's Road, London; the wrong end of the street, known as the the World's End. Granny Takes a Trip was run by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend, Sheila Cohen, a fan of vintage clothes, and former tailor John Pearse. They decorated the shop with red Art Nouveaux lettering on a black background. It looked very dark and mysterious. Inside were Aubrey Beardsley prints and blow-ups of French postcards from the naughty nineties (the 1890s that is).

Granny Takes a Trip marked the end of Mod and the beginning of Hippy style. The shop sold clothes for men and women, some vintage, some new. It also sold floral shirts, jackets with wide lapels, the opposite of the Mod style, velvet and brocade flares, and skirts and dresses in velvet and lace.

Granny's became a Mecca for the pop world. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals and the Pink Floyd were all customers.

Following on from Granny's, Hung on You had a shop front painted by pop artist, Michael English. He choose bold Art Deco inspired lettering in red over bright yellow sun rays on a black background. It timed in beautifully with the late 60s Art Deco rival which inspired Biba and films such as 'Bonnie and Clyde'.

Also in 1966, Michael Fish, opened his first shop 'Mr Fish' in Clifford Street. Michael Fish is credited with the invention of the kipper tie. All his clothes were labelled 'Peculiar to Mr Fish'.

Bridging Mod and Hippy style was this smart, double-breasted style, left. This was the the way for a fashionable young man to look hip without being scruffy. It was taken up by many of the Mod bands in the late 60s, often combined with elements of the Hippy style.

For mainstream youth fashion, everything changed again in the Summer of 1967. The smart look of the Mods was replaced with long hair, beads, beards and kaftans. Flower power was in the air. The look was psychedelic swirls and paisley patterns. Full on Flower Power was short lived, but its influence was long lasting.

1969 and after

As the decade ended, hemlines started to drop. The maxi and midi lengths offered women an alternative to the mini.

Working class youths, unable to join the beautiful people, opted for short cropped hair and Dr Marten boots. The Skinhead was born.

60s fashion: Reference and further reading

• Revolt into Style by George Melly, published 1970 (Penguin)
• Len Deighton's London Dossier, published 1967 (Penguin)
• The New London Spy by Hunter Davies, published 1966 (Blond)
• The Look by Paul Gorman, published 2001 (Sanctuary)
• Sixties Source Book by Nigel Cawthorne, published 1989 (Quattro)
• The Sixties Art Scene in London by David Mellor, 1993 (Phaidon)
• Up the Junction, Nell Dunn, 1963 (Pan Paperback)

60s fashion on the web

There is quite lot about 60s fashion on the internet. I would highly recommend www.fashion-era.com. This site has a huge amount of information about fashion from the 60s and other decades. The Wikipedia article about mini skirts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniskirt is also very good.

For hairstyles have a look at www.hairarchives.com. There are number of 60s styles, including the bouffant, the beehive and some very strange looking unisex haircuts.

You might also like this video. The tone is bit condescending, but fairly typical of reporting in 60s. It covers most of the late 60s London fashion scene from Granny Takes a Trip, Hung on You, to Carnaby Street. It asks the question, does London really swing?

Your comments

"There is a lot of 60s cloths and stuff. And one video." Melissa

"Thanks for the page! Helped me a lot while designing a 60's outfit :)" Daisy

"I lived it I was there...It was fabulous!" Simohn Spearitt

"I want to see more pictures of the 60's fashion trends" Angelica

If you look at the second and third pictures on this page you can see the evolution from mid-sixties mini dress to the longer hair and longer skirts that were the trendier end of fashion at the end of the decade. The fourth picture shows two teenage girls in the more formal looking style that was popular at the beginning of the decade. To see what happened next see Seventies fashion. There are also more pictures on Sixties fashion - pictures.

We're always looking for new pictures of how people looked in the sixties,  if you have any please email them and we'd be happy to add them to the site.

"Wot happened to the minis when the hippy style came 'in' did it just stop, or did it carry on in sum sense" Carrolyn

Changes in style are not adopted by all at the same time. The hippy movement, promising an alternative life style, was a youth cult. Some teenagers ignored it, others wore the clothes only at weekends, some dropped out of conventional society completely. Older people hated it. The hippy movement had a huge influence on mainstream fashion, as well as attitudes, which lasted well into the seventies. However, mini skirts remained mainstream fashion for most women well until the mid seventies.  They may have worn mini skirts and dresses with psychedelic or floral patterns, which were very popular around the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies.

"I think that the style in the 60s were and are cool, but as my mom says everyone has their own style and i'm ok with that, but that dose not mean i'll stop liking what i like just cause my friend like something else and my mom says i should be proud, as i am. " Bob

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"i love the 60s" Shannon

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"WOW LOVE THE SIXTIES my daughter is doing a slide show about there fashion love Emma" Emma Faye

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"this website is brill it is really helping me on my school project its a competition so hopefully i will win with this website :) and that video helps as well so thanks!!!!!:D" Victoria

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"they are so kool to me cuz there so hip and fashionable" briel

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"it helped alot the website is cool and interesting" Ellie

"i wished i lived in these times." Sydney

"The 60s were great times for mods I was living in peckham and used to dress in tonic mohair suits camel coats long leather coats. Also hush puppy shoes then raul shoes very italian.

Used to have my hair cut in a college boy cut or french crew cut.

Used to wear brut after shave.

Go to brighton or margate for bank holidays on scooters. Also used to go to hastings all the girls loved you if you were from london and a mod. Used to go to the triangle at the end of peckham high street to meet all the other mods on scooters.

Great times anyone from peckham remember them there"

j holden

"Great site, really informative and good pictures. Loved the video! Really helped me, I have been struggling to find a good site about changing style through the sixties, most others just talk about the mod, mary quant type style. Would be great to see more reference to 60's models/celebs and their influence. Thanks! " Emma

"can u please help me i wont to change my style and dress like the 60s cult a bit like Amy Winehouse but for a guy. thank u." kemal

This site should give you a good idea of how people dressed in the sixties. You might also want to look at 60s Mods. Then try to choose modern day items that look similar. The Ben Sherman, Lambretta and Fred Perry labels have a distinct sixties look in some of their clothes, although I'm not sure it's quite Amy Winehouse! Alternatively search out eBay or your local second-hand or charity shops.

"the styles are really cute and really different as they are now..." pancracia lopez

"ewwww hate the 60s fashion" tanya

"this is a very helpful site. i have a project on fashion of the fifties and sixties for LA class because we are starting to read the outsiders. this is the best web site yet! thankss(:" Bailey(:

"the sixties rock!!! in ur face people these days r so boring always copying other people's style TUT TUT! :(" Phoebe

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what does the makeup look like looked everywhere for some help please help!! :)

"what does the makeup look like looked everywhere for some help please help!! :)" Louise

"i personally think that sixties fashion is WOOOWWWWW! I admire all of the trends and how people dressed the way they liked without caring about what others thought of them. i could only wish that now, 2009, could be like that in the sense of not caring of anyones opinion but your own :]" niki

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SHOUT OUT TO

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Oliver Saville

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"ThIS SITe IS COOL N IT HELPED ME N MY FRIENDS DO R FASHION PROJECT SO THANXXXXX " dashon

"Is there a name for the fashion style of Emma Bunton's music video 'Maybe'" Madison

Maybe! It's not pure sixties. The men's slim ties could be from the sixties, as could the ladies black mini dresses, but overall the look reminds me more of the early eighties.

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