The transition of fashion from one decade to another played itself like a song on repeat. The ruling tenure of trends and brands was going to see a shortening of age and all of this happened in the 1960s. A decade of opposites yet the one that hosted them both. This means that the 1960s was a decade where both- sophisticated designs inspired from the ’50s and rather bold and revolting designs of the new generation were equally famous. This makes the 1960’s one of the most decades for fashion. This was for the first time that fashion was driven around the youth market and featured a wide number of diversified trends.

The fashion trends in the decade broke many fashion traditions by mirroring socials movements that were making headlines in that period. The ideology of designing for only mature and elite members was let down as the influence and need to cater to the teenage and young adult market was increasingly important. More radically innovative fashion styles, like little girl androgynous looks for women, swept away the ruling likes of the sophisticated sweater girls of the sixties.

1960s fashion was bi-polar in just about every way. Bright, swirling colors. Psychedelic, tie-dye shirts, and long hair and beards. The woman wore unbelievably short skirts and men wore tunics and capes. The foray into fantasy would not have been believed by people just a decade earlier. It’s almost like the 1950s bottled everyone up so much that the late 1960s exploded like an old pressure cooker. Women were showing more skin than ever before. Wouldn’t be hard to believe that expose was a word coined in the ’60s. For the first time in the 19th Century, London, not Paris, was the center of the fashion world. The British Invasion didn’t stop with The Beatles. It swept into all parts of life, especially clothing. Even though this time period saw the maximum experimentation in terms of colors, and sizes of clothing, it wasn’t seen as a revolutionary period as everything revolved around tweaking the existing.

Trends of decades are basically named and written about on the basis of the famous looks that people opted for and designers provided. Few of the most famous elements and looks from the 60’s include:

• The typical daytime look — consisting of a bulbous hat over a high bouffant coiffure, silhouettes with deep armholes and wide sleeves, and a rounded jacket that tapered in at the hem.
• For evenings it was the slender look. Long-waisted dresses, often with an overblouse, replaced the fitted waistline and full skirt. The long dress of sequins or crystal beads had replaced the bouffant dress.
• Contemporary architecture and sculpture were the most prevalent inspirations for fashion designers in 1960 which could be seen in bloused, bias-cut clothes, long straight overblouse, and sashed tunics, short skirts, closely fitting hats, and exaggerated makeup (especially red lips), and short hair.
• Culottes, divided skirts, and trim trouser skirts were introduced for travel, streetwear, and evenings at home. Skirts got a little bit shorter in 1960. While worn with low-heeled shoes it placed more attention on the leg. Collarless coats, suits, and dresses created a long-necked effect. Some dresses had draped cowl backs to intensify the elongated look.

• Plaids of all sizes and colors were heavily favored. Abstract and expressionist art were big influences on printed silk designs. Wools were in style, but had to lightweight. Coat and suit woolens were usually loosely woven and sometimes as porous as lace.
• Deep, darker colors were the rage in 1960. They especially covered the spectrum between purple, red and green. Colors like like grape, plum, wine red, garnet and olive green. In contrast, neon bright pink was also a very popular color for those looking to make a statement.
• Furs and hats maintained their popularity, as did fur and seal coats. Evenings turbans of tulle swirled loosely around the head not only gained high fashion acceptance, but were sold in every hat shop.
• From Brigitte Bardot‘s beehive to Mary Quant’s geometric prints, every 1960s fashion icon contributed their own signature style to the decade (a theme that continued well into 1970s fashion and beyond). It was the era of the girl group, the gamine supermodel and the original IT-girls, who are still inspiring this generation’s Alexa Chung et al.

The 1960’s is marked an era of a number of diverse trends. It was a decade that broke many fashion traditions/rules , mirroring many social movements during this time period.

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