fashion during the 1960's - 1970's

They don't make 'em like that anymore!

Fashions in 1970

Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO) is a privately held clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Bavaria, Germany to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business. Although the company began producing denim overalls in the 1870s, modern jeans were not produced until the 1920s. The company briefly experimented (in the 1970s) with employee ownership and a public stock listing, but remains owned and controlled by descendants and relatives of Levi Strauss' four nephews. Jacob Davis was a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from Levi Strauss & Co.'s wholesale house. After one of Davis' costumers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the base of the button fly. Davis did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Levi suggesting that they both go into business together. After Levi accepted Jacobs' offer, on May 20, 1873, the two men received patent #139,121 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patented rivet was later incorporated into the company's jean design and advertisements. Contrary to an advertising campaign suggesting that Levi Strauss sold his first jeans to gold miners during the California Gold Rush (which peaked in 1849), the manufacturing of denim overalls only began in the 1870s. Modern jeans began to appear in the 1920s. In the 1950s and 1960s, Levi's jeans became popular among a wide range of youth subcultures, including greasers, mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads. Levi's popular shrink-to-fit 501s were sold in a unique sizing arrangement; the indicated size was related to the size of the jeans prior to shrinking, and the shrinkage was substantial. The company still produces these unshrunk, uniquely sized jeans, but they don't sell very well. The decade began with a continuation of the hippie look from the 1960s. Jeans remained frayed and the Tie dye was still popular. The space age look was on the wane, though tunics and Indian fabrics continued to be popular. Jeans rises shrunk to 4 inches or even less as "hip huggers" with "bell-bottoms" became the height of denim fashion. Altering the appearance of jeans with bleach and tie-dye techniques, embroidery, and metal studs were popular as well. Polyester "doubleknit" fabric was coming into its own, with many clothing items for men and women being produced in this modern easy-care fabric. By the mid-Seventies, as the economy improved, silhouettes narrowed, and hemlines dropped again from mini skirt to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), with all three lengths enjoying almost equal popularity. Platform shoes with soles 2-4 inches thick became the style for both men and women. Men's ties broadened and became more colorful, as did dress shirt collars and suit jacket lapels. Fashion influences were peasant clothing, such as blouses with laces or off-the-shoulder necklines, inspired by those worn in the 17th century. Yves St Laurent introduced the peasant look in 1976 which became very influential. Skirts were gathered into tiers and shoulderlines dropped. Clothing became very unstructured and fluid at this point. Embroidered clothing, either self-made, or imported from Mexico or India also enjoyed favor. The decade began with a continuation of the hippie look from the 1960s. Jeans remained frayed and the Tie dye was still popular. The space age look was on the wane, though tunics and Indian fabrics continued to be popular. Jeans rises shrunk to 4 inches or even less as "hip huggers" with "bell-bottoms" became the height of denim fashion. Altering the appearance of jeans with bleach and tie-dye techniques, embroidery, and metal studs were popular as well. Polyester "doubleknit" fabric was coming into its own, with many clothing items for men and women being produced in this modern easy-care fabric. By the mid-Seventies, as the economy improved, silhouettes narrowed, and hemlines dropped again from mini skirt to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), with all three lengths enjoying almost equal popularity. Platform shoes with soles 2-4 inches thick became the style for both men and women. Men's ties broadened and became more colorful, as did dress shirt collars and suit jacket lapels. Fashion influences were peasant clothing, such as blouses with laces or off-the-shoulder necklines, inspired by those worn in the 17th century. Yves St Laurent introduced the peasant look in 1976 which became very influential. Skirts were gathered into tiers and shoulderlines dropped. Clothing became very unstructured and fluid at this point. Embroidered clothing, either self-made, or imported from Mexico or India also enjoyed favor. Tie-dyeing The basic process is to tie up the material before applying dye in such a way that the dye only reaches part of the area to which it is applied. The boundaries of the dyed and non-dyed areas are usually rather blurred, as the dye has begun to soak into the non-tied sections. During tie-dyeing, if a good fiber reactive dye is used, a chemical reaction takes place which permanently bonds the colorful dye to the fabric, making tie-dye safe to wash amongst other, non-tie-dyed clothes once the excess dye has been removed. As the name suggests, the fabric is tied, usually with string or rubber bands, after being folded into a particular pattern. Some areas, where the textile is tied and in inner parts of folds, do not absorb dye as readily, forming a pattern. This is known as a resist technique (the areas that are tied and the inner parts of folds resist dyeing). Punk as a style originated from London from the designer Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren. Postmodernist and iconoclastic in essence this movement was a direct reaction to the economic situation during the economic depression of the period. Punk had at its heart a manifesto of creation through disorder. Safety pins became nose and ear jewelery, rubber fetishwear was subverted to become daywear, and images of mass murders, rapists and criminals were elevated to iconographic status. Punk fashion can be traced to the ripped jeans, torn t-shirts, scrappy haircuts and worn and torn leather jackets sported by members of the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols were dressed by Malcolm McLaren, their manager, who owned a clothes store called 'Let It Rock' in the Kings Road, Chelsea area of London, when they released Anarchy in the UK in 1976. These styles can be traced back further to New York artists at the Andy Warhol Factory or bands such as the Velvet Underground or New York Dolls. By the 1980s, Punk fashion, and punk bands, had shown up in cities across the world. There was a DIY (do it yourself) quality to the fashion. Some small elements that spoke of a person's punk roots were safety pins, mohawk, spikes or harshly dyed hair, filthy tennis-shoes or pointy Beatle boots. There is an element of a makeshift, thrown together look and a sense of poverty. The original punk fashions of the 1970s were intended to appear as confrontational, shocking and rebellious as possible. This style of punk dress was significantly different from what would later be considered the basic punk look. Many items that were commonly worn by punks in the 1970s became less common later on, and new elements were constantly added to the punk image. A great deal of punk fashion from the 1970s was based on the designs of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, as well as the dress styles of punk role models such as the Ramones, Richard Hell and the Bromley Contingent. Punk style was influenced by clothes sold in Malcolm McLaren's shop SEX. McLaren has credited this style to his first impressions of Richard Hell while McLaren was in New York City, supposedly managing the The New York Dolls (Note: In the documentary Punk: Attitude, David Johansen said McLaren was never their manager, and that he only designed clothes for them and booked them one concert; the Red Show.) Deliberately offensive T-shirts were popular in the early punk scene, such as the infamous DESTROY T-shirt sold at SEX, which featured an inverted crucifix and a Nazi Swastika. These T-shirts, like other punk clothing items, were often intentionally torn. Other items in early British punk fashion included: Anarchy symbols; brightly-colored or white and black dress shirts randomly covered in slogans (such as "Only Anarchists are pretty"); fake blood; patches; and deliberately controversial images (such as portraits of Marx, Stalin and Mussolini) were popular. Leather rocker jackets and customised blazers were introduced early, and are still a common fixture of punk fashion. Preferred footwear included military boots, motorcycle boots, Brothel creepers, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, and (later on) Dr. Martens boots. Tapered jeans, tight leather pants, pants with leopard patterns, and bondage trousers were popular choices. Hair was cropped and deliberately made to look messy; in reaction to the long smooth hairstyles that were common in the 1960s and early 1970s. Hair was often dyed bright unnatural colors. Although provocative, these hairstyles were not as extreme as later punk hairstyles, such as liberty spikes or the Mohawk hairstyle. Other accoutrements worn by some punks included: BDSM fashions; fishnet stockings (sometimes ripped); spike bands and other studded or spiked jewelry; safety pins (in clothes and as body piercings); silver bracelets and heavy eyeliner worn by both men and women. Many female punks rebelled against the stereotypical image of a woman by combining clothes that were delicate or pretty with clothes that were considered masculine, such as combining a Ballet tutu with big, clunky boots. Many punks did not wear leather or fur because they were vegetarian or vegan. Punk clothing sometimes incorporated everyday objects for aesthetic effect. Purposely-ripped clothes were held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape; black bin liners (garbage bags) became dresses, shirts and skirts. Other items added to clothing or as jewelry included razor blades and chains. Leather, rubber and vinyl clothing have been common, possibly due to their connection with transgressive sexual practices, such as bondage and S&M.

Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in London, United Kingdom, located in the area of 'Carnaby' in the district of Soho, near Oxford Street, and just to the east of Regent Street. The area around Carnaby Street is known simply as 'Carnaby'. It consists of twelve pedestrianised streets with 168 fashion and lifesyle retailers, including a large number of independent fashion boutiques. The nearest London Underground station is Oxford Circus tube station (Bakerloo, Central and Victoria Lines). The street derives its name from Karnaby House, located to its east, which was erected in 1683. It is not known why the house was so called. The street was probably laid out in 1685 or 1686 and first appears in the ratebooks in 1687. It was almost completely built up by 1690 with small houses. In the 1960s, Carnaby Street was made popular by followers of the Mod style. Many independent fashion boutiques, and designers such as Mary Quant and 'Lord John' were located in and around Carnaby Street as well as various underground music bars such as the 'Roaring Twenties'. With bands such as The Beatles, Small Faces, and Rolling Stones appearing in the area to work, shop, and socialize, it became one of London's coolest destination associated with the Swinging Sixties. There are two Westminster City Council green plaques on Carnaby Street: the first can be found at 1 Carnaby Street and is dedicated to fashion entrepreneur John Stephen, who was responsible for beginning the Mod fashion revolution here. The second plaque, located at 52/55 Carnaby Street, is dedicated to the Mod pop group 'Small Faces' and their manager 'Don Arden'. Mary Quant ran a popular clothes shop in the Kings Road, Chelsea, London called Bazaar, from which she sold her own designs. In the late 1950s she began experimenting with shorter skirts, which resulted in the miniskirt in 1965 one of the defining fashions of the decade. Owing to Quant's position in the heart of fashionable "Swinging London", the miniskirt was able to spread beyond a simple street fashion into a major international trend. Its acceptance was greatly boosted by Jean Shrimpton's wearing a short white shift dress, made by Colin Rolfe, on 30 October 1965 at Derby Day, first day of the annual Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia, where it caused a sensation. According to Shrimpton, who claimed that the brevity of the skirt was due mainly to Rolfe's having insufficient material, the ensuing controversy was as much as anything to do with her having dispensed with a hat and gloves, seen as the essential accessories in such conservative society The miniskirt was further popularised by André Courrèges, who developed it separately and incorporated it into his Mod look, for spring/summer 1965. His miniskirts were less body-hugging, and worn with the white "Courrèges boots" that became a trademark. By introducing the miniskirt into the haute couture of the fashion industry, Courrèges gave it a greater degree of respectability than might otherwise have been expected of a street fashion. The miniskirt was followed up in the late 1960s by the even shorter microskirt, which has been referred to derogatorily as a belt or pelmet. Upper garments, such as rugby shirts, were sometimes adapted as mini-dresses. Tights or panty-hose became highly fashionable, in place of stockings, specifically because the rise in hemlines meant that stocking tops would be visible. Mary Quant cited this development in defence of the miniskirt: "In European countries where they ban mini-skirts in the streets and say they're an invitation to rape, they don't understand about stocking tights underneath Western cosmetics in the 1970s reflected the multiple roles ascribed to the modern woman. For the first time since 1900, make-up was chosen situationally, rather than in response to monolithic trends. The era's two primary visions were the feminist-influenced daytime "natural look" and the sexualized evening aesthetic presented by European designers and fashion photographers.In the periphery, punk and glam were also influential. The struggling cosmetics industry attempted to make a comeback, using new marketing and manufacturing practices. During the early rise to prominence of designer jeans, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, it was fairly typical to see fashions for men follow those for women, just as previously women had been the first to wear flared and bell-bottomed trousers. For example, Jordache initially marketed their products to women only, but soon followed with a line for men that was very similar in overall appearance to the women's. Given the general tendency toward bagginess in men's pants today, this male-after-female trend is less noticeable; nevertheless, most jeans companies have offered low-rise cuts for men in recent years. With the popularization of disco and the increasing availability and diversity of man-made fabrics, a drastic change occurred in mainstream fashion, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1920s. All styles of clothing were affected by the disco style, especially those of men. Men began to wear stylish three-piece suits (which became available in a bewildering variety of colors) which were characterized by wide lapels, wide legged or flared trousers and high rise vests. Neckties became wider and bolder and shirt collars became long and pointed in a style reminiscent of the "Barrymore" color that had been popular in the 1920s. The zippered jumpsuit was popular with both men and women, and clothing inspired by modern dance (wrap-around skirts of nylon or polyester knit) also became common along with close-fitting ballet leotard-style tops with spandex. Even women's blouses were available in body-suit form--close-fitting and fastening with snaps at the crotch so that the lines of the clothing would remain clean and close to the body, even while engaged in energetic disco dancing. Women's shoes began to echo the 1940s, with high-heeled lower-platform mules--"Candies" made of molded plastic with a single leather strap over the ball of the foot or "BareTraps" made of wood very popular. With the demise of disco, late in 1979, these styles (which were by then being criticized as flamboyant) quickly went out of fashion in 1980. Designer jeans and painters pants then started to come into style. With the popularization of disco and the increasing availability and diversity of man-made fabrics, a drastic change occurred in mainstream fashion, the likes of which had not been seen since the 1920s. All styles of clothing were affected by the disco style, especially those of men. Men began to wear stylish three-piece suits (which became available in a bewildering variety of colors) which were characterized by wide lapels, wide legged or flared trousers and high rise vests. Neckties became wider and bolder and shirt collars became long and pointed in a style reminiscent of the "Barrymore" collar that had been popular in the 1920s. The zippered jumpsuit was popular with both men and women, and clothing inspired by modern dance (wrap-around skirts of nylon or polyester knit) also became common along with close-fitting ballet leotard-style tops with spandex. Even women's blouses were available in body-suit form--close-fitting and fastening with snaps at the crotch so that the lines of the clothing would remain clean and close to the body, even while engaged in energetic disco dancing. Women's shoes began to echo the 1940s, with high-heeled lower-platform mules--"Candies" made of molded plastic with a single leather strap over the ball of the foot or "BareTraps" made of wood very popular. With the demise of disco, late in 1979, these styles (which were by then being criticized as flamboyant) quickly went out of fashion in 1980. Designer jeans and painters pants then started to come into style. Sideburns of the 1970s saw a massive decline in fashion in 1980, big and eccentric hair styles were popularized by film and music stars in particular amongst teenagers. There was generally an excessive amount of mousse used in styling an individual's hair which resulted in a desired shiny look and greater volume, some mousse even contained glitter. Hairpsrays such as AquaNet were also used in excess. In 1984 sideburns made a comeback but were slightly thinner and shorter, and better groomed than those of the 1970s, lasting until the end of 1986. These sideburns were usually (but not always) used as an ad-on to the Mullet haircut. The Mullet existed in several different styles, all characterized by hair short on the sides and long in the back. Mullets were popular in suburban and rural areas among working class men. This contrasted with a conservative look favored by business professionals, with neatly groomed short hair for men and sleekly straight hair for women. White collar men's haircuts were often shaved at the nape of the neck to create an artificially even hairline. Women's hairstyles became increasingly long in the latter part of the decade and blunt cuts dominated. Unlike 1970s blunt cuts, which were often longest at the spine, late 1980s long hair reached an equal length across the back. During the middle and late 1980s it was unfashionable to part either men's or women's hair.

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