The Commercial Fashion Origin
The 60s Fashion Origin. In the 1960s the availability of money for luxury goods increased. This is the era that determined the greatest social upheavals and the clothing worn perfectly expressed the revolutionary mood that forever changed the history of humanity.
The production of mass clothing and the distinction between Haute Couture and Pret-a-porter are affirmed. Designers are starting to produce standardised models for boutiques.
In the 1960s the tendency to break with the old and to seek the new prevails. Even in art we are witnessing this phenomenon, above all in overcoming the division between the so-called “high” and “low” cultures.
How Andy Warhol influenced the Fashion Industry
Andy Warhol becomes the reference artist of this era: provocative is his choice to elevate a simple object such as a soup box to a work of art, while his productions of works in series using screen printing are a criticism of society Western consumption.
In this period the boundaries between art and fashion are no longer clear. Artists such as Christo, of Bulgarian origin, and the American Mimi Smith created clothes as if they were works of art, while designers found new motives looting pop art and op art. Both on canvas and on fabrics, the skilful use of shapes like circles, squares and spirals gave the illusion of movement.
Dress inspired by Mondrian art and shapes
60s Fashion Origin
Optical Art
Op art (or optical art) became a trend. The English artist Bridget Riley creates works where cleverly repeated elements create a three-dimensional effect and cause confusion to the optic nerve. The textile industry jumped at this opportunity to achieve the same effect even with fabrics and, in this way, designers like Ossie Clark in London and Y. S. Laurent in Paris created dazzling models inspired by the works of Andy Warhol or Roy Liechtenstein.
The Fist Time Tattoo Became Trend
In an era of great social upheaval, there is also a timid entry of the exhibited tattoo. Still regarded as a stigma adopted only by who lives on the margins of society: motorcyclists, gang members, convicts. Tattoos still have negative connotations and are considered illegal in some countries.
Singer Janis Joplin was one of the first celebrities to have a visible tattoo made for her by Lyle Tuttle of San Francisco in the late 1960s delivering tattooing to fashion and acceptance and this was the seen as a pop culture event.
Tuttle tattooed Janis Joplin, Cher, Jo Baker, Paul Stanley, and many other notable musicians, actors, and celebrities.
Lyle Tattle Tattoos
60s Fashion Origin
Different Styles and Fashions
These years will see the emergence of many fashions, such as the Hippie style with oriental folk-exotic style dresses and Tie Dye, Afro hairstyles and the Russian Look with mid-calf coats, boots and a fur hat.
Shorts and miniskirts are accompanied by over-the-knee boots and maxi coats.
The market of used clothes is born and with it the fashion inspired by military uniforms with the guerrilla style: amphibians, camouflage on everything and eskimo, torn jeans, cheap glasses, shirts and sweaters out of size, shoulder bags in natural leather.
Fashion becomes sexy with the transparencies of the Nude Look and women’s underwear is less rigid and more natural. Rudy Genreich invents Topless.
The spatial look in synthetic fabrics is inspired by the moon landing.
