Fashion in the 60s 🌟

This blog post is the third of three themed blogs on fashion history from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Fashion in the 60s was marked by the invention of pantyhose, which made it possible to make dresses shorter because you no longer had to use suspenders and stockings.
The decade is marked by designers such as English Mary Quant and icons as diverse as Jackie Kennedy, Brigitte Bardot and Twiggy.

In this section we will, among other things, tell about:

• How the 60s silhouette looks throughout the decade
• Which style icons characterized the 60s
• Why were the dresses so short?
• From Jackie Kennedy to Woodstock

It was in great contrast to the fashion of the 50s, which for the young girls was very adult. Now the youth felt a need to get their youth and childhood back, and this resulted in fashion.

Three popular 60s dresses

One saw such a drastic change in fashion, almost like in the 1920s. The dresses also got a recognizable 1920s silhouette in the 1960s . They were no longer fitted and were now cut across the hip: 'Drop waist dress': One of the three dress silhouettes that were used the most throughout the 1960s.
Another type is 'the shift dress': It replaced the previously so popular pencil dress. It sat loosely on the body and was not adapted to the figure in the same way, but had an A-shape and ended mid-thigh or even higher up.

The third popular dress type was 'the skimmer dress'. It is a short dress, wide in the skirt and close-fitting on the upper body, possibly with a ribbon or belt at the waist, which emphasizes the waist without having a corseted look.
What they all had in common was that they did not show cavalcade. All were cut high in the neck, and could have small collars or tie bows, bright colors with great contrasts and patterns.

Mary Quant's Chelsea look

One of the great designers of the period was the English Mary Quant . She designed short, colorful dresses with large collars, which were worn with go-go boots or Mary Jane shoes and colorful knee socks or pantyhose. Her iconic look became known as the 'Chelsea look' and she became the preferred designer for the Mod movement in London, which is known for the look with the short dresses in bright colors and the white or colored patent leather boots.

The late 60s look - Twiggy

The late 60s look , slim and without focus on the bust, was shown by the English model Twiggy . The iconic images of the very slim and almost boyish girl went around the world and revolutionized fashion. It became fashionable to have a very androgynous silhouette, and in return to emphasize one's doe eyes with a strong black eye-liner and preferably eye shadows in several colors.
The silhouette is very similar to the one we saw in the 1920s, where the breasts were laced in and in general cultivated a figure that did not show female forms.

The new thing in the 60s is of course the length of dresses and skirts. The length of a girl's dress became a sign of her confidence in herself - the shorter, the more confident she appeared. And that was what it was all about. Not to attract men's attention at any cost, but to attract attention to your self-confidence, and then decide for yourself what you would do with that attention.

The revolutionary pantyhose

That the dresses became short could be done with the invention of tights. The first ones hit the American market in 1959. This meant that you no longer had to wear, as always in the past, a girdle to tighten the waist, panties and then suspenders with clips for the stockings. Of course, the hem of the stocking could not be shown in public, so the dresses had so far been longer, namely to below the knee precisely to avoid this kind of embarrassment.
But with the tights you no longer had that problem, and the dresses could now be as short as you wanted.

At the end of the 60s came another revolutionary new look, a new world view and a new identity: Hippie!
From Woodstock and San Francisco, romantic shirt blouses, long wide skirts, suede, embroideries à la Eastern Europe, flat sandals and natural hair came rushing in and completely changed the street scene. Long-haired men and women without the right 'foundation garments' (ed. underwear that shapes the body so that the clothes fit nicely) now characterized the world, and shocked the older generation - the world was about to jump into the 70s. -More on that another time!

Mondo Kaos' selection of 60s dresses, clothes & shoes

In Mondo Kaos, we also have the right elements for your 60s mod look :
Go for the short A-cut skirts from our supplier Grünten Mode. Sarah, who has the brand, is herself passionate about the 60s and, by the way, sews everything herself in her workshop in the Alps. She is worth following for inspiration: She also sews the most fantastic dresses for various go-go dancers!
The skirts are combined very nicely with, for example, our Estelle shirts with pussybows in beautiful colors and Mary Jane shoes in black or white from Lola Ramona. In addition, we have a number of 60s dresses that we have exclusively designed in collaboration with designer Magdalene from Marmalade for all of you Mondo Ladies.

Hope you learned a bit more about 60s fashion . If you haven't already read our blog posts about the 40s and 50s, you can find links below.

Loving greetings,
Team Mondo Kaos ♥

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