Fashion of the 60s

The 1960s ran from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, although the cultural decade is often dated more loosely, from around 1963 to the mid-1970s. Few decades changed clothing so completely: a decade that began with tailored elegance ended with miniskirts, bell bottoms, tie-dye and go-go boots, breaking fashion traditions that had held for generations.

Elegance First: The Early 1960s

American fashion in the early years reflected the elegance of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Women wore tailored skirts, stiletto heels and suits with short boxy jackets and oversized buttons, alongside simple geometric dresses known as shifts. The early 1960s also gave women drainpipe jeans and capri pants, popularised by Audrey Hepburn, and beehive and chignon hairstyles completed the polished look.

In Britain, the London Modernists known as Mods influenced male fashion, while the Beatles shaped young men's style worldwide with the mop-top haircut, Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket. Men's mainstream hair moved from pompadours, crew cuts and flattops toward longer, parted styles with sideburns as the decade progressed. Mid-decade, small pockets of young people in a few urban centres received enormous media publicity, and their experimental styles — box-shaped PVC dresses among them — began to influence both elite designers and mass-market manufacturers at once.

The Break: Miniskirts, Mod and Hippie Style

Mary Quant's miniskirt became one of the defining garments of the age, a rage among young women and teenage girls in the late 1960s that lasted into the early 1970s and returned in the mid-1980s. Flared trousers and bell bottoms appeared from 1964, worn with chiffon blouses, polo-necked ribbed sweaters and midriff tops in denim, silk and elasticated fabrics. The bikini, featured in the 1963 film Beach Party, became standard swimwear.

From 1967 youth culture shifted from Mod toward a laid-back hippie or Bohemian style: ponchos, moccasins, love beads, peace signs, medallion necklaces, chain belts and polka-dot fabrics. The hippie movement added frayed bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics and paisley prints, drawing inspiration from the traditional clothing of Nepal, India, Bali, Morocco and African countries. Fringed buckskin vests, flowing caftans and long maxi coats closed the decade.

Why the Sixties Still Set the Template

Every later decade's fashion argues with the 1960s. The miniskirt established that a single garment could announce a generational break; the shift from tailored elegance to youth-led street style established that fashion's centre of gravity could move from couture houses to teenagers. When modern designers revive go-go boots, shift shapes or psychedelic prints, they are quoting the decade that first proved clothes could carry a cultural revolution — and when the 1970s summary continues the story, it begins from ground the sixties had already broken.