1960s - The Teenagers

The teenage trend dominated the country after the baby boom, and with 70 million teenagers it would be hard to ignore their wants and needs when it came to music, fashion and lifestyle. London, California and New Look were the teenage capitols of the western world, with the rebellious mod vs rocker scene in London and the chilled out surfers of California and skaters of New York.

Swinging London would not have been complete without the sweater dress with the bright and bold matching block colours with tights. The whole of the ‘60s seemed very synthetic and surreal with the launch of the Barbie doll in 1959, the use of PVC in clothing and pop artists such as Andy Warhol, who helped develop the underground scene as he was the manager of The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Undergroud, 2002).

Fashion modal Twiggy helped made bold colours and sweater dresses so successful

Vintage Barbie Dolls

PVC raincoats

The Velvet Undergrounds with Andy Warhol (second from the left)

The ‘60s was a radical change in fashion. Skirts rose above the knee for the first time with the mini-skirt, founded by Mary Quant in 1966, that came up a whole 7-8 inches above the knee. Not only that but it was the first time in history that it was moral for women to wear trousers.

A Mary Quant design

Another major change in the ’60 is that black idols started to come through and racism was on the decrease as segregation became banned and the US passed the Voting Rights Act for Afro-Caribbean people in 1965 (BBC, 2012). Artists such as Diana Ross and Ray Charles are a couple of examples of idols in the black community in the ‘60s.

Diana Ross

Ray Charles

The Mods and Rockers were definitely the main two subcultures to rule Britain who had major rivalry issues which was proved by the Brighton beach riot in 1964 (BBC, 2012). Mods road scooters and were often associated with drugs, wearing skinny suits and overcoats while Rockers, evolving from the Teddy Boys, road motorbikes, wore leather and listened to rock music.

Mods

Rockers

Iconic picture from the "Battle of Brighton" as several mods gang up on a rocker

References

BBC. (2012) 1964: Mobs and Rockers jailed after seaside riots [online] London: BBC. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm [12/04/2012]

BBC. (2012) Martin Luther King (1929-1968) [online]. London: BBC. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/king_martin_luther.shtml [12/04/2012]

The Velvet Underground. (2002) Band Biography [online] The Velvet Underground. Available from: http://www.thevelvetunderground.co.uk/ [12/04/2012]

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