Humanities & Classics 3270
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Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
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The styles of the 1960s were wild and carefree. And they have made an enormous comeback. They are not for everyone, but at the very least you'll get a big kick out of your dad's purple and orange bell bottoms and your mom's suede fringe jacket. Not to mention the shoes. The 60's made styles from different cultures very popular. east Indian dress and music was very influential.
Just look at the beatles in the late 60s, especially George Harrison. They incorporated beads, bells, and sitar music into their style.
I love to look through fashion books from throughout the centuries. Lots of the clothes will make you laugh and some make you wish that just for a day you could live back in a different time period. Who knows? Maybe we did. An interesting thing about the fashions displayed in the 60s is that they weren't the styles of the rich and famous like so many are from other eras. They were the styles of a counterculture that became popular culture. When we think of the clothes from Elizabethan times, we pictures enourmous, ruffly, lace, bejeweled ensembles. Or even more recently, of the clothes from the beginning of the century. Little round glasses on the men. Riding, sitting, dancing, strolling, and dresses for every separate occasion for the women. These weren't the clothes of the average citizen. Just to be in style, you would have had to change your attire at least five times a day. The working people just didn't have enough hours in the day to indulge in such frivilous behavior. It wasn't practical.
But the 60s styles were for eveyone. Decorating your own clothes, especially, jeans, became popular. Teens created flares, bells, embroidery, patches, beads, and a wide variety of other styles to make every pair of jeans that they owned unique and individual.
Boot cut and bells have come back with a vengeance today. Although, they are far more popular with the girls than with the boys. My dad wore bells. He said that it was just about the only things that the stores sold. And he said they fit nice over his boots. I found my favorite pairs of bells in my uncle's trunk. He used to be a hippie. Now you can buy them at the mall. Maybe they lost something becoming so commercialized. Anyone can wear 60s fashions now, not just those lucky enough to find something in the attic or at a thrift store. Even the original barbie came back. What is it about the fashions of the 60s that draws us to recreate the times? We may think that the Frech Provincial style of wearing powdered wigs and corsets made of bone very elegant, but I doubt that anyone would want to bring back those items, or any others from bygone eras. Platform shoes were not a thing of the 60s, though. They originated in greek theatre, to keep different types of characters separate. Throughout history they have made comebacks, and are here again today, at the mall. Maybe we like the 60s because comfort and casual were emphasized rather than elegance and painful clothes. The clothes reflected the times. Be happy.