I began by researching women living in the 1960s. The aim of my book is to inform readers about women living during the 1960s. Below is my book content, some of which has been re-written. I will first begin with an introduction, followed by a small paragraph on 'The single Girl' (an independent women) followed by an example of a 'single girl' , Twiggy. Then I will go on into the fashion trends, mini-skirts and women wearing trousers. Finally I will finish on the greater freedom for women, which is good to conclude on.
Introduction
The 1960s featured a number of diverse trends. It was a decade that broke many fashion traditions, mirroring social movements during the time. In the middle of the decade, culottes, go-go boots, box-shaped PVC dresses and other PVC clothes were popular. The widely popular bikini came into fashion in 1963. Mary Quant invented the mini-skirt, and Jackie Kennedy introduced the pillbox hat, both becoming extremely popular. False eyelashes were worn by women throughout the 1960s, and their hairstyles were a variety of lengths and styles.
The Single Girl
Fashion photography in the 1960s represented a new feminine ideal for women: the Single Girl. The Single Girl represented ‘movement’. She was young, single, active, and economically self-sufficient. Although the Single Girl was economically and socially self-sufficient, the ideal body form; that of the adolescent was difficult for many to achieve. Therefore, women were constrained by diet restrictions that seemed to contradict the sense of the empowered 1960s Single Girl. To the left is Jean Shrimpton a model who embodied the ‘single girl’.
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson widely known by the nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress and singer. In the mid-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London. Twiggy was initially known for her thin build (thus her nickname) and her androgynous look consisting of large eyes, long eyelashes, and short hair. In 1966, she was named “The Face of 1966” by the Daily Express and voted British Woman of the Year. By 1967, Twiggy had modelled in France, Japan, and the U.S., and landed on the covers of Vogue and Tatler. Her fame had spread worldwide.
Mini-Skirt
Mary Quant is a fashion designer and British fashion icon. She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements. The miniskirt, described as one of the defining fashions of the 1960s, is one of the garments most widely associated with Quant.
Quant later said “It was the girls on the King’s Road who invented the mini. I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, ‘Shorter, shorter.’” She gave the miniskirt its name, naming it after her favourite make of car, the Mini.
Rise of Pants for Women
The 1960s were an age for new fashion innovation for women. With it came the rise of women’s pants. Traditionally, pants had been viewed by western society as masculine. However, by the 1960s, it became acceptable for women to wear pants as well. Women loved pants because of their practicality, comfort and versatility. Women wore pants with tunics, shawls, and jackets. The women’s pants came in a variety of styles: narrow, wide, below the knee, above the ankle, and eventually mid thigh. These mid-thigh cut pants evolved around 1969, and became the modern shorts. By adapting men’s style and wearing pants, women voiced their equality to men.
Mods
Mod is a British youth subculture of the early to mid-1960s, focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of London-based stylish young men in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz.
Significant elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music, and motor scooters (usually a Vespa) the original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs. Female mods dressed androgynously, with short haircuts, men’s trousers or shirts, flat shoes, and little makeup — often just pale foundation, brown eye shadow, white or pale lipstick and false eyelashes.
Greater Freedom for Women
The life of a woman before the 1960s, her life trapped in the home her entire life and discriminated against in the workplace. Then, the 1960s came along with it, the thought that women could have a say in their government, that they could perhaps leave the home without feeling guilty about leaving their children alone, and that they could receive a job and earn wages like men.
The 1960s women gained new freedoms and advertisers began to recognise them as a target market as a result. The economic boom of the 1960s, gave young women the opportunity to build up career if they so wished. Also a rise of women entering higher education, broadened their horizons and eventually evolved into the Women’s Liberation Movement
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