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Get Inspired By…Clothes With An Oriental Twist. It seems that fashion has ventured into Eastern territory with all things oriental being a major focus on the catwalk,

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Get Inspired By…Clothes With An Oriental Twist.

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Straight from manufacturers
Luxury Products

Nothing signals spring and summer like super-saturated shades, slouchy silhouettes and an undone ease

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Straight from manufacturers
Luxury Products

Nothing signals spring and summer like super-saturated shades, slouchy silhouettes and an undone ease

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Over 65 leading brands to
choose from

Discover exclusive offers and update your wardrobe with the season's new arrivals while enjoying even more savings on outlet prices.

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Over 65 leading brands to
choose from

Discover exclusive offers and update your wardrobe with the season's new arrivals while enjoying even more savings on outlet prices.

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SPRING SUMMER 2021
HOT COLLECTION

Although there has been a rapid growth in international e-commerce, Chinese consumers still visit stores and Chinese brands are squaring up to their international rivals.

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SPRING SUMMER 2019
HOT COLLECTION

Although there has been a rapid growth in international e-commerce, Chinese consumers still visit stores and Chinese brands are squaring up to their international rivals.

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Where Will Your Life Take You
Today?

First time buyer get an extra 10% off when using the following code.

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Where Will Your Life Take You
Today?

First time buyer get an extra 10% off when using the following code.

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Pop Culture Fashion

The Impact of Pop Art on the World of Fashion – From Art to Industry and Back

Marked by sweeping social change, the 1960s is a decade that still holds a special significance, seeing traditional hierarchies begin to dissolve and make way for the birth of the modern age.

The way people dressed was an obvious sign of shifting attitudes. In the 1960s, many chose, very publicly, to start looking different from the norm. Innovative designers and more informal modes of shopping drew a dividing line between the generations, creating a new market for youth fashion. Our collection tracks the different aspects of this fast-accelerating style revolution, with striking pieces from many of the decade’s most influential designers.

The invention of youth fashion

In the 1950s, fashion was dominated by the tastes of a wealthy, mature elite. Paris remained the engine of the fashion industry with sophisticated haute couture garments produced in regular collections by the likes of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy (the creator of Audrey Hepburn’s iconic black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s,1961). But times soon changed. At the dawn of the 1960s, young people’s income was at its highest since the end of the Second World War. Increased economic power fuelled a new sense of identity and the need to express it. The fashion industry quickly responded by creating designs for young people that no longer simply copied ‘grown up’ styles. The Beatniks and the Mods (an abbreviation of ‘Modernists’) were particularly influential early in the decade. As committed to European-style clothes – characterised by high-impact colour and line – as they were to American soul and R&B music, Mods helped focus the tastes of young people everywhere, and inspired the look of bands like The Who, The Small Faces and The Beatles.

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An unnatural obsession

An unnatural obsession

The 1960s fell in love with new, man-made materials, with young designers keen to find new angles on established forms. They exploited the potential of modern plastics and synthetic fibres – Perspex, PVC, polyester, acrylic, nylon, rayon, Spandex, etc. – to create easy-care outfits that were eye-catching and fun. The quest for a truly modern form of clothing was epitomised by the ‘paper dress’. Made of cellulose, rayon or polyester, these disposable garments were first created in 1966 as a marketing stunt for an American company that manufactured paper sanitary products. Opportunistic manufacturers in both the US and the UK quickly turned these boldly printed dresses into a novelty must-have that remained popular until 1968.

Clothes for the Space Age

As the decade went on, dress codes, even for the older generation, became increasingly relaxed: tailoring loosened, public figures like Jackie Kennedy began to favour shorter skirts, and fewer people wore accessories like hats and gloves. High-end fashion also embraced the new mood of informality. From the mid-1960s onwards André Courrèges pushed couture tailoring to create audaciously modern clothes. His angular mini-dresses and trouser suits, often produced in what became known as a ‘Space Age’ white-and-silver colour scheme, were worn with astronaut-style accessories like flat boots, goggles and helmets. He was also unafraid to champion new, cheap materials when they best served his striking designs.

Couture let’s go

Couture let’s go

Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro and Yves Saint Laurent were among those European designers who successfully translated a couture aesthetic – producing bold, futuristic designs for young people who wanted everyday wear. Cardin, in particular, was excited by new materials including vinyl, silver fabrics and large zips, creating radical forms like his celebrated ‘visor’ hats. Italian designer Emilio Pucci was also influential. He produced sophisticated clothing for the jet set, but his designs were far from conservative. The first designer to exploit a signature style for high-fashion licensing, Pucci created a range of colourful printed silks. These were used for seemingly endless scarves and ties, as well as the loose-fitting dresses and pyjama suits whose outlines reflected a growing interest in ethnic style. Pucci’s busily flamboyant designs prefigured the psychedelic patterns of the drug-fuelled counter culture.

Looking for alternatives

By the late 1960s, style had become quite theatrical. Fashion sanctioned longer hair for both men and women, as well as a flared outline for trousers. Men enjoyed the newly granted freedom to be flamboyant, wearing suits accessorised with bright, bold shirts and high-heeled boots, and, increasingly, as clothes became more unisex, shopped in the same boutiques as women. With war in Vietnam and student uprisings in France, opinion-formers began to disapprove of Pop’s materialistic sheen. People moved towards Eastern culture for inspiration. The ideas and mix-and-match aesthetic of California’s hippy movement crossed the Atlantic, giving people free rein to ‘live different’, and to sport clothing from a range of non-Western cultures. Fashion leaders began to sport long, loose and layered outfits, inspired by second-hand, or ‘vintage’ styles, often from the late nineteenth century and the 1930s. London’s Kensington Market became a mecca for young people wanting to create their own alternative look, selling lots of colourful clothing, much of it sourced in India. This new direction was reflected in the fashions of Zandra Rhodes, Foale and Tuffin, and Yves St Laurent, all of whom demonstrated an interest in ethnic textiles.

 

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