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.