| You are in: |
FiftiesWeb  Fads, Fashion, Slang |
| Index | TV | Games | Pop History | Music | Fads Fashions Slang |
Sixties Fashion | Movie Quotes | Celebrity Deaths | Elvis | TV Westerns |
| Go to 1960s FASHION |
|
 
1960s Fashions
|
|
|
|
 |
The first half of the Sixties resembled the Fifties.
Conservative, ladylike, proper. No short skirts. Gloves for evening and social
occasions. Petticoats and girdles. The dresses at left and below with their swing, pleated or pencil skirts could easily have been worn in the 1950s. Women wore dresses or skirts for all but the most casual activity. Pants were for sport or play and never worn to school. Left Ward's 1960 Dainty lace accents softly shirred sleeves and tucked bodice. 68% cotton, 32% Dacron polyester $8.94 Below Montgomery Ward's 1961 Sleeveless scoop neck dress has either straight or unpressed pleat skirt. Matching solid cummberbund buckles in back. Jacket has dolman sleeves. Washable vat-dyed combed cotton. $9.94  |
 |
The shirtwaist dress will survive the entire decade. The skirt
will get a little shorter and the collar a bit wider, but the dress will remain
a staple of the average American woman. Left Montgomery Ward's 1961 Shirtwaist of tropical colors printed on all cotton. Kerchief included. Sanforized. $22.84 Right Montgomery Ward's 1961 Classic Brentshire shirtwaist, the popular style everyone loves to wear. In silk, Dacron polyester and cotton ot pima cotton. Monogram design decorates bodice front. Nore smart convertible collar, roll-up sleeves. Buttons close on front tab to below the waist. Silk $17.98 Dacron cotton $12.98 Pima Cotton $9.98 |
 |
 |
There was evidence of changes to come. The dresses, left and
right, have 1950s styling, but hint at 1960s color and pattern. The flowers at
left are not yet those we associate with "flower power" but they are bigger and
bolder than we would have ssen a decade before. The dress at right sports
colors far more vibrant than seen earlier. Left Montgomery Ward's 1961 Bouffant silk dress with deeply rounded neckline. Fitted bodice and full shirred skirt. Attached nylon petticoat. $24.98 Right Sears 1963 Cotton Dress. Print scalloped neckline. Back zipper $3.84 |
 |
 |
Seersucker (left) held its place in the American woman's closet.
The silk dress (right) from its A-line style to the bright color and topped by a pillbox hat is pure Jackie Kennedy. (see below). Left Sears 1963 Combed cotton seersucker. Three piece suit looks crisp and cool. Cardigan has mock pockets with simulated pearl buttons. Skirt has easy walk-in kick pleat. White cotton broadcloth blouse buttons in back. $7.84 Shirtwaist dress, a great American fashion, in a great American fabric. Step-in style. Contrast stitch trim, smart rope belt. $6.84 Right Montgomery Ward 1964 Pure Silk Shantung. Modified A-Line style. Overblouse shaped with curved bodice seam caught by a bow. $17.84 |
 |
 President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. November 22, 1963. Dallas, Texas. |
No suit of the early 60s is more famous or better remembered than
that worn by Jacqueline Kennedy on November 22, 1963. She had been given bad
weather reports. The Chanel pink suit was wool and thus uncomfortably warm on a
hot Dallas day. She wore her signature pillbox hat which had become all the
rage. By the way, it was Mrs. Kennedy's hats which gave Halston his first
serious public exposure as back then, he was a milliner. Jackie was only 33 years old when she became First Lady, the youngest ever. During her brief tenure in the White House, she brought an elegance to dressing, a style to American life. Unlike her predecessors, she wore European couture dresses, but this presented political problems. She needed to dress in American designs more often. Eventually she found her way to Oleg Cassini, a French-born Russian turned naturalized American. Cassini gave her Americanized versions of French designs, clean lined, in the bright, solid colors she preferred, but with oversize buttons and coat pockets that his Hollywood experience told him would stand out in photographs. Jackie's trademarks were the boxy jackets and pillbox hats, the three-quarter-length sleeves, the lace mantillas, the overblouse dresses and the sleeveless A-lines. Click Here to see Mrs. Kennedy's gowns. |
 Jacqueline Kennedy during the televised White House tour, Valentine's Day, 1962. Two-piece day dress by Chez Ninon after fall–winter 1961 model by Marc Bohan for Christian Dior. |
|
See Also: Dresses 1965 -1969 |
| Index | TV | Games | Pop History | Music | Fads Fashions Slang |
Sixties Fashion | Movie Quotes | Celebrity Deaths | Elvis | TV Westerns |
Copyright 2009. All Rights reserved. Candace Rich.