The Cherry Alignment: Fashion & Style: 1966

Vidal Sassoon & Grace Coddington

The leaders of mid-1960s style were the British. The Mods (short for Modernists) were characterized by their choice of style different from the 1950s and adopted new fads that would be imitated by many young people. As the Mods strongly influenced the fashion in London, 1960s fashion in general set the mode for the rest of the century as it became marketed mainly to young people. Mods formed their own way of life creating television shows and magazines that focused directly on the lifestyles of Mods. British rock bands such as The Who, The Small Faces and The Kinks emerged from the Mod subculture.

Mary Quant and Models

After designer Mary Quant introduced the mini-skirt in 1964, fashions of the 1960s were changed forever. The mini skirt was eventually to be worn by nearly every stylish young female in the western world and push out the longer skirt lengths that were worn before.

Designs by Courreges

In 1964, French designer Andre Courreges introduced the "space look", with trouser suits, white boots, goggles, and box-shaped dresses whose skirts soared three inches above the knee. These were mainly designed in fluorescent colours and shiny fabrics such as PVC and sequins.

Design by Rudy Gernreich

Carnaby Street and Chelsea's Kings Road were virtual fashion parades. In 1966, the space age was gradually replaced by the Edwardian, with the men wearing double-breasted suits of crushed velvet or striped patterns, brocade waistcoats, shirts with frilled collars, and their hair worn below the collar bone. Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones epitomised this "dandified" look.

Jean Shrimpton

Women were inspired by the top models of the day which included Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Colleen Corby, Penelope Tree and Veruschka. False eyelashes were in vogue, as was pale lipstick. Hemlines kept rising, and by 1968 they had reached well above mid-thigh.

For daytime outerwear, short plastic raincoats, colourful swing coats and dyed fake-furs were popular for young women. In 1966, the Nehru jacket arrived on the fashion scene, and was worn by both sexes. Suits were very diverse in color but were for the first time ever fitted and very slimming. Waistlines for women were left unmarked and hemlines were getting shorter and shorter.

Le Smoking by YSL. Right by Helmut Newton

Created in 1966 by Yves Saint Laurent, the Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women was the first of its kind to earn attention in the fashion world and in popular culture. It pioneered long, minimalist, androgynous styles for women, as well as the use of power suits and the pantsuit in modern-day society.

Fashion photography echoes the influence of this suit in shoots that feature androgynous models with slicked-back hair in a mannish three-piece suit, a style that was first popularised in photographs by Helmut Newton.Yves Saint-Laurent was seen by many as having empowered women by giving them the option to wear clothes that were normally worn by men with influence and power.