The Early-Decade Tailored Outfit

A pale-yellow Givenchy wool suit from 1960 gives a good sense of the tailored shape still worn at the beginning of the decade. The jacket ends around the upper hip and has broad lapels, two large covered buttons, and three-quarter-length sleeves. Gentle seam shaping follows the torso. Beneath it sits a straight skirt made from the same fabric.

That kind of coordinated dressing became particularly recognizable through Jacqueline Kennedy’s public wardrobe. Boxy jackets, sheath dresses, substantial coats, gloves, pearls, and hats were often assembled as one complete outfit. A woman dressing for an office, formal lunch, church, or public occasion could still look distinctly early-sixties without wearing anything resembling the miniskirts that later came to symbolize the decade.

What a Woman Could Actually Buy in 1964

Department-store catalogs show a less glamorous side of the period than couture photographs.

In Sears’ spring-summer 1964 catalog, one silk-broadcloth shirtdress cost $24.75. It was offered in green-and-blue or rose-and-pink combinations and had a large collar, turnback cuffs, and lining through the bodice and skirt. Another dress on the same catalog page used black-and-camel silk surah. It had full raglan sleeves, a front zipper, and a roll collar tied into a bow. Both were marked for dry cleaning.

Ordinary wardrobes also contained simpler skirts, sweaters, blouses, jackets, capri-length pants, shorts, and practical dresses that could be worn repeatedly rather than as fashion statements. The decade’s more dramatic styles existed alongside this kind of clothing.

Ribbed Sweaters Under Sleeveless Dresses

A 1965 Mary Quant ensemble places a black ribbed acrylic polo-neck sweater underneath a natural-colored hessian minidress. The sweater fits close enough to sit neatly inside the armholes. Its sleeves and high neckline remain fully visible, and the rougher hessian gives the outer dress a noticeably different surface.

Quant had already been developing this kind of mix-and-match dressing through the Ginger Group, launched in 1963. Her 1964 Adam’s Rib sweater came in black, pink, and jade wool and had three-quarter-length sleeves. Pullover pinafore dresses allowed one sweater to be worn under several different outer pieces.

Fabric development mattered here as well. Quant used wool jersey bonded to an acrylic knitted backing in some short dresses. The knit could stretch during wear, and the backing gave the garment enough body to hold the simple silhouette.

Her clothes were no longer limited to one London boutique. A design agreement with J. C. Penney began in 1962, and Ginger Group gave retailers a lower-priced line from 1963.

How the Miniskirt Actually Appeared

The miniskirt did not suddenly arrive in one designer’s collection and replace knee-length skirts everywhere.

Jenny Fenwick bought a Mary Quant lace dress in Sheffield in 1964 and later shortened it. A photograph from the same year shows Quant wearing a similar dress with its hem still touching the knee. Fenwick’s altered dress is useful because it shows fashion changing inside an existing wardrobe: the garment survived, but the hem moved upward.

Courrèges was showing short couture skirts in 1964. Newspaper use of the word miniskirt increased in 1965, and the particularly short version associated with sixties youth fashion was well established by about 1966.

“Mini” only describes the length. A short dress could hang relatively straight as a shift, or widen toward the hem in an A-line cut. Patch pockets, round collars, contrast edging, large buttons, and blocks of color were easy to place across these uncomplicated shapes.

Short hems remained important later in the decade, although longer lengths were returning. Midi and maxi dresses were appearing by 1968, so a late-sixties shop could contain very different skirt lengths at the same time.

What Went Under a Short Dress

Once skirts became shorter, hosiery occupied much more of the visible outfit.

Mary Quant sold tights in colors such as mustard, ginger, and prune. Marks and Spencer was already selling colored tights by autumn 1963. In 1966, a pair of tights cost about 12 shillings, roughly three times the price of stockings according to V&A research. That price helps explain why a fashionable item visible in photography was not necessarily something every shopper immediately bought in several colors.

White leather boots became another recognizable part of the look. A surviving Courrèges pair dated 1967-1969 rises above the ankle and has a very low heel, gently squared toe, plain shaft, and narrow strap around the upper section. Vertical seams run along the front of the pale leather.

Saint Laurent used a different shoe with his Mondrian collection in 1965. Roger Vivier produced black pumps with large square metal buckles from Saint Laurent’s sketches. The buckle echoed the rectangular shapes already present in the dresses.

Quant’s cosmetics business arrived on 28 March 1966, at a time when heavily emphasized eyes were appearing with short dresses in London fashion photography. Her 1967 advertising gave mascara a prominent role.

Shiny Raincoats Were Part of the Look Too

A black vinyl slicker in Sears’ 1964 catalog was shown with a pink-and-white striped turtleneck and straight white cotton pants with cuffs. The jacket cost $12.90, was lined with acetate, and closed with a front zipper. Zipped side pockets added more visible hardware. The accompanying pants used adjustable tabs at the waist, and the stretch-knit turtleneck combined nylon with Dacron polyester.

Mary Quant was exploring an even more conspicuous surface in Britain. Her 1963 Wet Collection used PVC-coated cotton. One vivid red raincoat from the collection appeared on the cover of British Vogue.

The coated material caused practical problems at the seams, which had to be sealed reliably against water. Wider commercial production came later through Alligator Rainwear after manufacturing methods had been worked out.

American Campus Clothes Looked Different

An American student following the established Ivy style could be wearing an Oxford-cloth button-down shirt, khaki chinos, a Shetland crewneck sweater, and penny loafers at the same point in the decade when London magazines were showing minidresses.

The button-down collar stayed close to the shirt because its points were fastened in place. Under a crewneck sweater, the collar remained visible above the knit. Low leather loafers worked naturally with the relatively straight cotton trouser leg.

Cold weather added a tan cotton-gabardine raincoat or a wool duffel coat. Tweed sports jackets and navy single-breasted blazers covered occasions that called for more structure. Gray flannel and seersucker suits were also part of the wider Ivy wardrobe. FIT’s history of the style includes a 1960 Arrow shirt advertisement, showing how firmly this clothing was still established at the beginning of the decade.

The Mod Suit Stayed Close to the Body

British Mod tailoring produced a noticeably narrower silhouette. Jackets were relatively short, trousers were slim, and Italian tailoring influenced the clean fitted line.

John Stephen had opened his first Carnaby Street shop in 1957, before the decade began, and the area developed into a major destination for young men buying clothes. By the early sixties, these shops were feeding a market interested in sharp suits, colorful shirts, narrow trousers, boots, and carefully chosen details.

The Beatles made collarless jackets highly visible in 1963, pairing them with slim trousers and heeled boots. Music remained closely connected with the wider Mod scene, especially through interest in American soul and R&B. Bands including the Who and the Small Faces were associated with the clothes and clubs around it.

Menswear Became Much More Decorative

A few years later, London menswear could look considerably more elaborate.

Cotton shirts appeared in yellow-and-white paisley and dense floral prints. Velvet, embroidery, frills, brighter tailoring, and wider ties entered fashionable boutiques. Mr Fish opened in 1966 and became one of the shops associated with this shift.

A Tom Gilbey ensemble from around 1968 combines a wool-tweed suit with a silk roll-neck top. Mr Fish was using corduroy for complete suits around the same period, including double-breasted jackets whose wide overlapping fronts made the raised ribs of the cloth particularly noticeable.

At Granny Takes a Trip, John Pearse made a jacket around 1967 from printed cotton plain weave. Pattern no longer had to be confined to a tie or shirt; it could cover the jacket itself.

Women Were Already Wearing Trousers Earlier in the Decade

Mary Quant’s “Legs Downwards” trousers from around 1962 were made from striped worsted wool and sat low on the waist. An archive outfit pairs them with a V-neck sweater. The material was familiar from tailoring, but the finished combination was casual enough for everyday fashion.

Summer catalogs contained other trouser-based outfits. In 1964, Sears sold a white Arnel triacetate-jersey set consisting of Jamaica shorts and a sleeveless pull-on top. The lined shorts fastened with a zipper at the back, and the complete set cost $8.70.

Saint Laurent introduced his women’s tuxedo in autumn-winter 1966. His museum records only one initial sale among the haute couture clients. The design later entered the Saint Laurent rive gauche ready-to-wear line, where younger customers bought it, and the tuxedo continued to reappear in his later work.

The Mondrian Dress Was Built From Its Color Blocks

On Saint Laurent’s 1965-1966 Mondrian dress, the black lines and colored rectangles are part of the garment’s construction. Individual pieces of wool jersey form the white, red, blue, yellow, and black areas. Shaping is incorporated into the joins, allowing the front to retain its grid while fitting the body.

The dress itself is sleeveless, with a restrained neckline and a relatively straight body. Saint Laurent also produced geometric earrings and small rounded hats for the collection. Copies soon appeared outside the couture market, especially in the United States.

Space-age fashion pushed materials further. White and silver clothing appeared alongside vinyl, shiny synthetic surfaces, exposed zippers, flat boots, goggles, and sculptural headwear in the work associated with designers such as André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin.

Paco Rabanne’s construction could be radically different from ordinary dressmaking. A commercial dress dating to around 1966 is made from iridescent plastic discs joined with metal rings. Small openings remain between the components, allowing the separate discs to move and reflect light. The Metropolitan Museum records synthetic materials, metal, and leather in the garment.

What the Grandassa Models Were Wearing

Kwame Brathwaite’s photographs provide a different record of sixties style in Harlem.

At the Merton Simpson Gallery around 1967, the Grandassa Models appeared in long patterned garments with natural hairstyles and headwraps. One outfit has a fitted sleeveless bodice, a gathered peplum at the waist, and a narrow floor-length lower section. A tall wrapped head covering adds height above it. Elsewhere in the group, fabric falls from one shoulder and another dress uses flared sleeves. The models stand barefoot beneath the long hems.

The Grandassa presentations grew out of the African Jazz-Art Society and Studios. Beginning with Naturally ’62, the shows connected natural hair, clothing, jewelry, and African cultural references with the Black Is Beautiful movement. The Schomburg Center still holds promotional material and a Naturally ’63 portfolio from these events.

A headpiece designed by Carolee Prince around 1968 uses red and white beads arranged over the hair in a loose net. Beaded arches rise from the top, with shorter strands hanging near the temples and forehead.

Secondhand Clothes Changed the Late-Sixties Wardrobe

San Francisco’s counterculture produced outfits through very different routes from the Paris couture system.

Redevelopment of Victorian neighborhoods during the 1960s brought quantities of old clothing and household material into circulation. Vintage garments could be bought, inherited, altered, or combined with newer pieces. Members of the Charlatans adopted clothing connected with nineteenth-century dandies and the American West. A surviving George Hunter outfit contains a wool vest with a watch chain, cotton trousers, a cotton shirt with a detachable collar, and a straw hat.

Decoration could then be added gradually. Embroidery, beads, patches, fringe, paisley prints, and psychedelic patterns appeared on clothes assembled from whatever the wearer found or made. Velvet, satin, leather, and eyelet fabrics all entered this part of the late-sixties wardrobe.

Designers also worked with old textiles. In 1967, Adolfo turned an antique crazy quilt into a gathered evening skirt. The irregular pieces already present in the quilt remained visible over most of the skirt.

Thea Porter’s kaftans used a much looser body shape. One example from around 1968 has a low rounded neckline, a full-length body, and broad sleeves extending away from the shoulders. Its surface combines red, orange, green, and patterned sections with satin and chiffon patchwork, metallic thread, and pieces of mirror glass.

Jeanne Rose’s 1966 “Persian Nights” dress combines silk chiffon with printed cotton and carries an image derived from a fifteenth-century Persian painting. Rose also made clothes for musicians connected with Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.

Tie-dye had entered expensive fashion by the end of the decade as well. A 1969 Halston ensemble preserved by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston uses tie-dyed silk velvet, so the irregular color sits across a fabric with a soft raised pile.

Some Bell-Bottoms Started as Ordinary Jeans

A flared leg did not always come from a factory pattern.

Wearers could open the lower side seams of existing jeans and sew triangular pieces of cloth into the opening. Printed bandanas, contrasting fabric, or extra denim widened the leg toward the ankle. Surviving jeans from 1969 in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco still have these added panels and appliqués.

Commercial manufacturers were responding by the end of the decade. Levi Strauss & Co. offered bell-bottom and boot-cut fits through its Orange Tab range by fall 1969. The 646, initially sold as the Nuvo Flares, used a polyester-cotton blend. The same period’s catalog included the STA-PREST Saddleman 517-07, with additional width beginning around the knee so that the trousers could fall over boots.