Breaking Down Convention (1)
Kim du Toit
May 10, 2008
11:20 AM CDT
When viewed from the 120,00-ft perspective of history, the 1960s (the “Swinging Sixties") can almost be described as inevitable—brought about as much by major historical events as minor social trends like music and fashion.
It began, as so many social and cultural trends did, in Great Britain.
Prime Minister Harold MacMillan famously declared to the British people, “You’ve never had it so good”, and the British people, recently and finally freed from the rationing of WWII, responded with cheers. MacMillan was also responsible for the famous “Winds of Change” speech—made in the context of Africa freeing itself from colonialism, but the catchphrase insinuated itself into the popular consciousness, and all around, people began to question the old, and replace it with the new.
Ironically, the government of MacMillan’s Conservative Party fell, brought down by an aspect of the new “permissiveness” in the shape of the Profumo Affair. Even across the Atlantic, the assassination of John F. Kennedy made it seem as though society’s institutions were brittle, vulnerable and subject to this change.
But amidst all this swirling change, the Swinging Sixties really started with, and would be defined by its music and fashion.
The Beatles, those unlikely working-class boys from the decidedly-unglamorous provincial city of Liverpool, brought a new kind of popular music to the world—a music rooted in Black American blues and rock ‘n roll, yet softened and made palatable to a staid Establishment audience by the catchy Lennon-McCartney compositions like ”She Loves You (Yeah Yeah Yeah)” and ”Please Please Me”. (It’s interesting to note that early Beatles albums contained such standards as ”A Taste Of Honey” and ”Till There Was You”—inclusions which helped ensure that even moms and dads had some recognizable tunes to hum along with, even as their ears were assaulted by the new sounds of songs like ”Twist and Shout” and Chuck Berry’s ”Roll Over Beethoven”.)
In the world of fashion, the changes were as radical as those of the music. Instead of the decorous fashions of the 1950s, hemlines rose, and rose, and rose. In London’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood, Mary Quant released the “miniskirt”—based, it’s thought, on the new “people’s car”, the Mini.
No better picture of the time captures the mood better than this one, with one of the icons of 60s movies, Charlotte Rampling, with the eponymous car and skirt:
...and no better example of the assault on the “Establishment” than this one, where women wore dresses at the Ascot Races which in an earlier era would have had them not only thrown out, but arrested for public indecency:
It was also the first time that models became known by name. Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton and Verushka were all linked with pop stars like Lulu and Mary Hopkin, and actresses like Charlotte Rampling and Diana Rigg:
Twiggy
Jean Shrimpton
Lulu
Mary Hopkin
Diana Rigg
Fashion became inextricably linked with the new music. The Beatles released men from the “short back and sides” forever—their hairstyle, it should be noted, created by a German photographer and erstwhile Beatles girlfriend, Astrid von Kircherr.
And when three of the Tremeloes got engaged on the same day, it made a good picture:
And speaking of Europeans, they were not behind the music/fashion curve, either. Singers like Francoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan and models like Nadia Cassini were as popular across the Channel as Mary Hopkin and Lulu were in Britain.
Francoise Hardy
Sylvie Vartan
Nadia Cassini
To my mind, however, no one symbolized the Sixties more than British model Jane Birkin—once famous for her nude scenes in Blow Up, but who became really famous because of her partnership and marriage to French crooner Serge Gainsbourg.
Photos of the couple are a perfect mirror of how the Swinging Sixties were to become famous for yet another social institution: promiscuity.
Their song ”Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus” (NSFW then, and now) was the absolute epitome of the era.
And we’ll cover that development next week.
