Dedicated followers of fashion

Fashion desk explores 50 years of how music has inspired fashion

60s

The 1960s is widely renowned the decade when Britain enjoyed what can only be deemed a revolution in the fashion and music scene. Men became much more involved with image and styling. London earned its reputation as the swinging capital of the world, and music became increasingly creative and innovative. Top fashion spots were the King’s Road in Chelsea and Carnaby Street in the West End. There was a new approach to dress, where clothes were designed as short-term novelties, rather than timeless pieces; new materials were used, such as Melinex, Lurex and PVC, and the brighter they were, the better. The Sixties were all about shaking off old traditions of drab austerity. Miniskirts and jeans, which became popular from 1965 onwards, represented a new freedom, confidence and exuberance. However, certain trends from previous decades helped create the eclectic mix that was 1960’s fashion. Men’s styles, as modelled by bands such as The Rolling Stones, were foppish, effeminate and self-conscious, an echo of the equally ostentatious Regency period. Women’s fashion was often based on the sensuous Twenties; the look, pioneered by teenage supermodel Twiggy, was enigmatic and waifish, with heavily made up eyes, false eyelashes, pale lips and sleek hair in the new geometric styles favored by Vidal Sassoon. Music in the Sixties was as varying as the fashion trends, from the folk music of Bob Dylan, to the Motown sound of The Temptations, to the rock and roll of The Who. By 1967, the hippy movement was established. The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper record, with its coded references to hallucinogenic drugs, welcomed in a new ‘psychedelic’, surreal form of popular music. Fashion, in its turn, changed to a looser, bohemian style – patterned maxi skirts and cheesecloth blouses. But the Summer of Love didn’t last, and The Beatles’ split in 1970 signaled, sadly, the end of an era.

Tasha Prest- Smith

70s

The 70s was a time when prog- rock, glam-rock, disco, folk and punk all ruled supreme, and people definitely dressed to reflect their taste. Spilling over from the sixties, some hippies were still listening to psychedelic rock, with floral prints and high-waisted flares being the fashion staples of the day. The new, even bigger, Biba emporium had just opened on London’s Kensington High Street and sprung to new heights as the

Veritable Topshop of the 1970s; offering on- trend, well-made clothes for affordable prices. Biba counted musicians Cher, Yoko Ono and even Barbara Streisand as devoted customers. Its signature style was a combination of ornate vintage with a combination of ornate vintage with modern-day trends, which resulted in a very distinctive look. The

Emporium also hosted regular live music shows including performances from the New York Dolls, Liberace and The Bay City Rollers. Biba wasn’t the only influential fashion landmark of the 1970s; Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren’s King’s road hang-out,

SEX was the fashionable meeting place of the time for angry punks and punkettes. They listened to the Sex Pistols, The Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees and wore deconstructed clothes fastened together with safety-pins to reflect the disrepair of post-war society. This was teenage rebellion at its greatest, with Punks sporting shocking bleached and multicoloured hairstyles and fetish-wear; the likes ofwhich had never been seen before. On the more fun-loving side there were the disco-divas with their Fara- Fawcett hair and brightly coloured synthetics. These Saturday-night fever fashionistas were kitted out in spandex hot-pants and platform boots while boogying away to bands like Boney-M and Kool & the Gang. Leana Crookes

80s

In the 1980s, the relationship between music and fashion consisted of giving a theatrical and flamboyant middle finger to its punk predecessor and embracing all things bold, glam and androgynous. The New Romantic movement got on its high horse and declared Boy George its fashion king. The backlash against the briskness of punk was led by a woman who helped to bring punk to the mainstream in the first place. Vivienne Westwood would redefine the basic silhouette for both genders and used the New Romantics, particularly Adam and the Ants, as her muse. Frilly cuffs and buccaneer style shirts were taking over and the quintessential early 80s blending of music and fashion was epitomized in the 1982 Pirate collection. The idea of the pirate look apparently came from an idea her then beau, Malcolm McLaren, had of translating the ‘pirating’ of music that had begun to take place with the invention of the humble blank cassette into fashion.

The effeminacy of the pirate look on men – enhanced by the popularisation of bold and streaky make-up on both sexes – was counteracted by a more masculine look for women as shoulder pads created a much more powerful and manly silhouette. Then Madonna and the movie Flashdance came along, boosting sales of legwarmers and starting a trend for 80s teenage girls to rip their sweaters. And it didn’t get any better with the late 1980’s hair-metal genre proclaiming acid-washed jeans and big frizzy hair the new black. Sound and style, then, clashed in the 80s and gave us luxurious, flamboyant and narcissistic clothing that most of us would only wear now to a fancy dress party. Matthew Hitt

90s

The 90s is a hard decade to define. Although we may be children of the 90s we are only just getting to the stage when we can look at an episode of ‘Saved By the Bell’ and say “that is soooo nineties.” But with the mish mash of Rave, Britpop, Grunge and Girl Power, and the fashion that came hand in hand with these trends, what was the 90s all about? It seems the unifying factor is the gutsy independent attitude of dressing to show, who you were and where you came from.

The girls got girly, led by the Spice Girls with their criminal combinations of Posh’s PVC, Sporty’s sports bra and Baby’s bunches.

With the squeaky clean exception of the boyband, the lads got laddy. Starting with the hoodies and statement t-shirts of the grunge movement, and progressing to the parka and trainer look of the Gallagher brothers. Kurt Cobain said “come as you are” and Oasis were all about their Manchester roots and “Cigarettes and Alcohol”

It was drugs, glow sticks, acid faces and a blinding array of neon colours that defined Rave culture. This was the ultimate in “fuck-you” fashion with not so much as a nod to designers or catwalks.

The 90s is often described as the era of “anti-fashion” but an article on fashion wouldn’t be fashionable without a brief mention of Kate Moss. At 5’6”, this Croydon teenager was the anti-supermodel for the anti-fashion age. So the 90s was a bit of a free-for-all. Like the anthemic music, some of the fashion trends are revealing a timeless quality; think New Rave and the trusty Parka but I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want: never to see a Hanson set of curtains and stone-washed jeans ever again.

Mary Parkes and Jo Butler

00s

In the early 00s, music and fashion in London centred around the East End. Trouble is, The Libertines were the only decent band from there and one band a scene doth not make. Nevertheless, it was around this time that Hedi Slimane was made Creative Director at Dior Homme and on a trip to Britain he decided to produce a photography book entitled ‘Birth of a Cult’.

The book looked at Pete Doherty and his East End surroundings, documenting the hedonistic lifestyle, the gigs and, inadvertently, the fashion. Taking inspiration from this, Slimane thrust the new indie-boy look onto the catwalk and had super skinny models wearing super skinny clothes. Since then, Dior Homme has proceeded to adopt the Doherty silhouette and has been producing sharp and lean clothes for their lines ever since. The turn of the millennium also saw numerous musicians believing they were capable of taking over a fashion designer’s job.

Bringing out their own clothing lines were: Jay-Z, who unleashed his Rocawear brand upon the world, and Gwen Stefani, designing her own label, LAMB and showcasing the clothes at New York Fashion Week. More recently Nu-Rave has been enjoying what will probably be a brief resurgence, taking the acid-strained clothes of the early 90s but giving them an overall slimmer fit.

Looking to the future, I suppose it’s up to the airwaves to decide what’ll be on the catwalk in the coming seasons. Matthew Hitt