WORK IT- 60's

 During 1960s, London was sweeping change throughout the fashion world, creating ideas and images, which still emerge today. At one time, the absolute epicenter of 1960s 'Swinging London' was Carnaby Street. This street has been stripped of all its individuality, with it’s groovy boutiques, quirky stores, and independent traders being replaced by a bland selection of corporate outlets and coffee shops. At the opening of the decade, the market was conquered by Parisian designers of expensive haute couture garments. Yet the form of clothes was soon altered by new ideas rising from the London pop scene. Couture, street style, shopping, and The Peacock Revolution have influenced fashion all over the world. Carnaby Street is where fashion began. “In the 1960s, Carnaby Street was made popular by followers of the Mod style. Many independent fashion boutiques, and designers such as Mary Quant and 'Lord John' were located in and around Carnaby Street as well as various underground music bars such as the 'Roaring Twenties'. With bands such as The Beatles, Small Faces, and Rolling Stones appearing in the area to work, shop, and socialize, it became one of London's coolest destination associated with the Swinging Sixties” (Carnaby Street).

The clothes of French designers like Dior and Balenciaga, symbolized sophisticated elegance and were worn by women in high society. The Carnaby Street in London, has some of the premium branded designer clothes, hip cafes and bars, cosmetic shops and boutiques. Another important Continental influence was Italian design, which from the mid-1950s had inspired a chic, sleek look. Mod in Britain persevered on tailor-made attire, choosing materials and cut for maximum impact. The exclusive attitude of the couture houses seemed dated. Haute couture was forced to emulate popular clothing. Courrèges, Cardin, and Yves Saint Laurent were among those who adapted luminously to these new circumstances. “The boutique clothing store emerged in the 1960s as "the happening" place to shop. They were fun and hip and young people felt more comfortable shopping there. No geography was more famous for swinging boutiques than Carnaby Street and Kings Road in London. Not to be left out of the trend, Paraphernalia opened in 1965 on Madison Avenue in New York” (Sixties Fashion).

The clothes aimed specifically at the young which Mary Quant had been designing since the late 1950s became popular. Boutiques, like Barbara Hulanicki's Biba and Quant's Bazaar provided inexpensively made clothing suited to a busy, urban lifestyle. Instead of purchasing outfits designed for specific occasions, people favored separates. The miniskirt was the most eye-catching article of clothing of the decade, designed for an ideally thin female form. Designers of clothes and textiles demonstrated modernity. Space-age silver was mixed with primary colored prints taken from Pop and Op Art.

Shops have played a vital part in advertising new fashions. Whole areas of London like Carnaby Street, which changed as boutiques. Boutiques sold an inexpensive range of swiftly changing outfits and offered an informal atmosphere and self-service, unlike traditional clothes shops. John Stephen was one of the first to open a boutique selling menswear on Carnaby Street. Meanwhile, Michael Fish recognized Mr. Fish, selling psychedelic-inspired outfits, provocatively close to Savile Row. Terence Conran in his shop habitat took another new approach. Inspired by furniture shops he had seen in Scandinavia, he displayed goods in a little pine interior, stacked in piles as though they were in a warehouse. Conran was successful in marketing well-designed domestic goods, including home furnishings, at relatively low prices.

The most remarkable development in 1960s dress was the dramatic change in menswear. For the past 150 years, clothing for men had been tailor-made and plain in appearance. Following trends which first emerge in gay fashions, colorful elements were introduced, such as the collarless jacket, worn with slim-fitting trousers and boots. During the mid-1960s frills and cravats came back in, together with vividly printed shirts. Clothing became increasingly unisex as men and women shopped at the same boutiques for similar items.



John Stephen released his first shop called "His Clothes" in Beak Street, which was just off Carnaby Street around 1957. In those days, Carnaby Street was nowhere close to fashion centre. An electricity substation occupied one side of the street. John Stephen moved "His Clothes" to Carnaby Street in the late fifties, after a fire at his original shop. Interest in Stephen's clothes spread like wild fire. Soon, there was a chain of shops all over London. Carnaby Street is an impacting street in the fashion industry history and will continue to be until the end of time.