1960s Modelling

The 1960s saw a revolution in many areas and modelling was just one of them. Fashions for young people changed dramatically, and teenagers and twenty-somethings were customising their clothes and creating their own styles. The influences of the 1960s designers, models and photographers are still around today. To find out more visit http://www.fabsugar.co.uk/Key-Models-from-Sixties-1960s-3115463

Revolution

There was so much going on in the 1960s that it’s almost impossible to talk about modelling without mentioning art, music, film and television. The teenagers and young people of the 1950s were confident and took charge of trends in the 1960s, creating a double society; the people who were young, free and liberated, and the generation that still dressed and acted the way of 15 years previously.

The demands of the youth market encouraged the production of cheap, bright fashions that could be bought in small boutiques or on market stalls. Heavily influenced by the new music that was appearing, young people began to design their own fashions, rather than waiting for the traditional designers to do it for them. They, along with established designers, experimented with colour, fabric and imported ideas from non-western cultures.

A Modelling Career

The impact of television, radio and magazines was huge. Actresses like Diana Rigg shot to fame, as did pop singers. Their styles of clothing and hair were copied across the world by young people who had more disposable income than ever before. These stars, particularly the women, acted as role models to young women who were beginning to question to “ideal” of marrying and becoming a housewife.

Modelling became a career in its own right in the 1960s. This was the start of the Supermodel phenomenon, where models themselves could sell the clothes – if Twiggy was wearing it, it was an immediate success. Models with very slim figures, huge, heavily made-up eyes and child-like looks were almost guaranteed fame, as they could wear the Mary Quant mini-skirts and the high fashion from houses that had taken hold of the trends and were providing what the market wanted rather than what it thought they should have.