Fashion: Yesterday, Today and TomorrowMeanwhile, some designers in Paris also began to explore new directions
in fashion. Yves Saint Laurent designed his controversial “Beat Look” for
the House of Dior in 1960. Inspired by the beatniks, Saint Laurent drew on
other rebellious youth styles, such as the biker’s black leather jacket. A few
years later, Saint Laurent also developed a ready-to-wear line, Rive Gauche.
“Ready to wear, for me, is not a last resource, a sub-couture; it is the future,”
said Saint Laurent. “One dresses women who are younger, more receptive.
With them, one can finally be more audacious.”
Fashion futurism also served as a metaphor for youth. This was especially
important in France, which had no real youth culture or music scene
comparable to that in Britain or America. André Courrèges designed his
“Space Age” or “Moon Girl” collection in 1964, which included white
pantsuits and minidresses worn with vinyl go-go boots and other space-age
accessories. “The Courrèges message is loud and clear: bold stark simple
clothes, exquisitely balanced with scientific precision to achieve a dazzling
new mathematical beauty,” declared a British magazine. “It’s a look that
couldn’t have been dreamed of in pre-Sputnik days.” High tech – from plastic
and stretch fabric to industrial zippers – was associated with progress and a
happy future. “Zip up, pop on and just go – zing!” advised American Vogue
in 1965. “No hooks, no ties... everything clings, swings, ready to orbit.”
The rise of the hippies, first in America and then around the world, heralded
a new shift in youth culture. Fashion historian Bruno de Roselle has analysed
the significance of “anti-fashion sentiment” among young people associated
with the hippy culture. Fashion, the hippies believed, was a “system that
Society imposes on all of us, restricting our freedom”. Fashion change turns
us into “consumers” who have to buy new clothes “even if the old ones are
not worn out”. In part an economic criticism of capitalism, the hippies’
argument also implied, philosophically, that “fashion is a perpetual lie”.
Fashion is damaging, because “this uniformity and this change keep us
from being ourselves. Clothing is a means of communication about the self,
but we are not allowed to be honest and individual.” The solution to this
dilemma, according to the hippies, was “to abandon received fashion, in
order to invent our own personal fashions”. Theoretically, each individual
would create his own unique style. He would “express himself” and “do his
own thing” – as the clichés of the time put it. In this way, the individual
would defeat “the System”, whether this was conceived of as the fashion
system, advanced global capitalism, or society in general.
Rejecting contemporary fashion, the hippies looked for inspiration in the
clothing of long ago and far away. The ethnic look and the romantic-pastoral
look were especially significant. Hippy women gravitated toward long skirts,
while men adopted evocative garments such as fringed suede shirts, like those