Previous events: Jan 2007
Reconstructing Sixties Fashion

Report by Judy Tregidden & Lindsay Evans Robertson

The Costume Society presents a programme of events throughout the year in addition to the annual Symposium. These events involve large and small museums and the study of specific aspects of dress. Such events may be in conjunction with some of the nine regional costume and textile societies in the UK or with major exhibitions.

 Reconstructing 60s Fashion was a study day held on Saturday 20th January 2007 in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was organised by Sylvia Ayton, Vice-Chairman of the Costume Society, and Jenny Lister, Curator of Fashion and Textiles (1800 - 1914) in the V & A’s department of Furniture, Fashion and Textiles and co-curator of the 60s Fashion show.

In the 1960s London became the centre for young fashion, spearheaded by a group of very young designers all determined to create fashion for their contemporaries that was nothing like the clothes that their parents and grandparents were wearing. Their success grabbed the imagination of youngsters, male and female, world wide. Fashion, accessories, make-up, hairdressing, styling and journalism, all changed in response to their creativity. It was a relatively small band of “movers and shakers” but their collective success has repercussions even in 2007. In retrospect it was a reaction to the dismal war years and the restrictions of the 50s, but it seemed so much more.

Imagine - all the legendary names that made London the Swinging capital of the fashion world, all in one room together! Thanks to the teamwork, tact and diplomacy of Sylvia Ayton and Jenny Lister it happened, not in the 1960s but in January 2007. This was a reality show to savour and remember.

So many famous names were there. Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki, Marit Allen, Bernard Neville, Paul Reeves, Moya Bowler, Felicity Green, Beatrix Miller, Vanessa Denza, Christopher Carr-Jones, Justin de Villeneuve, Brigid Keenan, Marion Foale, Sally Tuffin, Sylvia Ayton, James Wedge, David Montgomery: the roll-call was endless. To list every name would cause offence to the name that is inadvertently left out; it was exciting to meet these people once again and find that all were as alive to today’s fashion, art and design as they ever were. The audience was intriguing. Serious students of fashion and their lecturers had a field day hence the total sell-out of tickets. There were many young students at the event dressed in 60s vintage garments, or were they perhaps wearing new retro? High street fashion is so influenced by the 1960s, it is hard to tell. People for whom the 60s was a part of their growing up shared memories of what fun it had been, a phrase echoed again and again by the speakers. Alumni of the Royal College of Art from the 60s, and of many other fashion courses, met up again and found so many of their contemporaries as passionate about fashion design as ever.

The day was presented through interviews, slide shows, videos, illustrated talks and academic overviews giving a scintillating picture of the period: a triumph of organisation appreciated as such by Valerie Cumming, our Chairman, as she closed the day.

The event was opened by Christopher Breward (Deputy Head of Research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Professional Fellow at the London College of Fashion) who introduced Sylvia Ayton, ex-Wallis designer and still very involved with fashion education. Sylvia gave us a resume of her multi-faceted career as a designer and examiner and lecturer in education. She spoke of her early years at art school as a couture-worshipping student gradually coming to realise that clothes designed for young people, for working class people, hardly existed and that couture was a mirage that needed to be made a part of the high-street: as outer-wear designer for Wallis Sylvia succeeded in doing so. She reminded us of how important the Fashion School of the Royal College of Art in particular and the art schools were as hot-houses in the 60s for this new wave of energy and ideas: Sylvia’s fellow students included Marion Foale, Sally Tuffin and James Wedge, all of whom played a significant part in the 60s fashion revolution. Vanessa Denza, of Denza International, introduced Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin. Vanessa has been a considerable influence in the retail world. She was the original buyer for the innovative 21 Shop at Woollands in Knightsbridge in the 60s, became the founder of Graduate Fashion Week in the late 80s and received her MBE in 2004 for her services to the British fashion industry and education. Many of the young designers of the 60s owe a great deal to Vanessa. Sally and Marion were amongst those young designers and shared with delight their memories as they talked of their success in the 60s and how simple it was, then but not now, to get their careers started; how easy it was to open a shop in Carnaby Street, how amazing to be flying around America feted wherever they went.

Journalism and photography was elegantly put in context by academic Alice Beard (Kingston University) who then chaired a conversation between Marit Allen (Queen and Vogue and now working as a costume designer for films) and Sandy Boler (English Vogue). Their reminiscences of 50s fashion journalism overshadowed by couture and class, and how they had helped to change that, was made to seem so logical. In truth, it was anything but easy. Felicity Green, then working on the Daily Mirror, presented another facet of journalism, that of the daily press which presented challenging deadlines that needed immediate response. It required news headlines, daily, and the ability to spot talent and trends which her readers could identify with. It inspired a new breed of photographers who wanted narrative, real locations, jumping skipping models who could identify with the 60s chick. Felicity’s achievement was to shine in this milieu. Her attitude and her positive response to an angst-for-the-past questioner was to affirm her own love of now and the future: to long for the past is to die - to look to the future is to live was her reply.

During the day so many “iconic” images were presented but none with more style and wit than Justin de Villeneuve, one-time boxer, hairdresser, manager, photographer and self-confessed villain. So many of those famous images of the period were his, demonstrating how good he had always been at shooting ‘dolly birds’. But his real fashion-show stopper proved to be his latest shots of birds-for-real giving us their own fashion show, glamour models, hoods and gangsters, as a glorious conclusion.

Boutiques and shops were introduced by Sonia Ashmore (Research Fellow at the London College of Fashion) who had the privilege of introducing the revered Mary Quant who gave us a gentle overview of her career, its complexities and her ground-breaking diversification which paved the way for so many other designers. Amongst many well-known images Mary Quant, with touching pride, presented her favourite ‘product’ of the 60s, her baby son. Then Oriole Cullen (Curator, Modern Textiles and Fashion, Victoria and Albert Museum) interviewed the equally revered Barbara Hulanicki, taking so many of the audience down memory lane. Barbara reminisced: it had all been such fun, despite the traumas of business but Barbara, too, emphasised that what was possible then in a period of hope, creativity and a brave new post-war world, is no longer possible. Trading and industry has changed so much in the intervening years that the naïve entrepreneurial spirit of that time could not survive the pressures of the industry in this twentieth century. An audience member’s delightful tribute to Barbara Hulanicki thanking her for making us all look so beautiful in those platform boots and dresses closed the session perfectly.

Music and menswear, of course, were an important part of that 60s scene. David Gilbert (Reader in Human Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London) introduced Music and ‘The Scene’ and Paul Gorman (author) who spoke of how it had developed. Then he and Paul Reeves, menswear designer in the 60s, discussed The Look, Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion. Paul Reeves took great delight in his reminiscences of the period especially of his men’s wear label Sam Pig in Love.

It was an unrepeatable event which truly reconstructed 60s fashion. We are proud that the Costume Society played a part in its presentation, cementing our long association with the Textiles and Dress Department of the Museum. How sad though, that very day, to read in the press of the demise of the Jean Muir label, yet another name which played an important part in the 60s. But how exciting to read Sarah Mower’s very generous coverage of the event, Reconstructing 60s Fashion, featured in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, 24 January. That was a bonus we had not expected: the Society is very grateful.