They say fashion is for women, while style is for men. But fashion, that is essentially an expression of the self through external means such as clothing is what has seen a tremendous amount of evolution and attention among men for decades now. It has worked to shape men’s style in a manner that a fashionably stylish man of today can be placed in any place and at any point in time and will still “fit in”, irrespective of whether he is a toff, a dapper dude, or plain dandy.
Men’s fashion existed for as long has man had learned to wear clothes. But it was the 1960s that really brought about a renaissance in menswear and style and broke away from the traditional and orthodox roots that were still firmly in place in the decade before. A rise of different subcultures and the emancipation of teenagers saw a huge revolution in what men wore and considered fashionable and in what defined their personal senses of style.
One of the most prominent subcultures that defined fashion in the 1960s and continues to have its mark on today’s fashion scene is the hippie and psychedelic culture. What started out as defiance and a fad went on to the mainstream with its reactionary messages of peace, experiments with drugs and freedom, free love translating into the “summers of love” and communal living, expressed best in the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
The hippies were non conformists and used their clothing along with their lifestyle to promote their beliefs. Vibrant colours in flamboyant style, and a use of “unstylish” items such as jeans and other streetwear was what they used in their expression of non-conformism. As the hippie influence trickled up from the street to the middle class jeans, the item that defines the youth of today, kept coming in and out of style in the works of designers like Saint Laurent, Giorgio di’ Sant Angelo and Kenzo, as did ethnicity and flamboyance. The buffalo plaid shirts, pantsuits, blue jeans, headbands, sandals, flower and paisley prints, and tie-dyed T-shirts went on to become the trends that would define how men would break away from staid greys and blacks.
The Beatles, Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones and Jim Morrison set trends in mop-tops, long hair and bell-bottomed pants with a hint of jewelry. Facial hair became the accepted thing and sideburns came in fashion, and remained in fashion for the following decade.
Another subculture that defined the way men dressed in the 1960s was the Mod culture, a derivative of the Modernist culture that originated in the United Kingdom. It began in the 1950s but saw a revival in the 1960s that flowed on to the 1970s and then was in vogue in the US in the 1980s. The mods were opposed to the flamboyance of the hippies and dressed in tight-fitting Italian suits as against floral prints. Suits of many different colours and narrow lapels teamed with skinny ties and button down shirts with collars as well mohair and cashmere sweaters, winklepicker shoes and Chelsea boots were the preferred look.
In contrast the Beatniks had a more crude expression of masculinity, inspired by Marlon Brando in The Wild One wearing leather jackets. This was when goatees and beret caps came into fashion and men rolled their own cigarettes. Black and white stripes in shirts and sweaters, turtlenecks, baker boy hat and indoor sunglasses were the norm. The unconcerned style and subtle sense of fashion has remained relevant today in what we call “simple and understated”. The skinny black hipster pants, and leather biking jackets of the Beatniks still make the most perfect clothes in the recession.
The 1960s therefore spawned a number of trends that have gone full circle. From jeans to polka dot prints, suits in colours other than black and gray, leather biking jackets, and tie-dyed T-shirts that form fashion trends for men today began and were popularized in the era gone by. More was added in the later decades that when mixed and matched with these make men unequivocally fashionable as well as delectably stylish today.
Of the newer additions the leisure look of the 1970s was the most popular. The influences of the 1960s remained through the 1970s, which means that the jeans remained frayed and the t-shirts were still in vibrant colours. Only now jeans were altered with bleach and embroidery and even decorative patchwork. There was a shift towards lamé suits, silver was a prominent colour, denims and velvet trousers became wide-legged instead of the previous drainpipe pattern and shirts were embellished with rhinestones. Hipsters were replaced with high waisted denims and fitted blazers, often in leopard prints were common.
Towards the end of the decade however, there was another shift in the men’s fashion trend. There was again a preference for three-piece suits and often they were worn without ties as disco outfits. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever popularized the look with a full white suit with a vest and a black collar below the vest. Zippered jumpsuits, wider ties and long pointed shirt collars existed along with t-shirts with iron on illustrations and messages as well as baseball jerseys. Short beards, sideburns, and a tousled “surfer” hairstyle was the most preferred among men through the decade.
Another feature that influenced style in the ‘70s was the punk fashion. Loose shirts teamed with oversized jackets and a preference of tattered clothes in leather and plastic were popular among the punks who also wore unlaced work boots. The look though popular at the time, was not caught on in the later decades by the mainstream mass because it depicted a somewhat thrown-together look that portrayed poverty.
Fashion, even if it’s ephemeral, has a strange way of deciding which elements will remain and fit in with others. Men’s fashion trends as we know it today have taken a bit from here and a bit from there and combined these elements from different decades to stand where it does now. Whether it is the purism or minimalism in fashion that have become style statements in men, or simply T-shirts with decals and comfort-fit jeans, or even suits that are cut to perfection and then teamed with a quirky tie, it has been a case of fashion going back to the swinging 60s and disco-religion of the ‘70s. Experiments with flares, hairstyles, cuts and colours through the decades have finally brought the men of today what they assume is the most perfect statement of style. It is only a matter of time before these same statements are flipped over and a new statement issued in fashion.
Because fashion, as they say, is too fluid to be held.
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