7/25/2023 0 Comments 60s fashion artItalian designer Emilio Pucci was also influential. Cardin, in particular, was excited by new materials including vinyl, silver fabrics and large zips, creating radical forms like his celebrated 'visor' hats. Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro and Yves Saint Laurent were among those European designers who successfully translated a couture aesthetic – producing bold, futuristic designs for young people who wanted everyday wear. Model wearing a Mary Quant dress, 1964, England. As committed to European-style clothes – characterised by high-impact colour and line – as they were to American soul and R&B music, Mods helped focus the tastes of young people everywhere, and inspired the look of bands like The Who, The Small Faces and The Beatles. The Beatniks and the Mods (an abbreviation of 'Modernists') were particularly influential early in the decade. The fashion industry quickly responded by creating designs for young people that no longer simply copied 'grown up' styles. Increased economic power fuelled a new sense of identity and the need to express it. At the dawn of the 1960s, young people's income was at its highest since the end of the Second World War. Paris remained the engine of the fashion industry with sophisticated haute couture garments produced in regular collections by the likes of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy (the creator of Audrey Hepburn's iconic black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961). This meant skirt lengths could rise and rise while still protecting the modesty of the wearer to a certain extent.In the 1950s, fashion was dominated by the tastes of a wealthy, mature elite. Quant contacted suppliers of theatrical costumes who, thanks to advances in synthetic fibres and manufacturing techniques, could make opaque woven tights in the same colours as the skirts she designed. Up until the mid sixties stockings were still the only option and longer length stockings were initially produced to be worn with mini skirts. It was Quant though, who popularized the mini and the one very practical element that would make them somewhat wearable: tights. John Bates was one of the most prominent designers of the 1960s and memorably designed the iconic costumes worn by Diana Rigg in The Avengers. Courrèges had shown mini dresses in 1964, but they had not been well received. In fact both John Bates (under the name Jean Varon) and André Courrèges had shown mini lengths before Mary Quant. Mary Quant is usually the name cited as the inventor of the miniskirt. She tried to sue for copyright infringement but was unsuccessful. The firm was producing dresses with a design based on one of her paintings which was owned by the director of the firm. Riley denounced the way her art was being “vulgarized in the rag trade” and publicly expressed her ‘deep anger’ at the commercialisation of one of her paintings by a New York dress firm. Travelling up Madison Avenue she saw in the shop windows row upon row of dresses with designs lifted from her paintings. In February 1965, Riley was being driven from the airport to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While Vasarely thought that art should be for everyone and even collaborated with textile firms, Riley was dismayed at seeing her original work co-opted for commercial use without her permission. Op Art feature in The Daily Mail 9th June 1965 – Pictures: Gordon Carter, Drawing: May Routhīridget Riley and Victor Vasarely had polar opposite views on the commercialisation of their work.
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