Wednesday 20 November 2013

"Book takes a look back at '60s style" says Caroline Dohack of the Columbia Tribune

In his most recent book, "Sixties Fashion: From Less is More to Youthquake" (Thames & Hudson, 2013), Jonathan Walford, who serves as curatorial director of the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge, Ontario, takes readers on a sartorial journey through the 1960s.

The book is not so much an anthology of looks. Rather, it's an analysis of how fashion fits and evolves within a specific time and space. "The goal for all my books is to put fashion in context. Fashion is not created in a vacuum by designers; it is a cultural expression, and there are many influences upon its creation and success. The journey fashion takes from inception to passé is a fascinating story I try to tell in all my books," Walford said in an email.

Here, Walford explains some of the factors that made the fashion of that decade so worthy of discussion.

Tribune: You start the book describing the sociopolitical setting of the 1960s. Specifically, you mention a climate of fear and anxiety, but also excitement and anticipation. How do you see this climate as having shaped attitudes toward propriety, aesthetics and consumerism?

Walford: The 1960s was fractured. There is no one fashion that represents the decade any more than there is one style of music that represents the decade. Anxieties about the present caused an interest in both the past and the future. The younger generation was not falling in line with the status quo — they were looking to reinvent the world for their generation. The mods in England were consumers with voracious appetites for novelty, and yet the hippies of California were anti-consumers who lived out of backpacks in communal flats. It was a revolution, and fashion reflected every aspect of that revolution.

Tribune: The '60s is credited with the death of fashion and the birth of style. To you, what is the distinction between the two, and what is it about the '60s that lent itself to this shift?

Walford: In context of the era, fashion in 1960 meant conformity, tradition and established notions of beauty and deportment. There were rules for how to dress and when to wear what, where and how. The rule books were tossed out the window in the 1960s, and like most times when rules change radically, the good is sometimes tossed out with the bad. However, from the fashion melee an appreciation for personal expression emerged. Creativity and the pursuit of uniqueness and self-identity brought about new ways of looking at clothes, and with it experiments in color, styles and accessories. Although the rules of fashion may no longer apply, those who are creative in their attire are applauded for their efforts. Unfortunately there is also a lot of "I don't give a damn" slovenliness around that has accompanied a lack of occasion in dress.

Tribune: One thing that stood out to me is your mention of the rise of certain fashion phenomena that remain prevalent and, some say, troubling today. These include consumers' desire for inexpensive, trendy clothing; a reliance on cheap manufacturing overseas; and increased use of synthetic materials that, while ubiquitous, we now understand to be harmful to the environment. What is the value in tracing the origins of these occurrences?

Walford: I think it's a matter of recognizing when the trend came about and why. Ready-to-wear manufacturers focused on the extremes of the market — affordability and prestige. I know I am not alone in questioning the validity of buying cheap clothes that don't benefit the environment or domestic economy. At the same time, it is very difficult to justify the value of a pair of $2,000 shoes or a $5,000 purse.

Tribune: Ultimately, what are you hoping readers will take away by understanding the trends of the 1960s and the forces behind them?

Walford: There is an old French saying, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," which means the more things change, the more they stay the same. Everything that happened in the 1960s to fashion is still with us, but it might be easier to recognize it when we look at the past.

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