To those of you who were young in the 60’s - was it really ‘swinging’?

silverlining I never bought a Biba dress, nor Mary Quant Ginger group. Apart from the price, the Biba dresses were shoddy and badly made. I saw some Ginger Group dresses in a department store, they were £8.00. out of my price range.

Comparative wagess depend on age, job and year. In 1961, I had a holiday job in a department store and was paid £5.50 a week. By 1965 with a degree and work experience I was paid £16.00 a week, but needed to pay for my rent and food out of that.

Teenager in the 60s, you Left School at 16 unless you were brainy. Loved the music , fashion, more freedom, more safety, lived in small village, weekly dances, with a great band. Loved Twiggy, Dusty, Beatles, parents brought a Dansette record player to share with siblings, Brenda Lee Rocking around the Christmas Tree, first record. A simple life, wages were commiserate with the times, when 16 in 65, as a cadet nurse, 4.00 per weekwages after lodge taken out, wish I’d kept those pay slips. Dance night at the local theatre, friends and I were taken back to Nurses home by the Yardbirds, all above board no funny business. Who would have thought it, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton giving us a lift home. Never realised until much later. What good times they were, for me anyway.

She was so stylish in her beautiful nipped in waist dresses and gorgeous Duster Coats, and always with gloves.

I had a duster coat! Was I stylish?

At 18 I was working as a temp secretary in Manchester. I loved every minute, different work weekly, unless the company wanted you to stay. If it was interesting, I did, otherwise, off to a new place. I worked for a Jewish firm of solicitors for a while, including the period of the 6 day war. I’d read the Leon Uris novels and other information on the Holocaust but working in the company during that period was fascinating, widened my horizons, my knowledge, encouraged me to learn more
Great time to be young and in Manchester. Worked for a debt collecting agency, got politicised about poverty.
Medical work. The city was buzzing, young people everywhere. Piccadilly Gardens the place to eat your lunch

I had a great time. Saw a different band each week in the dance hall or concert hall: Animals, Manfred Mann, Hollies, Searchers, Merseybeats, Herman's hermits, Steam Packet [Rod Stewart in that], Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana, Beatles, Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina Turner, Gene Pitney, Stones etc. etc. and got most of their autographs.
I was a Mod...all leather and suede coats and hush puppies. Boys rode the scooters and wore parkas and rode to seaside towns on bank holidays. Girls would follow by hitch hiking! We would try and gate crash parties at the weekends and drink cider and eat Wimpy burgers on Sundays.
Everything seemed vibrant and new...the hairstyles, the clothes, furniture too with the emerging Habitat shops/Terence Conran designs.
Jobs were easy to get, if you didn't like one you just left and got another within the week.
However no drugs offered to me or anyone I knew. My husband was a Mod too and by 1970 we'd been married for 3 years, had bought a house [extremely sparcely furnished] and had our first son. It was a great decade personally.

The closest I came to drugs was taking a dose of caffeine tablets, when exaams were pressing and I was worrying about revision. The amount I took was within the recommended dose but I began to feel sucidal. I tried to make myself sick, and I began to feel better but then was so wired on caffeine I didn't sleep for 24 hours. I was never tempted to try anything stronger.

Someone I worke with used to take uppers and downers at the weekend and we all thought he was pretty stupid to do it.

Born in 1955 so watched on from afar as it were. All aunts had the beehive, the black eyeliner, mini skirts/dresses and every weekend there was a party where us young uns were put to bed, but crept down and sat in the stairs and watched! The music was fantastic. The Stones, Beatles, Ton Jones, Chubby Checker and, later, all the Tamla Motown. They all had low paying jobs but family ties meant everything, although poor, they all seemed to love and live life. We had a good life I think. Today, we’d be classed as being in poverty.

Forgot to add, my aunt worked in a factory that produced the Mary Quant make up, we used to get loads! The silver tubes with the black flowers on. Plus good old Rimmel.

How about the mascara which we put in by spitting on a little brush.

Don't forget Long John Baldry!
Once seen, never forgotten and the inspiration for other musicians who came later such as Reg Dwight.

silverlining48

How about the mascara which we put in by spitting on a little brush.

Oh yes, it came in a little block

I first wore mascara when I was 15 when we had a dance at the Boys' Grammar School. Boys sat at one end of the hall, girls at the other until the boys plucked up enough courage to ask the girls for a dance.

I remember that mascara. Spit on the block, rub the brush in it and cake it on! ?

I was 19 when I first experienced London and the swinging south. Good job, good prospects and I remember it with huge affection. Didn't manage to find the drugs or crazy sex scene which I'm (now) hugely grateful for. Daft fashions and just fun, fun, with minimum responsibility is how it was for me.

Block mascara. I was an expert at separating my lashes with a needle ? My mum was the first person to pluck my mono brow.

I was an art student from 1963 to 67 so one of the coolest people on the planet We were having a totally brilliant time. I knew one or two people who had tried purple hearts but hadn't liked them, and I knew someone who knew someone who was using heroin. When Biba moved to Church Street Kensington I was up there most Saturdays. Some of the dresses were as little as £3.50 and my grant was £5 a week so you do the maths! My mother had worked in fashion and she thought Biba clothes were beautifully cut. If you hand washed them carefully they lasted for ages. Mary Quant make up was a revolution - all that shading and shaping. I had a Mary Quant dress for my 21st birthday. It had been photographed in French Vogue - it didn't get better than that!

I remember Cathy McGowan showing girls how to sit whilst wearing a mini skirt without showing one's knickers.

Loved every minute of the 1960s. The music, which I still love, the clothes - had a fab navy mini dress with lime green cuffs. My favourite shoes were green sling backs with black toe caps.

I wore Max Factor foundation, lots of eye make up, pale lipstick. Back combed my blonde hair.

I went out every weekend with friends dancing, occasionally a Chinese meal as the set menu was cheap.

kittylester

I remember Cathy McGowan showing girls how to sit whilst wearing a mini skirt without showing one's knickers.

I always wanted hair like Cathy McGowan.

Alas mine was too wavy/curly and blow drying or straighteners hadn't been invented.

I used a safety pin Meryl!!!?

Mine were probably clumpy!

I was only a child but a regular visitor to Carnaby Street. Such an exciting place. I remember buying a neon yellow badge .. Save Water, Bath with a Friend

I don't think I was totally aware of its meaning!

It was the only time my hair has ever been fashionable! Dark brown, dead straight with a Cathy McGowan fringe.

The problem in those days wasn't so much showing your knickers but trying to wear a very mini skirt with stockings and suspenders. We were so pleased when tights appeared in the shops.

I started the 60's as a 10 year old + 1 day and by the end, my life had turned 360° twice over.

Hated the bullying at school. I was tall. Left school at 16 and started work as a typist. Started to make my own clothes as I loved fashion. Loved the freedom work brought.
Age of 17 - had my first holiday abroad (Majorca) with a friend.
Loved music and dancing - disco every weekend, which was in a small room above the local pub. Soul music blasting out.

Left home at 18 and moved to Cambridge, 150 miles away. Rented a flat with same friend, whose sister lived close by.

Married at 19 and pregnant as 1969 drew to a close.

The swinging sixties was over for me.

Born in 47, I had a wonderful time in the centre of Liverpool in the 60s. Music, the Cavern, art, poetry. Roger McGough, Willie Russell, Adrian Henri all part of the gang.
However, I don’t think girls were sleeping around that much, whatever Jilly Cooper says. Maybe her hymen was popping, but mine wasn’t or many of my friends.

I had an absolute ball- and then moving to London when I was 19 was just a ma zing.