Favourite 1960s outfit

Thanks Katy.

I used to work in Ludgate Hill in the 1960s near the derelict canals which are now rather upmarket ! I had to wear business type clothes then and dress up at the weekends. What fun it was.

When I was a student in Neuchatel in the late 60's I bought a tiny little yellow shirt dress and wondered why I kept getting my bottom pinched. When I came home again to Scotland my mother's eyebrows disappeared up into her hair and I wore the dress as a tunic over white trousers. Happy Days !
The one common sentiment from everybody's posts is that we all knew we were the bee's knees - oh for that confdence of youth now.

NanKate - Yes it was such fun. Everything we wore looked great! Those were the days. And Soutra - yes we did know we were the bees knees and we were!

It was so easy to run up one of those wee shift dresses! I had a favourite empire line pattern and was able to buy lovely cottons cheaply in Bazaar Street in Nairobi. You could also get them made for you inexpensively there. Those were the days!

I think we couldn't fail to be the bees knees because it was all so new. I do wish I had known how much of the bees knees I was! When I look back - I was gorgeous!

I loved the 60s. The clothes, the music, Ready, Steady, Go, the pop concerts, friends, parties, holidays abroad, walking from one job on Friday to another on Monday. Being 18 was so exciting - shame I didn't realise how fantastic it was at the time. I thought life was like that forever!

A babygro !!!!!

Ha, ha, I wish!

A thick cord orange trouser suit my sister passed down to me. She was really cool and looked like Brigitte Bardot. Her boyfriend had a white Sunbeam Alpine sports car and she shopped at Cathy McGowan and Jeff Banks boutique in Blackheath Village. I wore it with dangly red, white and blue (Pat! from Eastenders!) earrings. And black and white patent shoes! I thought I was the bees knees! I clearly had no colour coordination!

Oh those were the days though. Thin and carefree. The Beatles and my favourite band, The Stones!

I've gone all dreamy eyed! It might be the LSD!

Agree When, the old adage 'Youth is wasted on the young'.

So true!

My outfit of choice in 1966 was a purple roll neck skinny rib jumper worn with a Quant style orange check skirt with braces all cut from one piece of fabric. Natural tights /stockings and white lace-up boots! Classy!

annodomini - I had an empireline pattern too and used it several times.
I think one effort was orange, and one sage green.
My favourite dress was in some silk I bought in Singapore (we lived there 1966-8).
It was black with bright red poppies. And I had a peacock blue Thai silk evening dress.
Wish I could wear those colours now.

TriciaF I like the sound of your silk poppy dress. I had a shift that had bright blue poppies on a black background - not silk, but a silky-type synthetic. Quite slinky!

I count myself as very lucky because I started the 60's as a rocker in full skirts, starched petticoats, stockings + suspenders and 5" heels, went on into mod gear, usually trousers & tunics rather than mini, mini skirts (fat legs) and finished the decade as a hippy - long floaty dresses which doubled as nighties.

I had an 'outfit' comprising a woollen Black Watch Tartan, short skirt and cape suit, natural Aran sweater, with matching mitts and tammy, thick dark navy tights and kitten heeled, black patent and Black Watch tartan shoes. I THOUGHT I was the bees knees but must have looked like a reject from a tatty souvenir shop . Also remember a loose weave, long camel coat which had served me well until I wore it during a very wet long weekend in Edinburgh at the festival. It absorbed every drop of rain and grew longer and longer until it was trailing on the ground like Peter Pan's shadow. Eventually, I had to dump it in a bin and buy myself a £1 plastic anorak.

I agree with you kittylester. I always wanted to look like someone else really but when I look back at the photos, I too was gorgeous. Tall, slim, long legs, fine hair (but helped by hairpieces). Just the right shape for the '60s. You don't know what you've got till it's gone I suppose. And believe me it's gone.

I could be wrong but I think some of the 1960s styles are coming back into fashion again.
I used to like the styles of André Courrèges in the 60s, and his bright colours and geometric shapes are back in this spring.

Early 60s - I was very prim and proper but by the late 60s.....brushed cotton jeans, definitely not denim, and a skimpy, sleeveless t-shirts (any bright colour) and no bra. Lots of "things" round my neck and wrists and a corduroy cap for some reason. I do have photos but........

Tricia yes I've seen lots of the Courreges/Mondrian designs lately. My sister used to wear the ones with cut away shoulders and big blocks of colour, and I've seen them again in the last few weeks. My future DIL goes hunting for 60s vintage clothes and plans to get married in a 60s wedding dress.

I don't mind the getting fatter and losing [lost] looks etc but I do wish I had the joi de vivre that I had back then. The world seemed wonderful.That's what I miss.

My other fave dress [ everything was fave and fab] was black and white and geometric, high collar, sleeveless and very , very short. Worn with white or black tights and high black leather boots.Over this I wore a three quarter length blue/green suede jacket. Cool.I saved for the jacket by going to the boutique and putting some money 'down' each week for about 6 weeks until I had bought it.[You didn't get the garment until you had paid for it.]Oh, the anticipation.

Yes Rose I agree it was a wonderful time and would love to do it all again.

Shall we constrct a Time Machine and pop back ?

Oh the freedom when tights came in and we could dispense with nylons and suspenders belts! So my mini skirt with tights and white boots with a skinny rib top did it for me.
And Crimplene made it so easy to run up a little shift dress on the sewing machine.
Of course I was slimmer then.
Wonderful Mary Quant!
Oh and lots of black mascara and eye liner, Pan stick, and pale pale lipstick.
And a tiny handbag with a long strap which we dangled dolly bird style. Think Patti Boyd.
Those were the days my friend.

I remember having a purple (still my favourite colour) streak in my hair MrsMopp. I also wore the half wig on an Alice band.

I think I painted lower eyelashes on my skin, do you remember that make up fashion ?

What carefree wonderful times. I just loved the 60s.

I used to paint lower eyelashes on, a la Twiggy. Two pairs on the upper lids, white eyeliner on the lower lids to make my eyes look enormous, Leichner pots of foundation - there was a fad of copying movie make-up tricks to dramatise our look. What a lot of make-up we would go through. One girl I knew woud turn up at discos with a wig box containing hair pieces and big make-up case, hair still in rollers, then she would emerge from the ladies an hour later looking like a magnificent drag queen!

A mini dress with scooped neckline with a white frilly blouse underneath. Went on to wear some very weird things but had this dress when my mother was in control . still loved it though.

WhenIm64 I can smell the Leichner makeup now. I had an eye shadow from them that was turquoise with silver sparkle which I ladled on like cement !

Mary Quant taupe eyeliner - the first time I'd ever heard of that colour. Otherwise, Elizabeth Arden navy blue eyeliner and I seem to remember navy blue mascara.