A lecture/seminar to discuss the
changes in the 1960s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN3GbF9Bx6E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz-UvQYAmbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_meK4tdU8Xk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

Material Culture Analysis

Art, Philosophy and Aesthetics

Principles in Aesthetics - The ideal i.e. Beauty,
Taste, Truth, Morality, Judgement, Pleasure and
Un-pleasure

David Jules Prown’s Method outlined in ‘Mind and
Matter. An Introduction to Material Culture and
Methodology (1982)

3 Stages - Description, Deduction and
Speculation
Areas to be covered: The Decade of Change 1960s
Aim: To understand why design matters from the changes within the 60s
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this lecture, you will be able to identify key movements and the
effect it had on design.
How people reacted to the changes of the 1960s decade.
How?
What Happened?
When?
Why?
Who?
 Many
people look back on the 60's and purely
see drugs, war, and social descent, but it was
a period that represented so much more. The
60's was a time of the peace movement,
social rebellion and the quest for freedom of
expression. The 60's had it's own style that
still often appears in todays fashions.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2009/jan/2
3/nixon-on-film
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lyndon_B._J
ohnson_-_Official_White_House_Portrait.jpg
https://artsenglish.wikispaces.com/Vimee+Motown
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/444871269415481310/
It symbolized a new day: its energetic product reflected
the striving toward progress and optimism of a longoppressed people and the nation as a whole.
‘The Sound of Young America’.
In February
1965, the
Vietcong
attacked
American
air bases
and killed
American
soldiers.
President
Johnson
declared
war against
North
Vietnam.
In 1962 the
Cuban Missile
Crisis was a
part of the
Cold War.
Cuba and
Russia are
communist
countries.
Therefore
Russia
decided to
set up
nuclear bomb
aimed at
America.
https://cherrieswriter.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/p25.jpg
Nikita Khrushchev
Che Guevara
http://www.aptv.org/ulphoto/wpt_1347484968.jpg
Kennedy
 Legacy
of the 60’s has been important for
the development of society and culture in
Britain
 Rediscovery
 It
of poverty
was marked by pop music, rockers, flower
power, the Vietnam war and the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament
1957: Britons 'have never
had it so good'
The British Prime Minister,
Harold Macmillan, has made
an optimistic speech telling
fellow Conservatives that
"most of our people have
never had it so good".
Macmillan painted a picture
of Britain's economy while
urging wage restraint and
warning inflation was the
country's most important
problem of the post-war
era.
Harold Macmillan bought
down the rate of income
tax by almost a shilling in
the pound in the budget
of 1959.
Key features of the
new era
•
•
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/ne
wsid_3728000/3728225.stm
He reminded his audience
not to forget "rationing,
shortages, inflation, and
one crisis after another in
our international trade"
under a Labour
government.
Increased production in
major industries such as
steel, coal and motor cars
had led to a rise in wages,
export earnings and
investment
•
•
http://img.dooyoo.co.uk/GB_EN/orig/0/1/6/3/4/163411.
jpg
Critique of the
‘Establishment’.
The beginnings of
the working class
rise to careers in
the theatre and
BBC, publication
and the Design
Industry.
Encouragement of
more people into
University ,
Teaching and other
sorts of training.
Period of economic
growth and
leadership in
manufacture.
http://www.the59clubla.com/?author=1&paged=10
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/modsandrockers3.html
During the 1960s the look evolved and
many Teddy boys turned in to rockers or
more insultingly, "greasers". As the
effect of post-World War II rationing
lessened there was increased affluence;
young people could buy motorbikes and
were heavily influenced by the influx of
music and film from America.
http://imgarcade.com/1/the-rockers-1960s/
http://www.3quarksdaily.com
It became a British youth
subculture movement. It was
focused on fashion and music.
This where young people
dressed in "modern" ways that
were not common at the time.
As mod teens and young adults
began using their disposable
income to buy stylish clothes,
the first youth-targeted
boutique clothing stores opened
in London in the Carnaby Street
and King's Road districts.
www.pinterest.com
http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mods-vs-rockers.jpg
The fashion war of
the 60’s was
between the Mods
(neat dress/Italian
scooters) and
Rockers (leather
gear/roaring bikers)
in Britain.
They fought each
other on the
beaches at Hastings
on August Bank
Holiday 1964
The Mod revolution
enabled working
class youths with
disposable incomes
(working in a bank
or a shop) to wear
sharp Italian suits
with narrow lapels
and to take their
street identity into
the working
environment.
The film Quadrophenia was made in 1979 and is filmed
around the weekend in August 1964 in Hastings and
celebrates some of the style and music of the period.
Lambretta was a
line of motor
scooters
originally
manufactured in
Milan, Italy, by
Innocenti.
Vespas were a Italian
brand and had their
largest global
market in the 60’s.
The appeal of the
Vespa to the styleconscious mods was
the fuel efficiency
and the weather
protection. Their
counterparts, the
rockers rode classic
British motorcycles
and needed to wear
leathers against the
elements.
Lambretta was
an iconic vehicle
of the 1960s
when they
became the
adopted vehicle
of choice for the
UK youth-culture
known as Mods.
http://www.lauramacij.com/2014/09/1960s-fever.html
Mods would modify
their Vespas, adding
lights, mascots,
accessories, various
racks and crash bars.
A new lifestyle
evolved in the UK,
with thousands
attending scooter
rallies.
It was the golden age for style
gurus. Rapidly rising through
fame through the medium of
boutique or salon.
John Stephan outside The MOD
MALE shop catering for suit and
scooter clientele in July 1964.
Two of the biggest names
in Swinging London
fashion…
Vidal Sassoon gives Mary
Quant a cut.
Harold Wilson presenting the
Show Business of the Year
awards to the Beatles in 1964.
After 13 years in
opposition, the
Labour
Party gained
power in the 1964
British General
Election,
promoting the
image of being in
touch with modern
times.
Backed by
their
manager
Brian
Epstein,
The Beetles
invaded the
states in
1946.
Writers, artists,
and performers
all became
involved in the
rising Western
culture of
protest. Folk
singers took the
lead, among
them.
Dylan’s
The
Times
They Are
aChangin’
became
an
anthem
of
protest.
Carnaby Street and the
Kings Road.
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=tBq7icqGxB4
‘There really was a vacuum in those days.
There was simply nothing for young
people. The older generation were dying
to revert to pre-war ways, but… we
wanted to go forward, to do something
new. The art schools were the great
forcing house of talent not just clothes but
music….design, food, lifestyle, politics and
everything’. Mary Quant in Gardiner J (1999) from the bomb to the
beatles: the changing face of post-war Britain 1945 -1965, London, Collins
and Brown p134
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_enGB488GB488&q=paco%20rabanne%201960s
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z=1T4ADRA_enGB488GB488&q=Mary
%20Quant%201960s
A boutique called Granny Takes a Trip had opened its doors in December
1965. Behind the boutique were graphic designer Nigel Weymouth and
his girlfriend Sheila Cohen.
Her collection constituted a large part of early stock at Granny's - mostly
second hand Victoriana and oriental garments. Garments had to be
either colourful or unusual or both.
The name of the boutique was giving away its policy - 'Granny'
symbolized the influence of the past, and 'Trip' , a colourful world of the
rapidly growing hippie movement and its drug of choice - LSD
Probably the most iconic garment made by Granny Takes a Trip - William
Morris chrysantenum print jacket as worn by John Lennon
George Harrison wearing William Morris
Golden Lily pattern jacket from GTAT, 1967
http://dandyinaspic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/granny-takes-trip.html
Granny Takes a Trip jacket from 1967. It is
made of William Morris 'bachelor's button'
pattern, which was first produced by Morris &
Co. in 1892.
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http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/article6467688.ece/ALT
ERNATES/w460/bridget+riley
Foale and Tuffin used Op Art
influences along with Mary Quant.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/yeUXPaeu0f0/TmO0PeioDXI/AAAAAAAAAhA/MisGhG7Sx2w/s1600/1.j
pg
Edie
Sedgwick
Known as
Andy
Warhol’s
superstar
http://www.lauramacij.com/2014/09/1960s-fever.html
Julie
Newmar
actress
• Big earings
• Pale lipstick
• Heavy eye makeup
1960s Furniture Design.
Furniture design in the 1960s developed
from new techniques including injection
moulded plastic, polycarbonates, fibre
glass, water filled plastics. It was
bright, colourful, space saving (as in the
Robin Day chairs above) or statement
making like Eero Aarnios’s Ball Chair
(above right). It was also playful and
child like. Levels of chairs and seating
were much lower and closer to the
ground. The interior space was for fun
and pleasure.
Domestic microwave ovens were cutting
edge technology in the swinging sixties.
Biba was established by Barbara
Hulanicki in 1964 as small catalogue
business for young girls in
Kensington.
She then established a shop and later
moved into the old Derry and Tom’s
department store in High Street,
Kensington – where the original Art
Deco features of the building were
incorporated into her graphics and
shop fitting as well as part of the
package design. An iconic 60s
fashion retail outlet this lasted until
the 1970s.
http://www.american-buddha.com/a-acid21.jpg
Flower power
and the
hippie
movement at
large in the
United States
reached in
1967, with a
march on the
Pentagon.
More than
100,000
people
gathered in
Washington
D.C. for that
peaceful
Vietnam War
protest
Celia Birtwell
Zandra Rhodes
Celia Birtwell and Zandra Rhodes were
both significant designers of the late
1960s. They used textile screen printing
techniques to create their fabrics.
Zandra Rhodes then allowed the fabric
print to dictate the shape of the final
garment.
Celia Birtwell formed a partnership with
Fashion Designer Ossie Clark who
reintroduced the bias cut of the1930s
with soft crepe fabrics with
contemporary motifs. Both designers
used the flowing unstructured styles of
the hippies to inform their collections.
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http://a.abcnews.go.com
http://www.pophistorydig.com