Fashion Trends: Welcome to the early 60's!

[oggbashan]

This is 60s wear:

Bonneville

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

This is 60s wear:

Bonneville

Og

Well . . . yes.

 

[JagFarlane]

Nothing says "class" like a Jag.

Why thank you, thank you very much! [lol sorry couldn't resist]

 

[3113]

yeah, but all these trends have been trendy since last fall.

They started emerging with the incredibly popularity of the late 50's/early 60's Audrey Hepburn look the Gap went for two years ago; the ballet slippers were what really took off. But the pregnant teenager look derailed the development of the look for almost a year (appeared summer 2007 and went strong throughout this summer--believe me, none of these wonderful styles were around this summer!). That high-waisted, Empire look is also a throwback to the 60's but later, closer to the late 70's peasant look.

And though fashion was headed that way back in Fall 2007, it had not quite settled on it. Consider this look from Ralph Laruen Fall 2007 which looks like a French Resistance Fighter circa 1940 with it's military style jacket:

http://www.style.com/slideshows/fashionshows/F2007RTW/RLAUREN/RUNWAY/00200m.jpg

Here we have Lauren's 2008 style which keeps that baret and French feel, but we've clearly gone for a beatnik look with it's go-go style boots and mini-skirted red dress:

http://images.bloomingdales.com/is/image/BLM/products/1/optimized/926611_fpx.tif?wid=200&qlt=90,0&layer=comp&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bilin&op_usm=0.7,1.0,0.5,0&fmt=jpeg

So while you're correct that fashion has been drifting in this direction for about two years now, I'd argue that it's only gone full on early 60's now, undoubtedly thanks to the enduring popularity of the ballet slipper which requires certain 60's elements to go along with it (like skinny trousers and skirts that puff out from the waist), and, possibly, inspiration from the movie "Hairspray," though these fashions are leaning very much toward European 60's style over American.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Little of it looks 50s-60s to me, and I was there.

 

[oggbashan]

Little of it looks 50s-60s to me, and I was there.

But I was in London around Chelsea and the King's Road in the 1960s.

Some of it looks familiar but the pictured fashions don't have the shock factor that the original Mary Quant designs had.

I remember walking down the King's Road with a blonde young lady who was wearing a ten inch long Royal Stewart kilt. I was in my discreetly pin-striped city gent's suiting complete with bowler hat and carrying an OHMS briefcase.

We attracted attention from the tourists. I don't think it was my suit. I think it was her incredible length of leg because she was over six feet tall in bare feet and she was wearing heels.

Shortly afterwards we went to the Royal Opera House. There was some debate about whether we were correctly dressed. It wasn't her kilt. I wasn't wearing a tux.

Og

 

[Varian P]

Here ya go!

http://harryallen.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/mot61terr.jpg

You will be inviting us all on over to your bachelor pad, right?

Actually, this is more my style:
http://homepage.newschool.edu/~quigleyt/vcs/jameson/wright1.jpg

Or perhaps this one:
http://onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/images/450architecture30_01brandes.jpg

In any case, everyone do please join me for martinis and fondu. The jazz band will be leaving around one or two, and then we'll see who ends up with whose keys, and the real fun will begin.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

No, Varian, you don't want Falling Water, trust me on this. The original owners only lived in it for a year before they gave up in disgust with the constant noise and endless damp. It fell into ruin afterwards for very good reason and now only exists as a museum because of the silly cult that has grown up around Frank Lloyd Wright. He was among the best, the very best as a designer but his houses are unliveable and his furniture is a textbook example of what discomfort should feel like.

I'll take my beat fashion and beanbag furniture and install them in a Craftsman style home, all redwood and riverrock, thanx, and we'll put the fondue pot onto the Green Brothers coffee table while we sit around and groove to the Modern Jazz Quartet or possibly David Brubeck.

 

[Varian P]

No, Varian, you don't want Falling Water, trust me on this. The original owners only lived in it for a year before they gave up in disgust with the constant noise and endless damp. It fell into ruin afterwards for very good reason and now only exists as a museum because of the silly cult that has grown up around Frank Lloyd Wright. He was among the best, the very best as a designer but his houses are unliveable and his furniture is a textbook example of what discomfort should feel like.

I'll take my beat fashion and beanbag furniture and install them in a Craftsman style home, all redwood and riverrock, thanx, and we'll put the fondue pot onto the Green Brothers coffee table while we sit around and groove to the Modern Jazz Quartet or possibly David Brubeck.

But we still get to have the key party, right?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

But we still get to have the key party, right?

But of course! And all the keys have to be pulled out blindfolded. No cheating, now, or playing favorites.

*puts his own keys on the bottom since Varian will choose last. Not cheating, you understand, just jiggling the odds just a bit.*

 

[3113]

the very best as a designer but his houses are unliveable and his furniture is a textbook example of what discomfort should feel like.

I have to disagree. I've toured two of his houses (both of which I'd happily live in!) and sat on the furniture he designed in those houses. There's a marvelous "origami" style chair that's one of the most comfortable I've ever sat on. I also stayed with friends in one FLW designed house for a week: the Schwartz house, in Two Rivers, WI.

What I found was that the bedrooms were comfortable, but pretty much just for sleeping; the reason for this is clear--FLW didn't believe people should stay in their rooms all day. He believed people should congregate and interact; so he made it more inviting for everyone to go out into the "recreation" room/Lounge. This vast area, a huge portion of the house, is large and open enough to allow for very long couches, two of them, as well as the built in benches. We all hung out in that room, coming and going, curling up with the pillows, sometimes with blankets in our pj's, talking, reading, nibbling on baked goods. It was great, and by no means uncomfortable.

Here's a pic of it:
http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Wisconsin/schwartz_house/DSCN4904_Schwartz_recroom.jpg
http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Wisconsin/schwartz_house/DSCN4926_Schwartz_recroom.jpg

What was extra cool was that everywhere you looked there were little desks that you could sit and work at--upstairs, downstairs. Heaven for a writer with a laptop. And the surrounding windows allowed for a constant, peaceful and relaxing view of the river and the changing light.

IMHO, FLW houses may not be the most livable, but it's bullshit to say that they're unlivable--that's as bad an extreme as going the other way and refusing to see any fault at all with his designs.

Here's the website for renting out the Schwartz house if you're interested Varian: Schwartz House

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I have to disagree. I've toured two of his houses (both of which I'd happily live in!) and sat on the furniture he designed in those houses. There's a marvelous "origami" style chair that's one of the most comfortable I've ever sat on. I also stayed with friends in one FLW designed house for a week: the Schwartz house, in Two Rivers, WI.

What I found was that the bedrooms were comfortable, but pretty much just for sleeping; the reason for this is clear--FLW didn't believe people should stay in their rooms all day. He believed people should congregate and interact; so he made it more inviting for everyone to go out into the "recreation" room/Lounge. This vast area, a huge portion of the house, is large and open enough to allow for very long couches, two of them, as well as the built in benches. We all hung out in that room, coming and going, curling up with the pillows, sometimes with blankets in our pj's, talking, reading, nibbling on baked goods. It was great, and by no means uncomfortable.

Here's a pic of it:
http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Wisconsin/schwartz_house/DSCN4904_Schwartz_recroom.jpg
http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Wisconsin/schwartz_house/DSCN4926_Schwartz_recroom.jpg

What was extra cool was that everywhere you looked there were little desks that you could sit and work at--upstairs, downstairs. Heaven for a writer with a laptop. And the surrounding windows allowed for a constant, peaceful and relaxing view of the river and the changing light.

IMHO, FLW houses may not be the most livable, but it's bullshit to say that they're unlivable--that's as bad an extreme as going the other way and refusing to see any fault at all with his designs.

Here's the website for renting out the Schwartz house if you're interested Varian: Schwartz House

Okay, from a furniture builders point of view I have to admit that I overstated. His Prairie houses are lovely to look at and, from what you experienced, quite comfortable. The houses he built in the West, Hollyhock being the most notorius, are an entirely different matter. They were built later in his career and by then the man was so full of himself it bordered on the comedic and his attitute towards his costumers is better left unsaid.

I still maintain that anyone who sits in one of his chairs for any length of time will be one unhappy camper.

 

[Varian P]

But of course! And all the keys have to be pulled out blindfolded. No cheating, now, or playing favorites.

*puts his own keys on the bottom since Varian will choose last. Not cheating, you understand, just jiggling the odds just a bit.*

Much smoother than my clumsy plan of taping your key to my palm.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Much smoother than my clumsy plan of taping your key to my palm.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii177/1volupturary_manque/thLoveEyes.gif

 

[JagFarlane]

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii177/1volupturary_manque/thLoveEyes.gif

Be careful, ya might just give da poor bear a stroke

 

[Varian P]

Be careful, ya might just give da poor bear a stroke

I just assumed the bear would enjoy being stroked. No?

 

[JagFarlane]

I just assumed the bear would enjoy being stroked. No?

-chuckles- Oh no...it has to be more than one...it has to be many

 

[3113]

They were built later in his career and by then the man was so full of himself it bordered on the comedic and his attitute towards his costumers is better left unsaid.

The Guggenheim is comedic? Possibly. However, I have to say that if I knew that I would achieve fame in the later half of my life, with one of my greatest, most inspirational achievements still to come in the sunset of my years, and not already behind me, never to be matched again, I'd be one of the happiest writers on earth.

For achieving that alone, I'd admire FLW.

As for his eccentricities and ego, if you think that is relevant in judging his achievements, then I think it only fair to put every artist/writer/architect that you admire under the microscope as well. I'm sure there's plenty, from their egos to their eccentricities, to allow us to dismiss their achievements just as easily.

Can we start with Heinlein?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The Guggenheim is comedic? Possibly. However, I have to say that if I knew that I would achieve fame in the later half of my life, with one of my greatest, most inspirational achievements still to come in the sunset of my years, and not already behind me, never to be matched again, I'd be one of the happiest writers on earth.

For achieving that alone, I'd admire FLW.

As for his eccentricities and ego, if you think that is relevant in judging his achievements, then I think it only fair to put every artist/writer/architect that you admire under the microscope as well. I'm sure there's plenty, from their egos to their eccentricities, to allow us to dismiss their achievements just as easily.

Can we start with Heinlein?

Heck yeah! Ignore Picasso because I don't admire much more than about 1% of his work but Matisse? Who left his family apparently unsupported to go live on the Mediterranean? Yup. Bonnard, who was an artistic god but a domestic doormat? Yup. And how about Magritte, who had the most astounding artistic imagination in the 20th Century but actually believed in Marxism. Definitely a yup, there.

Or poor Mark Twain, plagued by what has to be bipolar disorder . . . the list goes on and on.

Should I ever get to New York, I'll visit the Gug for its acclaim. Until then I reserve judgement. But I'll bet if it had been built in California it would have been turned to rubble. What I can't understand is how he managed to build the most earthquake-proof hotel built to the date of its construction only to have his California houses need total rebuilding to prevent collapse. What was he thinking?