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I grew up in NYC during the 1960's, and always had to wear a dress when we went into Manhattan. I remember being facinated by the cool hippies, with their long hair and brightly colored clothing. I'd come home, and tell my mother about the clothing other people wore, and she would roll her eyes. I guess the Bohemian influence captured me when I was around the age of nine.
The Hippie/Bohemian influence never left after it arrived in the 1960s (maybe even earlier with the Beatniks) . I remember in grade school in the early '70s kids were dressing like little adults with fringe vests and boots, bell bottoms, maxi coats, ponchos. It is kind of funny seeing old school pictures. Flash forward to today and you see the Bohemian influence in the fashions the hipsters are wearing, it's like full circle. I think they call Bohemian "Boho" now. I actually think fashion hasn't changed as dramatically since the 1970's, and it's been 40 years since then. Now, consider 1935 and add the same 40 years to 1975 - how dramatic a change in fashion can you come across than that? Not only in fashion, but you see it in car design. You really can't tell the difference between today's fashion and 40 years ago, well mostly. We don't look like we just walked off a Saturday Night Fever set.
Talitha Getty is the epitome of Boho-chic. Google her images and especially the one on that rooftop in Marrakesh - that pic looks like it could be in Vogue today, except it was taken 40 years ago. She passed away only a few years after this famous picture was taken, I think.
I grew up in NYC during the 1960's, and always had to wear a dress when we went into Manhattan. I remember being facinated by the cool hippies, with their long hair and brightly colored clothing. I'd come home, and tell my mother about the clothing other people wore, and she would roll her eyes. I guess the Bohemian influence captured me when I was around the age of nine.
I grew up then too, in Los Angeles. I had shorts and pants to play in, but if we went out mom dressed me in a dress. if it was to a 'nicer' place, it was one of the holiday dresses. It wasn't until around twelve that I stsrted insisting i pick my own clothes, and as I knew how to sew made my own skirts. I could get a vest and skirt out of a yard of material. i'm sure mom was shocked but knew I wasn't going to wear fluffy.
And we didn't have unisex playclothes, it was for boys and girls. Women wore slacks and men wore jeans.
They finally allowed girls to wear pants to school in 1969. We'd have jeans Friday but they still made girls wear dresses.
I have one fancy dress and a few skirts and hardly ever wear any of them now.
I do think people used to dress more nicely. My father who is in his late 70s always used to disprove when my siblings and I wore jeans as he was raised to think that jeans were work clothes only.
Whenever this topic arises, a personal experience from long ago comes to mind. It was the early 60's and my best friend and I took off early from work on a Friday afternoon and drove to Las Vegas for the weekend. After checking into a motel we walked around and ate dinner before deciding to do any serious gambling. We wore casual clothes, not jeans but wash and wear pants and sport shirts. In the Strip hotels we noticed that most of the men wore suits. The later it got the more this was obvious, and we became quite self conscious that we were out of place. After a short conference, we returned to our motel, put on suits and ties, which we had the forsight to bring with us, and went back out, fitting right in. For an example of the attitude and style of that era, view the 1960 Rat Pack version of Oceans Eleven.
I do think people used to dress more nicely. My father who is in his late 70s always used to disprove when my siblings and I wore jeans as he was raised to think that jeans were work clothes only.
Nowadays, this sort of enforcement of codes of behavior through disapproval would be called 'political correctness', except that those people who typically complain of such things invariably define 'political correctness' as "behavior codes - not counting those that I happen to like". And I think there's probably a large overlap of people who look with aghast at moden examples of what they call 'political correctness' who also lament the fact that the same enforcement mechanisms have waned for all manner of behavior that it used to strictly uphold - which simply demonstrates that the professed opposition to 'political correctness' is, in almost all instances, not a genuine belief that such societal mechanisms are wrong but merely a selective dislike of only certain targettings of said mechanisms.
Up until the early 1960s men always used to wear full-brimmed hats, such as fedoras, with their coats & ties. On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was bareheaded throughout his inauguration. That raised a few eyebrows, for sure, but it also signaled the "beginning of the end" for men's "dress hats".
And I agree that coats and ties were once common everyday wear. During the Victorian and Edwardian periods, a man who appeared outdoors in public without a hat, coat & tie was considered coarse and crude. This even spilled over into the American West, at least in the more "established" towns & cities. As an example the costuming in the 1993 movie Tombstone was quite accurate.
One important thing is that clothes were a lot better made "way back then". People didn't own nearly the amount of attire that we do today, plus a lot more people sewed and mended what they could. Dressing appropriately to go to church, shopping, or even go out in public was not only the self-respecting thing to do, their better quality clothes probably lasted longer.
San Francisco definitely had a reputation for the general populace to dress well. Over time that changed radically. Today, I see people wearing stuff out in public that I wouldn't wear at home.
Nowadays, this sort of enforcement of codes of behavior through disapproval would be called 'political correctness', except that those people who typically complain of such things invariably define 'political correctness' as "behavior codes - not counting those that I happen to like". And I think there's probably a large overlap of people who look with aghast at moden examples of what they call 'political correctness' who also lament the fact that the same enforcement mechanisms have waned for all manner of behavior that it used to strictly uphold - which simply demonstrates that the professed opposition to 'political correctness' is, in almost all instances, not a genuine belief that such societal mechanisms are wrong but merely a selective dislike of only certain targettings of said mechanisms.
Phooey. A parent managing the behavior of his children is not "political correctness," it's "responsible parenting."
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