The 1960’s ushered in a new time for America.
The Cold war was at its dangerously growing peak, civil rights was becoming an increasingly focused on topic in the media and public, and the Vietnam war was raging on. Hippie culture was growing, and so to was national civil unrest.
However it also saw the coming of the space craze.
From the late fifties to decades beyond the U.S. would become engulfed in the world of the cosmos, aliens, and the unknown. The focus of the public became hyper-fixated on the idea that out there, somewhere, there were small green men running amuck. Don’t forget this was the space race ra, so it kind of made sense.
A plethora of films were made during the era of the space race, including the 1968 cultural-icon, 2001 A Space Race. The film, set in a technologically-advanced 2001 tells a story of self-discovery and the impending future, through bizarre and, at times, hard to understand plot lines.
That would explain why most cinema-goers who watched the film during its release were hippies high on LSD.
A year following the film’s release, the famous Apollo 11 moon landing would take place, broadcasted on national television all across the country. This not only solidified America’s place in the space race as victorious, but it also solidified the peak of U.S. cultural interest in space.
Alien sightings, abduction films, space toys, became cultural staples, leading to a desire for discovery over the next few decades. In fact, this era still has lasting affects until today.
But what many don’t know about the 1960’s focus on the world of space, is that it also affected fashion.
Every time a cultural shift takes place, fashion changes with it too. This can be seen in any nation at any point in time. For example, the shift of fashion from the 70’s to the 80’s was a very noticeable one.
It didn’t affect the world like 80’s fashion trends did however, but 60’s space fashion was certainly an eye-catching era of flashy, chrome-colored pieces that had a significant impact on modernist fashion. In fact, for the decades that followed the 60’s the futuristic style and the famous designers behind, big names like Pierre Cardin and Andres Courreges, would become more famous than ever before.
Elements such as the obscure nature of the fashion are really what brought it into the limelight. It was fancy, timeless, and modern. In today’s standards it feels almost luxurious in a sense.
The purposefully overdone makeup alongside the bizarre clothing shapes and straight angles made a big noise in the fashion world at that time. You can still see many of these elements being used today, especially in future-themed films such as Disney’s Tron.
A gallery of Pierre Cardin and Andres Courreges’ best pieces
