Fashion comes about as a reaction to what is happening politically, musically and artistically within the world and its success is primarily based on how big of an impact it can make at the time, creating social movements and trends that grouped people together. The youth played a big part in the movement of fashion from the late 50's onwards as they challenged pre war ideals and created their own protests and rebellions through what they wore, fashion was a powerful form of expression and it tied together most forms of art in its wake.
Out with the old in with the new is the way i would describe what happened in the late 50's and early 60's, and it was the youth culture of the time that fully embraced this and became much the driving force for the way fashion reestablished itself. Pop icons held the forefront of influence for the younger generation and their music itself was a force of influence to be reckoned with. They set the trends and styles for their followers, a great example of this is 'The Beatles' and their mod fashion which became massive in 1963 but this was not just a fashion it became a lifestyle. Controversy often broke out between different social groups, the people believed so heavily in their new rebellious identity that they formed social groups based on their fashion and music likes and were even prepared to fight for them along with their political agenda. The most important part of this for the new generation was that it differentiated them from their predecessors, fashion split the ages and teenagers were proud to be teenagers. fighting against the oppression of their parents they sought jobs to pay for their freedom of expression, creativity and provocative ideas.
Some pre war designers found it difficult to move with this time and the youth had fresh new designers taking the stage, all was contemporary of its time and with the youths bagging high paid jobs they became a force to be reckoned with, lots of designers saw this benefit and moved with the times in order to cater to the youth uprising.
More exotic notions began to breach the fashion front, ethnic, Egyptian, pop art and the space race all found their way into fashion via the politics of the time. The race for men in space and then man landing on the moon created a rupture of futuristic designs that looking back make people look like corny super heros nether the less it was an important movement in fashion and i believe it plays part in the influences of today modern high fashion wear. Mowtown music and uprise of Michael jackson and political speaker Martin Luther King promoted the ethnic look, this look didn't take on the rebellious ideals of other current fashions it prouded itself in being smart, stylish and well groomed. Pop art also became an important contender in the influences of fashion design and clothes were made taking influence from contemporary art work by painters such as Andy Warhol and this I believe is because fashion was very steadily becoming a form of art and expression itself. The psychedelic explosion in the late 60's for me clarifies fashion as expressive, it created the 'hippy' look which spread world wide and became high fashion. This look was based around the expression of free love and care for the world, it denied the need for war and sexism concentrating on the world as a community, this obviously meant preaching against the vietnam war and in hindsight the strength of this movement among others collectively lead to america retreating from vietnam.
This close link between fashion and politics highlights for me its unique ability to always be current, it reacts quickly to compliment or compromise a movement or issue that occurs in the surrounding world, it acts as a catalyst and reaction to the formation of new social groups and ideals that people quickly adopt because of the popularity it carries. Fashion promoted the idea that anyone could dress up, that all young people could dress and consider themselves as performers and 'do what they want' it gave teenagers their independence.
