1960s Retro Mod Dressing

Video Transcript

"So, in this series we've talked a lot about mod accessories or mod makeup and now I'm really going to give you the basics of mod clothing. The outfit I'm wearing now is really pretty standard. First of all, it's entirely black. Black was the really basic color, if you can call it a color, for mod style. Black and white, occasionally some red, but really almost exclusively black and white. And that's where the makeup comes in again with the black eyeliner and the white eye shadow. You didn't mix in colors. It was supposed to be serious. It was supposed to be businesslike and it went along, sort of, with the beat movement and reading poetry and sort of rebelling. Rebelling against the colors and the softness of the 1950's which had come before. Like I've mentioned, everything in the 60's is sort of reaction to what came before it. So in the early 60's it's a reaction to the colors and femininity of the 50's. We have the mini skirt which was a great uniform. Pretty much it's almost exclusively worn by mods. If you weren't wearing a min skirt, however, and the mod movement was the first to pioneer this you were going to wear slim cut pants. And this was really the first time we see women wearing pants in the United States. Before that it had seemed to be really controversial. So, I have a pair I'd like to show you. These right here. You can tell they're a slim cut pair of pants. They would hit right around the ankle. They're dark, once again, these are dark gray. And if you weren't going to wear a mini skirt you would wear these. And it really was the more controversial, more rebellious girls who would wear pants in the beginning of the 1960's. Because, before that you would want to be a lady and ladies simply did not wear men's clothing."