\u201cI think it is such a fun show; it\u2019s kind of a spoof on the time period. It\u2019s true that the supervisors were very much there and the girls looked fabulous, absolutely tremendous, but there are a lot of things [in the show] that would probably not go,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The swinging \u201960s<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christine.jpg\")
\n Glad all over.\u00a0 An early-\u201960s inspired dress from Top Shop, worn by Ottawa fashionista Christine Sirois.<\/p>\n
Pan Am<\/em> wasn\u2019t first, of course: The wildly popular Mad Men<\/em>, about advertising executives, is has been the first successful TV series to take viewers back to the early sixties.\u00a0 And this \u201960s resurgence isn\u2019t limited to TV. The era, both early and late \u201960s, has become a trend in contemporary arts and entertainment, most notably in fashion.<\/p>\n Runway shows for the past year have featured early-and-mod-\u201960s-inspired patterns and pieces. The venerable New York Times has covered fashion stories showcasing the revival of the early and late \u201960s. Local news media, like the Ottawa Sun, reported early-\u201960s-influenced pieces as fashion essentials for this past fall. Fashion magazines locally and abroad, like Vogue and LouLou Magazine, have featured mod-\u201960s-shaped dresses with a contemporary spin, incorporating patterns and fabrics from this decade.<\/p>\n But what is it about the 1960s that so appeals today? \u00a0Meckling says she thinks it\u2019s because the \u201960s were a more carefree era.<\/p>\n \u201cShows like Pan Am<\/em> are just fun. It\u2019s a fun thing and maybe people just need that kind of release,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Many experts agree that in today\u2019s anxious and conservative society, looking to a more idealistic, positive time provides comfort and inspiration. Anne Gorsuch, a history professor of University of British Columbia, shares this view.<\/p>\n \u201cIn so much of the world there\u2019s a sense of pessimism about the future; the \u201960s offers a moment where people thought they could do something, and they stepped up to do something,\u201d Gorsuch says.<\/p>\n ‘The \u201960s offers a moment where people stepped up to do something.’ \u2014 history professor Anne Gorsuch<\/p>\n The 1960s saw significant developments in such areas as civil rights and women\u2019s rights. Gorsuch says this is because the 1960s were an optimistic time, and people felt secure enough to push for change.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople felt empowered, and I don\u2019t think people generally feel that way right now,\u201d she says. So audiences today are nostalgic for the positive ideals of the \u201960s, and the entertainment and fashion industries have caught on.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Mad Men<\/em> hooked into this nostalgia,\u201d says Gorsuch. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of explaining who we are now. It\u2019s a period of romanticism, so it\u2019s attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n Elegance of the classic \u201960s\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The early \u201960s were a more traditional period than the later part of the decade, when people began to demand change, says Tracy Penny Light, a professor of history at the University of Waterloo. The early \u201960s in North America were conservative, politically and socially, and this attitude was reflected in fashion. The average middle-class woman wanted to emulate Jackie Kennedy\u2019s tidy and traditional look, says Penny Light.<\/p>\n Both the fitted, patterned dresses of the early \u201960s and<\/em> the mod dresses of the late \u201960s have appeared recently on runways and in Canadian fashion magazines. But it\u2019s not just in women\u2019s fashion: For example, Banana Republic recently launched a \u201960s-influenced line of men\u2019s suits, referencing Mad Men<\/em> in the ad campaign.<\/p>\n Finding true vintage or early-\u201960s-influenced pieces has become a popular trend, says Julie Yoo, owner of I Miss You Vintage Fashion Boutique in Toronto.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m seeing a lot of a return to the classic \u201950s and \u201960s even on TV,\u201d says Yoo, \u201cso we are seeing a real resurgence of that.\u201d Yoo says she thinks the allure of early \u201960s pieces is their charming, feminine, hourglass shape.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re great classic pieces. Clean and easy cuts, very feminine, figure flattering, easy to wear separates, and not fussy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Rebels with a cause<\/p>\n In Canada and the United States, the early \u201960s paved the way for significant social and political change later in the decade. With the election of Pierre Trudeau came more liberal ideals, and with them a society that wasn\u2019t afraid of living outside the box. Women were no longer restricted to pieces illustrating their femininity; instead they began to break tradition and wear mod dresses. Later, both men and women grew their hair and wore flared jeans, dispelling the traditional gender roles with their clothing.<\/p>\n The current revival of early and late \u201960s isn\u2019t limited to arts and fashion: Large-scale social movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring suggest that our modern era may be \u2014 more than just infatuated \u2014 inspired by this period.<\/p>\n Adam Green, a professor of history at the University of Ottawa, believes that people today find inspiration in the 1960s probably because it\u2019s the best example of a decade that rejected conservatism, restriction, and discipline.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the \u201960s for most people represent the complete opposite; it was the heyday of no boundaries, no rules,\u201d says Green. Green says societies cycle between liberal and conservative times. He says when society is leaning towards change this desire is represented in art first, because art is about pushing boundaries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a very small-C conservative time here, in the United States, the U.K., France and just about everywhere, but art is always ahead of its time. What happens in art today happens in society tomorrow,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stuff that we are seeing now in terms of fashion, music, and TV is an indication that maybe in five years or 10 years there will be another swing back into a more liberal time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Until then, we can live vicariously through our TV screens, pretending to be in the more simple and optimistic \u201960s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why the sudden spate of \u201960s retro, on TV screens and fashion runways? More than just our nostalgia for a decade of hope, say experts, the trend may predict big social changes around the corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":137,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6785,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions\/6785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mad-Men-BR.jpg\")
\n A method to their madness. Retailers like Banana Republic, above<\/em>, are tapping into \u201960s nostalgia.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sarah.jpg\")
\n Obnoxious orange from the outrageous\u00a0\u201960s. Ottawa fashion lover Sarah Van Den Berg in a\u00a0late-\u201960s dress, a\u00a0vintage find.<\/p>\n