Style dabate: 60s vs 70s

It's amazing how these two decades continue to inspire designers and style mavens endlessly. When one thinks of the 60s, Brigitte Bardot‘s beehive and Mary Quant’s geometric prints come to mind immediately. Be it the cat-eyed Twiggy in a trapeze-shaped mini or Mia Farrow’s 'mod' heavily-loaded bottom lashes in the cult classic Rosemary's Baby. Even today, the decade stays relevant - be it Hermès’ ‘Birkin’ bag or Dior’s interpretation of Edie Sedgwick’s Factory Girl style.

If 60s celebrated culottes, geometric prints and boxy silhouettes, 70s raised a toast to flirty floral dresses, exaggerated collars, flared pants. It's worth mentioning Love Story actress Ali MacGraw modelling a printed bell-sleeved Ossie Clark dress, complete with tights and tall leather boots. In recent years, Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent recontextualised the flirty dress with a va va voom spin. Another pin-up sensation was Bianca Jagger who lived it up in 1977 in an off-the-shoulder, ground-grazing white number with tiered ruffles and lantern sleeves. It was interesting to see how Roberto Cavalli remodelled it by pairing it with an embellished chambray shirt. Over to the designers, who happily revisit their favourite inspiration from these decades...

60s

Ashish Soni

When one thinks of this era, the strongest visual, which comes to mind is of a group of ladies in chiffon baggy dresses, swaying carefree to the music. Even if you're a 90's child, you wish, you were born back then.

According to me, 40s were stronger than the 50s, 60s were more impactful than the 70s and 80s were powerful than 90s. Each of these decades gave birth to a strong trend, which added to the richness of the ever-expanding style lexicon. Of course, there were reasons for this, for example, 50s came right after the war and the 60s were all about asserting the freedom of expression, which later got lost in the 70s. Sixties gloried thanks to an alchemy of the Woodstock Festival and the flower power. The decade's game-changing factors were the invention of lurex and polyester, which resulted in the formation of boxy shapes. Stripes and checks were reinterpreted to bold proportions and mini became the biggest talking point as it gave the illusion of longer legs. The conservatives weren't happy with this new-found cry for the freedom of expression taking the world of the arts, cinema and fashion by storm.  

Monochromes or solid colours became a major runway story. Missoni which was very popular in 60s came in patterned pieces like sweaters, which was often teamed with a pair of monochrome trousers.

Also, there was so much black in the 50s with French couturiers sticking to the classic hue, 60s were all about making a statement and that's when Paco Rabanne invented the chainmail dress. Also, this was time when fashion predictions actually started happening.

Not just fashion, even interior designers keep revisiting the decade from time to time. Not surprisingly a lot is borrowed from this rich period in terms of interiors and space references and especially holiday homes. The 60's music movement was cult and it still continues to be the ultimate inspiration point for music and art junkies across the board. The very idea of modernity was born in the 60s, when one says, 'I'm trying to make it modern', one's deriving from this era. India was more fashionable then - be it the short kurtas, emergence of bouffant, boot-leg trousers, the Dev Anand collar or flared pants. Also, India was trying to get back on its feet, especially the middle class.

When I think of this decade, I think of icons like Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol, Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and each of them stand out thanks to their individual sense of style.  

70s

Hemant and Nandita

Fashion in 1970s was all about free spirits, which was reflected in the trends in those times as well. The popular items of clothing being bell bottoms and miniskirts. We have a strong sensibility of working with Indian ethics and colours and celebrating India with international silhouettes. Using bright colours, traditional prints and bohemian elements like tassels, fringes and pompoms is the signature style of ours which does take a lot of influences from the bohemian culture in 70s. It was a time of bell-bottoms, gauchos, frayed jeans, midi skirts, and ankle-length maxi dresses. Usage of extremely bright colours, as well as Indian patterns, Native American patterns, and floral patterns are some of the things which were a major presence in that era and highly relatable to us. We have always believed in easy clothing with comfortable fits and hence the oversized jackets and wide-leg pants have been a staple in our collections. The techniques of using colour splatter on the basic /neutral hues in the form of bead and thread embroideries with neon coloured details like tassels and pompoms come from there.

The delicate bead, silk thread embroideries to giving Indian influences to the contemporary silhouettes is something we constantly want to evolve. Fresher prints and using prints like tie dye (which also became popular in 1970’s) with different perspective while experimenting with the volume such as bell sleeves, wide legs pants, oversized jackets is the casual easy look which is very 1970’s and our label at the same time. The decade celebrated colours and freedom of your own style which we totally believe in, and will keep manipulating the vintage trend in our own unique way to create and design.