1960s Costume Ideas

Posted on November 15, 2012 by admin

1960s Costume Ideas

A Mary Quant Style Costume

An era of wide costume choices, here are just some of our ideas

Mary Quant – black and white was THE look here
Hippy Lady
Mini Dresses
Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra 1962)
Cher
Twiggy
Julie Andrews (Sound Of Music 1965)
Mary Poppins (1966)
Jeannie (from ‘I Dream of Genie’
Star Trek
Lady Penelope
Catwoman
Bunny Girl
Cruella de Vil (1962)
Eliza Dolittle (1964 My Fair Lady)

1960s Mens Costumes

Mens fashion was influenced by the pop stars of the day. The Beatles wore smart suits with a small collar. The suit had a single breasted collarless jacket and slim pants. At Props & Frocks, we stock the plain grey suit favoured by The Beatles, but also the Sargent Pepper style costume as well.

Men wore Paisley shirts, velvet trousers and high collared Regency jackets. Men also began to wear their hair long

The beatnik look was popular with men as with women. Black berets, black slacks and dark glasses wore worn. Men wore sandals.

The ‘hippy’ look begun to develop towards the end of the decade. Mens hair got longer moustaches and sideburns were popular. We stock a large range of mens hippy costumes and accessories to help you to complete your outfit.

1960s fancy dress suggestions:

Beatles
Elvis

Jimi Hendrix
Sonny
Booby Vee
The Krays
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969)
Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia 1962)
Dick Van Dyck (Mary Poppins 1962)
Austin Powers
Teddy Boy
Thunderbirds
Star Trek
England Footballer
Batman & Robin
James Bond
Lawrence of Arabia
Pink Panther
Austin Powers

Props & Frocks stocks some great Hippy costumes for men & women, but if you do not want an entire costume we also stock a fabulous range of hippy accessories, including:

Wacky weed
Giant spliffs
Peace Medallions
Hippy wigs
Round Glasses
Flares
Flower Power Glasses
Hippy Kits

Many of the events we are asked to provide costumes for relate to specific decades, notably birthdays and anniversaries. Today, we celebrate the eightieth birthday of Petula Clark, a childhood star of the 1940s, who was the first British solo artist to win a Grammy, which she did in 1964, for the pop song ‘Downtown’.

Unlike some of the other stars of the 1960s era, she did not have a specific look and was very much the ‘girl next door’, even if she was fluent in several languages – very useful for the growing Euro-pop market of the time. That said, she also turned up in a number of films as a leading actress, notably ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ with Fred Astaire, and ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ which starred Peter O’Toole. Her music regularly features on film soundtracks and period TV shows to ‘set the 60s mood’ – she was even credited with an intermission slot on a Monty Python show!

Obviously this is another ideal opportunity to work on a 1960s theme for an event, especially as the decade seems to be well into celebrating its 50^th anniversary with help of keynote events – Bond, Beatles last month, Rolling Stones this month, etc., etc. To help you out, we are currently upgrading our ‘Decades’ information area within this website – just use the Search box to find more details.

1960s Costumes

Posted on June 14, 2012 by admin

We were discussing the Sixties and hippy costumes yesterday but of course the Hippy look is not for everyone.

An alternative was the Romantic look, typified by long flowing locks (for both sexes) and use of frills, ruffles on clothing made of satins and velvets. Some males adopted a pseudo-militaristic style of jacket, matched (?) with wide collared colour shirts and large kipper ties and wide ‘loon’ trousers (the romantic element seeming to be men in love with their own image). For women, this fashion evolved into the ‘shepherdess/Laura Ashley styles of the Seventies whereas for males, aside from those who adopted extreme Glitz and Glam in the Seventies, the Romantic look took a decade off to re-emerge as the New Romantics of the Eighties/Nineties.

With the Space Race in its infancy, futuristic fashion was another style choice. Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who passed away a few weeks ago, was noted for innovating sharp, short geometric hairstyles in the Sixties and clothing designers such as Paco Rabanne, Rudi Gernreich and Thierry Muggler came up with interesting, if not always practical designs. On the other hand, thanks to Jane Fonda’s turn as Barbarella, female saviour of the universe, vinyl boots became extreme popular, their impact spreading to widespread use by ‘dolly birds’ with legs to show off following the ‘invention’ of the mini-skirt.

Dark eyes and large eyelashes were also very popular. Our plain black eyelashes will crate the desired effect.

Another costume option would be Austin Powers, the first film was set in 1969, lots of Bond films were released in the 60s, as were the Carry On films…

Why not take a look at all of our 1960s Costume Ideas?

1960s Costumes

Posted on March 9, 2012 by admin

Today, we are going to base our fancy dress theme on the 1960s,although, we are celebrating Barbie’s birthday today (in 1959), her popularity really soared in the 60s…

Here are some of Props & Frocks 1960s Costume Ideas…

1960s Ladies Costumes

Although we all tend to think of the 60s as the decade of the mini, the short style dress was not nationwide until 1967. Until then the 50s influenced many styles.

Mary Quant was very influential, her dresses were often designed to be 6 – 7 inches above the knee. Her use of PVC and other adventurous fabrics became very popular. Mary Quant also influenced the chic bob, although a flick up look was also very fashionable. We stock a great range of1960s ladies costumes to suit all budgets and sizes. We also stock a wide range of 60s accessories including wigs, jewellery, boots and glasses.

Mini dresses made tights popular. It was hard to wear such a short dress and feel comfortable whilst wearing stockings. These tights were also seamless. No lady would wear a short dress with bare legs showing. Fishnet tights were popular for a short time
Flat boots became the norm to wear with the mini dress.
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The popular hairstyle was a beehive, where they tease the hair and pile it high on the head. Another look during this time was the beatnik. The beatnik look included black berets, black slacks (tight for women) and dark glasses

Clothes were quite narrow at the shoulder, many had armholes cut away so that the shoulder and the entire arm were visible.

Baby Doll dress were popular in 1966 and were made in many floaty fabric such as chiffon.

Trousers were worn, when a mini dress was not appropriate. These were hipster style and flares begun to appear towards the end of the decade.

Fashion was also influenced by ‘flower power’ and flowers and fringe were everywhere, along with long flowing locks. The women wore long floor length dresses and skirts called maxies. At Props n Frocks we stock a large range of ladies hippy costumes and accessories to help you to complete your outfit.

The list of 60s fancy dress costume ideas gives a wide range of character ideas if you didn’t want to stick to the standard 60′s outfit.

1960s fancy dress suggestions:
Mary Quant
Hippy Lady
Mini Dresses
Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra 1962)
Cher
Twiggy
Julie Andrews (Sound Of Music 1965)
Mary Poppins (1966)
Jeannie (from ‘I Dream of Genie’
Star Trek
Lady Penelope
Catwoman
Bunny Girl
Cruella de Vil (1962)
Eliza Dolittle (1964 My Fair Lady)

1960s Mens Costumes

Mens fashion was influenced by the pop stars of the day. The Beatles wore smart suits with a small collar. The suit had a single breasted collarless jacket and slim pants. At Props n Frocks, we stock the plain grey suit favoured by The Beatles, but also the Sargent Pepper style costume as well.

Men wore Paisley shirts, velvet trousers and high collared Regency jackets. Men also began to wear their hair long

The beatnik look was popular with men as with women. Black berets, black slacks and dark glasses wore worn. Men wore sandals.

1960s fancy dress suggestions:

Beatles
Elvis
Hippy
Jimi Hendrix
Sonny
Booby Vee
The Krays
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969)
Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia 1962)
Dick Van Dyck (Mary Poppins 1962)
Austin Powers
Teddy Boy
Thunderbirds
Star Trek
England Footballer
Batman & Robin
James Bond
Lawrence of Arabia
Pink Panther
Austin Powers

After International Woman’s Day yesterday, apparently, as previously mentioned, it’s Barbie’s birthday today. Modelled on a adult-looking German doll her creator had brought back from Europe, this major toy personality made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on this date in 1959, so today is her official birthday. Of course for some time there was transatlantic rivalry with her British counterpart Sindy, but Barbie had the better publicity machine (and lawyer) and remains a major celeb in the toy market. Although the arrival of ‘new kids on the block’, the Bratz threatened to undermine her position, her appearances (along with sometime boyfriend Ken) in the Toy Story movies has done much to win her a new generation of fans. She wears her age well and, as we know, she has always been one to embrace the dress-up box when required.

1960s Costumes

Posted on February 12, 2012 by admin

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1960s Fancy Dress Ideas

On the second –er- leg of our insight into fashion for the lower body, we start at the Sixties, where following on the ‘anti-establishment’ Teddy Boy/Girl fashions and the young having more money of their own to spend, street-wear could only get more controversial. The iconic Sixties look was, of course, the mini-skirt, widely agreed to have been ‘invented’ (or at least heavily popularised) by Mary Quant. Whilst employers came to terms with the new look with ‘modesty boards’ on desks, the girls had to decide what to do with their legs. For many, boots were the way forward, with the Jane Fonda film ‘Barbarella’ helping popularise the vinyl variety in the late 1960s. With girls having made all the effort to show their legs, there was a reluctance to cover them up with tights (also a novelty), so many either went bare legged or, with the help of a creative friend, wore body-paint style leg make-up to draw even more attention to their lower limbs.

In the 1960s, tights were still in were still in comparative infancy, having only recently taken over from stockings, but with technology having come on since then, you can now create the same eye-catching effects with less effort next time you are celebrating the Sixties. The era has been recently highlighted in the ‘We’ll Take Manhattan’ Jean Shrimpton/David Bailey drama, featuring Dr Who girl Karen Gillan.

Props & Frocks stocks a huge range of 60s costumes from Hippies to black & white Mary Quant outfits. We have also looked at some popular pop stars, films & television to give you loads of 60s costume ideas…

Popular 60s Television

Addams Family
The Avengers
Batman
Benny Hill Show
Blue Angels – angel wings & blue body paint will make an interesting 60s costume!
Bugs Bunny
The Green Hornet
Hawaii Five O
I Dream Of Jeanie
The Jetsons
Lost In Space
Tarzan
Star Trek
Scooby Doo, Where Are You
Roaring Twenties
The Saint
The Fintstones

And here are some great 60s Films that we think you could use as inspiration to dress up…

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid – wear Western Costumes
Lawrence Of Arabia
Mary Poppins
Psycho
The Sound Of Music
West side Stroy
2001: A Space Odyssey
101 Dalmations
Batman
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, look at our lovely Audrey Hepburn style costume
Camelot
Cleopatra
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave
Pincher
The Pink Panther
Romeo & Juliet
James Bond – loads were filmed, and released in the 60′s, take a look at all of our James Bond costume Ideas.

And famous people of the 60s era…

Elvis Presley
The Beatles
Elizabeth Taylor
Jimi Hendrix
The Jacksons
JFK
Audrey Heburn
Jackie Onassis
Neil Armstrong
Freddie Mercury
Bob Marley
Frank Sinatra
Janis Joplin
Diana Ross
Yul Brynner
Richard Burton
Marlon Brando
John Wayne

1960s Fancy Dress Costumes

Posted on September 16, 2010 by admin

We really do not need any excuse to have a 160s fancy dress party, the music is great and the fashions even better but the September 18th 2010 marks the fortieth anniversary of the death of legendary left-hand guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Aged just 27, he died of a drug overdose, but his music lives on – he was one of the first to experiment with stereo phasing and he incorporated guitar amp feedback howl (which most try to avoid) as an extra musical effect. He was also noted for his unique sense of fashion and his pioneering ‘militaristic’ look became a trademark. Here, at Props n Frocks we love any event that takes us back to the psychedelic sixties, where peace, love, harmony and funky fashion was all the rage. We have a huge range of 60s costumes, from hippy costumes for both men and women to trendy mod costumes.

We also have the chance to celebrate two other timeless trendsetters of the 60s, as two icons of the catwalk were born on this date. Zandra Rhodes was born in 1940 and Lesley Hornby (aka Twiggy) was born 1949. Zandra is highly regarded as helping start the whole punk revolution, so why not look at our range of punk costumes and accessories? Zandra continues to create and show innovative designs on the catwalk at the various Fashion Weeks around the world and Twiggy, although moving on from modelling dolly-bird styles in the 60s to helping M&S shift its various seasonal ranges, has retained her position as a respected commentator at the heart of the fashion scene. Our theme for today is Fantasy or Freaky Fashion where you can create your own style of costume hair and make-up and cause a sensation. On the other hand Lady Gaga is setting the bar pretty high in this field, so we’ll be fascinated to see what you come up with.

1960s Fancy Dress Costume Ideas

Posted on August 25, 2010 by admin

It’s nearly the Bank Holiday weekend, and a great weekend to have a 60s fancy dress party! We’re almost at the end of a summer season which has been jam packed with Festivals of all shapes and sizes. So we thought we’d go retro once again and take you back to August 29th 1966, when the Beatles played their last live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pedantics might mention that their final live performance was actually on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building in Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969. (This was undertaken with keyboardist Billy Preston and it lasted for less than an hour, as the police arrived after complaints about the noise from the neighbours!)

Well here at Props n Frocks we are always in a party mood particularly when it comes to the Swinging Sixties, so whatever your take on retro fashion we’ve probably got the right 1960s outfits and accessories for you.

The 60s is such a great theme for a fancy dress party as it covers all sorts of costumes including hippy costumes, Mary Quant style Mod costumes, pop stars including Beatle style costumes, and let’s not forget Austin Powers (first film was set in 1969) with a whole range of official Austin Powers costumes which make a great couples fancy dress idea. There are costumes to suit all budgets and size ranges, you are sure to find the right costume for you!