Textiles and Dress

Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon and political movement that developed in the Western world from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. It overlaps with cultural liberalism and with the various social changes of the decade, and its effects reverberate to the present day. The movement gained momentum along with the civil rights movement in the United States, which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; it intensified along with the Vietnam War, which drove some revolutionary sentiment. As the movement progressed, widespread social tensions also developed concerning other issues, and tended to flow along generational lines regarding respect for the individual, human sexuality, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, rights of people of color, end of racial segregation, experimentation with psychoactive drugs, and differing interpretations of the American Dream. Many key movements related to these issues were born or advanced within the counterculture of the 1960s. As the era unfolded, what emerged were new cultural forms and a dynamic subculture that celebrated experimentation, individuality, modern incarnations of Bohemianism, and the rise of the hippie and other alternative lifestyles. This embrace of experimentation is particularly notable in the works of popular musical acts such as the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, as well as of New Hollywood, French New Wave, and Japanese New Wave filmmakers, whose works became far less restricted by censorship. Within and across many disciplines, many other creative artists, authors, and thinkers helped define the counterculture movement. Everyday fashion experienced a decline of the suit and especially of the wearing of hats; other changes included the normalisation of long hair worn down for women (as well as many men at the time), the popularization of traditional African, Indian and Middle Eastern styles of dress (including the wearing of natural hair for those of African descent), the invention and popularization of the miniskirt which raised hemlines above the knees, as well as the development of distinguished, youth-led fashion subcultures.

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See also

• ▸Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
• ▸1 Serpentis
• ▸Alexander Berkman

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