Youthquake: High Style in the Swinging Sixties
Mitchell Owens, Architectural Digest, New York, NY
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Mini-exhibit: 7:15 pm Lecture: 8:00pm Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum
David Hicks’ drawing room, Britwell Salome, England
Diana Vreeland, editor-in-chief of “Vogue,” coined the term “youthquake” in 1963 to describe the 1960s fashion, musical and popular culture movement. “Vogue” declared that the longhaired, miniskirted and bellbottomed movement leaders are “the zingoes who bolted the pack, crashed out of the mold and smashed it to smithereens … invented their own look, their own sound, their own age.” Mitchell Owens will present the surprisingly elegant and sophisticated interiors inspired by the trendsetters who dominated the fashion and music scene. The inspiration, perhaps from Haight-Ashbury hippy digs, made its appearance in ultra-chic, high-end New York apartments and London flats.
The epicenter of the youthquake was London, home to Carnaby Street, James Bond’s gadgets and the Beatles’ Abbey Road studio. The name, and appearance, of the miniskirted supermodel of her time, Twiggy, said it all for the new androgynous, youthful look. While Mary Quant and Betsey Johnson designed the era’s iconic clothing (and San Francisco’s Levi-Strauss clothed the masses), Andy Warhol depicted the youthquake’s ethos in paint, poster and film.
