The photo above was taken in 1968, when this woman was 22. She was thus born in 1946. Even though this photo was taken 54 years ago, this woman could walk out of the photograph in the present day, and fit in perfectly. The hairstyle, the fashion, and even the car, would still be cool. The only reason you would look twice at her was because she was so beautiful. She would probably have worked, used birth control, gone out dancing with her friends. Today she would be 76 and people would probably see her as old and old fashioned, but she would have been young and free in an age of miniskirts, bikinis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, hippies, and burning your bra. The first generation of proper teenagers in the 1950s. The first time the young generation were not mini versions of their parents. Average life expectancy for a woman at birth was 70 years.
But if you work backwards, this woman’s grandmother would have been born in about 1900 and would have dressed and done her hair completely differently. She would not have been allowed to show her ankles or worked (if she was not working class), or gone out without a chaperone. She would not have had a teenage life, but rather gone from being a child straight to being a mini adult. If a family member died she may have gone into full mourning (wearing only black) to half mourning (wearing lilac and grey), like her parents. Average life expectancy for a woman at birth was 48 years.
60s and 70s fashions have stood the test of time and often cycle in and out of the stores. When we were in Tenerife, Pull & Bear was full of psychedelic prints.
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