Cherry pie and Chevrolets

Once upon a time there were ‘The Sixties’. It’s a part of history that has left a numerous amount of indelible black stains on our world. But besides that, it was a decade of beauty, art and youth. Astronauts travelled to the moon with rockets, while the teens travelled into space by using candy on ‘Woodstock’. Breaking the taboos about wild, reckless behavior and sex came along with the birth of New Hollywood and a revolution in fashion world.

Mary Quant made sure women became proud of their selves again and made them feel comfortable with their bodies, by introducing the mini-skirt. London was the epicenter of style in those days and all the trends and luxuries were born on the streets of this kingdom of fashion. Top Shop for example was already known as a popular boutique for trendy clothing that time.

All over the world, ladies started to wear their crowns of pride again, since the rise of feminism. There were some brilliant female icons making their way to the stars. In spite of the diamonds, Audrey Hepburn shined in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and Elisabeth Taylor earned one million dollar by playing the queen of Egypt in ‘Cleopatra’. While these ladies where ruling the movie screens, Edie Sedgwick became one of Andy Warhol’s muses because of her style and talent.

Jackie Kennedy was the First Lady at the White House and at the same time she was number one in the world of style and elegance. Dressed in designer couture, she inspired the women at that time to wear suits, a-line dresses and seductive gowns. And it was Jackie who made the classical woolen Chanel suit insanely popular back then. All the girls in the world wanted to look just as drop dead gorgeous as these young icons did.

A remarkable fashion trend in the sixties was the playful girly look. It allowed women to wear pretty bows, mini-skirts and tights. They became necessary, since the length of the skirts became shorter. But you can’t only dress to impress. Supermodel and pin-up star ‘Twiggy’ with her gorgeous ‘Bambi’-like ocean blue eyes, became a great inspiration and role model for eye catching make-up. The famous sixties look included big, colorful eyes. Women drew a line on their arcade bow and a curvy line at the end of their eyes, so that they would outshine more.

Pale skin and lips, dramatic eyes with big lashes and blushy cheeks became the essentials of a typical doll face look. The finishing touch would be the hairdo of course. Straightened hair was very popular for the younger generation. If the hair was quite long, it was swept at one side and held together with bows or headbands. And of course the female movie stars made hairdos such as the ‘Beehive’ and the ‘Pixie’ popular. Dressed in bows, polkadots, floral prints and pencil skirts from designer labels like ‘Yves Saint Laurent, women could stop baking cherry pie, waffles and burgers, in the kitchen and could leave the household to go cruisin’ in their ‘Chevrolets’.

But besides the real life dolls, there were of course the plastic ones. ‘Barbie and Ken’, worlds most adored couple with an everlasting, unbreakable love, gained fame in the early sixties.Now the little ones, who where to young to dress and make up, could create their perfectly dressed miniature into everything they ever wanted to be. It’s a toy that is still loved in child world nowadays, thanks to the sixties and ‘Mattel’ of course.

But as the kids grew older, seeing their favorite American diners turning into ‘Mc Donalds’ and watching the skycrapers getting closer to the clouds, another decade flew by. And just like John F. Kennedy did in his limousine, the sixties past away.