ABSTRACT
Confronting the sartorial uniformity of previous years, the Swinging Sixties apparently exploded into colours and coiff ures; miniskirts, kohl eyes, and scooters declared Britain’s emergence as the purveyor of modern cool. With brocade ruff s, buckled shoes, and jackets of tailored velour, the decade also defi ned that cool in relation to familiar images and ideas from a national past. Throughout the 1960s, on stage and screen, British and American works such as Tom Jones (1963), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Oliver! (1968), and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) promoted a colourful awareness of the nation’s costumed and literary past. Zulu (1964), Khartoum (1966), and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) reinforced the epic adventurousness of a fated Empire. These representations spilled over into Carnaby Street, with proud and preening dandies in capes and winklepickers mixing with celebrities and fashion denizens in sheepskin and batik prints. From the pantomime of the New Vaudeville Band, the novelty revivals of Herman’s Hermits, and the album cover to Sgt. Pepper, this eclectic but fundamentally ‘retro’ interest in earlier national moments, images, and practices became a defi ning characteristic of the decade.
