Most young men in the sixties didn’t look like Charlie Manson in beads and a kaftan. Most wore button-down shirts, drainpipes, and sported short hair. Despite all those documentaries television likes to feed us (e.g. The Sixties), not everyone was at Woodstock. Not everyone was out of their tits on LSD. Not everyone looked like an unwashed extra from The Walking Dead. Most people looked normal. Lived average lives. Wore everyday clothes. It might be nice for the TV execs and the film studios and those with something to sell to make us all think kids in the sixties were far-out freaks who lived off a diet of mind-blowing drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll—certainly a few did and many of them were wannabe or fully-fledged rock stars—but most were like the young men in these photographs—straight, average, happy, and quite dull. Just like the rest of us.

I look at these pictures and see most of my wardrobe—the narrow lapels, the straight-leg pants, the white tees, and the plaid shirts. Denim and cheesecloth ain’t something for me. Indeed, most of these outfits wouldn’t look out of place today, though I’m fairly sure future generations will look back at this decade and believe all young men had man-buns, waxed their beards into novel designs, wore tartan waistcoats with striped shirts and polka-dot bow ties and were master artisans who knitted their own yoghurt.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
H/T Vintage Everyday.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The knitted and polyester horror of when ‘His & Her’ fashion was A THING
Girls just wanna have fun: Teenage fashion of the 1980s
Fashions of the future 60’s style
Fashion Victims Unite: Manchester’s late ‘70s—early ‘80s Perry Boys subculture
Dolled Up: Bizarre fashion photos of Marianne Faithfull as a toy doll
A look at cheeky 70’s London fashion boutique ‘Mr. Freedom’ (NSFW)
You’ll poke someone’s eye out with those things: Bullet bras from the 1940s and 1950s