60’S Baby Doll Look For the first time ever in any era, the young became the leaders of fashion. They led with new and radically innovative fashion styles, with little girl woman androgynous looks for women that swept away the sophisticated girls of the early sixties. The has a storied history, and one somehow always rooted in gender politics. It started out as a short invented by a designer called Sylvia Pedler in 1942 as a means of working with the fabric shortage during World War II. In the 60s they were adopted as daywear and, although they lost a lot of their look, they were and are still characterised as something that a child or doll might wear - so high- necks, long sleeves, short in length, a swingy and often empire line. The early years of the dress were remarkably like a length of stove-pipe with a deep frill at the bottom. It was a style known as the ‘Baby-Doll’ dress." The couture period- Following its introduction as a kind of , Cristobal Balenziaga transformed the style into couture with his exquisitely constructed, lace- tiered pieces known as the "Baby Doll ." Foregoing the empire cut for a trapeze line drop , they pre-empted the 60s trend for mod applications of the style with their loose fit but structured form, and transformed the dress from into a new, avant-garde silhouette that became one of Balenziaga's most renowned styles. And then came The Swinging 60’s, perhaps the most renowned incarnation of the babydoll happened when fell out of fashion, and icons like Twiggy paired affordable shifts designed by the likes of Mary Quant with doe-eyes and Mary Janes. With the hemlines veering ever-shorter. In the 60s they became the rebellious of the Kings Road teenager and the epitome of the shocking youth-quake revolution. Symbolising a new, emerging movement of an age-bracket with its own interests, politics and fashion trends, the babydoll was a surprisingly revolutionary facet of mod culture, representing a complete abandonment of appropriate female stereotype for self-determined freedom.

In the late 1960s, the baby doll look was hugely popular in fashion. Inspired by dresses worn by little girls, designers showed short hemlines, high waists, lots of lace, Peter Pan collars, and puffed sleeves. Words like innocent, girly, and childlike were used to describe these . Above, actress Katharine Ross models a pale blue eyelet and dotted Swiss dress by Gregory that came with matching bloomers. These dresses were often so short, women wore bloomers underneath to avoid showing off too much. Lace was used in abundance and hair was worn pulled back with ringlets around the face. Make-up was young looking with pale colours and doe-eyes.Mary Jane and T-strap , another little girl style, were hugely popular as were lacy and pale and knee .

Even high end designers like Anne Fogarty were influenced by the baby doll look. She made with rows and rows of lace in short or long lengths. Her dresses were available in black, white, or champagne and came with a nude coloured . Today, the catwalks have decreed that the babydoll dress is one of the key dress styles of the season. Valentino, Jeremy Scott and Giambattista Valli all offered different incarnations on the catwalk. Some Baby doll looks from the 60’s

That’s me in the 60’s Baby Doll look for a fashion show!