STRIKE A POSE

The National Archives’ extensive photographic collection allows us to take a glimpse at Australian society during the revolutionary period spanning the 1960s and 1970s.

This was an era marked by sweeping social change in Australia. The post-World War II baby boom had created millions of teenagers. Many became actively involved in the fashion, fads, music, art and politics of the period.

Musical tastes and styles of dress were especially linked. The 1960s London pop scene ushered in an attitude of ‘anything goes’ and this transformed the shape of clothes. Colour played a big role in defining the new look. The pastel palette and formal fashion of the 1950s gave way to a more casual look with bright, bold colours, checks, prints and geometric patterns.

The fashion boutique emerged in the 1960s, bringing with it mass-produced ready-to-wear designs and high turnover. This suited young people who were not concerned about unemployment or inflation and had money in their pockets to spend.

By the late 1960s a new style emerged: the hippy look. Spurred on by a reaction against mass production and materialism, this was a time when fashion designers experimented with colours, patterns and textures borrowed from non-Western cultures.

Taken mostly by anonymous government photographers travelling around Australia for the Australian News and Information Bureau, the photographs in this exhibition record not only the clothes we wore but also how this period’s cultural and social changes influenced our fashion choices.