Hm, my thoughts on the decades are a little different than Angie's. To me the '60s are the most difficult, because Mad Men actually takes place in the early '60s, so it has opened my eyes to the fashion of the early part of that decade. I used to associate that more with the '50s. I guess decades aren't really clear-cut, and there is carryover, but if the show is accurate, it is currently taking place in (I believe) 1964, and they are still wearing the pencil skirts and the flared dresses. Twiggy actually didn't come around until 1966, so I'm wondering if we will see the fashions on the show evolve toward that look over the next few seasons.
So how do we define the '60s? As two different fashion moments: one of Mad Men-type styles and one, in the latter part of the decade, that featured Twiggy-like looks and a whole lot of mod?
When I think '80s I think big hair, skinny jeans and leggings, and I have always felt the latter two look best on the very thin. I guess the other thing that defined the '80s for me was high-waisted, pleated pants and strong shoulders. When I think '90s, I think of two things: grunge, so clothes that were big, baggy, and hid almost everything; and Britney Spears, aka low-slung jeans and midriff-baring shirts.
So I think it's tough to do this because we probably all have different memories or associations with these eras. For me, I think that what I have defined as the early '60s is probably my best time period, along with the 1940s, which featured a lot of nipped waists, but didn't have the extreme skirt poufiness of the 1950s.
Interestingly, Audrey was actually at her most popular throughout the entire 1950s and into the early 1960s. From the mid-60s through the end of the decade she took a career break to spend time with her kids. So I guess her style was actually reflected in that later 1950s/earlier 1960s time period? The skinny cropped black pants we all associate with her were actually from a 1957 film. I don't think of her style as particularly fitting with the rest of that era, but I guess that's the definition of a trendsetter.
