So a new commission has led me on an immersion tour of the glamor and grace of 1960's style. I am now thoroughly depressed that I missed this decade and that today I had no reason to wear fake eyelashes.
Before I started drawing, I decided to check in with the experts - my mother and her friends to tell me what it was really to be young and fashionable in the 1960s. Seventy five emails later, I was armed with so much new information about the '60s look that my head was spinning.
I had never really focused on how amazingly turned-out the glamor girls like Twiggy, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Christie were back then. I was so excited to have rediscovered these beautiful muses and to have found a new one I'd never heard of before - Jean Shrimpton.
Jean Shrimpton is by far my new favorite 1960's icon. Her face is almost too beautiful, her bone structure is almost so flawlessly symmetrical that I can barely look directly at her. But I found myself pouring over montages of black and white photographs taken of her painted with heavy black lashes and bigger hair than I thought humanly possible wishing there were more.
So I decided to do this quick portrait of my new historical model crush, if you'd like to buy a print, please click here!
I wanted to keep it soft because its such a reflective pose shes striking and because I worked from a black and white photograph. I loved discovering the feminine reserve found in Shrimpton that made the early part of the '60s such a beautiful time to be a woman.
But of course, as one of my mom's friend's emails pointed out "the 1960's were a decade in which hem lines went from below the knee to below the bottom!" So, while I'm here, I thought you all might enjoy a glimpse into how one woman transformed with the trends as she came of age in this radical decade. First, behold my mother at 17 as a dead ringer for Mary Tyler Moore...
And now please notice how indeed this decade was a revolution of hem lines for women everywhere, even my mom (now a college student, living life in the fast lane of Southern California)....
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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OMG, I love the pictures of your Mom! Fabulous!! and, by the way, I love the blog!
ReplyDeleteAs a male member of your fan club I would like to suggest some coverage of men’s fashions of the sixties. In the past you have blogged about my socks. (At least there were no pictures of my garters and argyle socks.) Please spare me a repeat, but consider some of these thoughts from the Statler Brothers.
ReplyDeleteDo You Remember These:
Saturday morning serials chapters 1 through 15,
Fly paper, penny loafers, Lucky Strike Green.
Flat tops, sock hops, Studebaker, Pepsi Please,
Ahh, do you remember these?
Cigar Bands, on your hand, your daddy's socks rolled down.
Sticks, snow floats and aviator caps with flaps that button down.
Movie stars on Dixie Cup tops, and knickers to your knees,
Ahh, do you remember these?