Welcome to the 60&#39;s

The 60's are back and bigger than ever for Fall! I have to say that I'm surprised to see the 60's and the 70's resurfacing on the runway at the same time, but after seeing Kristen Stewart's gorgeous photos from W Magazine, I believe this trend to be confirmed!

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I have been suspicious that the 60's trends are left over from all the Mad Men madness, but after seeing these photos of Christina Ricci, I'm realizing that the trend has merely spread throughout the airwaves as well. There's also a popular new television show here in England called The Hour and though it begins in 1956, I suspect it will carry on right through the 60's as well.

As we all know, fashion influences television and television/film most certainly influence fashion as well! I have a theory though that something bigger has inspired these escapist period shows and fashions - when times are hard and things seem desperate, people love to harken back to the old days when things were simpler and prettier. I think that the recession, war, famine and all the other tough things going on in the world have inspired the desire to escape into a world of time gone by, before we were all contactable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by cell phones and social networks... a time when families dined together, women were making strides to find their place in the world and a cocktail & cigarette was all in a day's regular business.

The 60's inspired fashions for Autumn are bolder than their predecessors as are the characters in these television programmes. With strong women running the show like Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway from Mad Men or Bel Rowley from The Hour, these television shows are showing us what powerful women would've been like in those days and they make it hard to believe that men were ever paid more than women! The characters seem to be a hybrid between the ideals of yesterday and the realities of today. This hasn't escaped the runway, with a-line dresses formerly done in pink or muted patterns now being shown in bolder prints and colours on the Autumn 2011 ready-to-wear runways. Here is a sampling of my favourite looks: