MOD TO GO-GO

The Mod fashions and lifestyle quickly morphed into Go-Go styles during the fast-paced 1960s. Mod had come to America from the UK, well-dressed but with an emphasis on modern. The starched-world setting of The Mad Men, now again in vogue,  was what the Mods were rebelling against. The Go-Go look was stylish, before the anything-goes styles of the hippies completely deconstructed it.

Mod came with the music of the British invasion, but it was the music and dancing in New York and L.A. where Go-Go fashion flourished. The first Whisky a Gogo was in Paris in 1947, where underground dicotheques began during World War II and spread afterwards. The famed Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in L.A. introduced girls (young women) dancing in glass booths - and later suspended cages - to both recorded and live music beginning in 1964. Fast, frenzied, and free characterized Go-Go. Gone were the petticoats and corsets. The now fashionably despised pantyhose were the items of dress that made mini-skirts and hot-pants happen.

Movies were slow to capture the true mood of either Mod or Go-Go. But a few costume designers where at the right place at the right time to capture the style. The costume sketch above and several below were designed by Moss Mabry for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, directed by Paul Mazursky in 1969.

 

                                                                                     
Natalie Wood played Carol, wife of Bob (Robert Culp) about to "swing" with Ted (Elliott Gould), as his wife Alice, played by Dyan Cannon will with Bob. It was all about the free-wheeling 60s in California, with lots of humor, and a great vehicle for some swinging fashions by Moss Mabry. Mabry designed just the right wardrobe to capture the fresh and frank sexiness of both Natalie Wood and Dyan Cannon.

                                         
A signature style of the Mod look was the well-tailored and trim-fitted suit. Moss Mabry designed this plaid suit with short skirt for Dyan Cannon for the film.

                                                                           

Moss Mabry could design for men or women, having designed James Dean's iconic wardrobe of jeans, T-shirt, and red jacket, as well as the other costumes for Rebel Without a Cause. He also designed Goldie Hawn's wardrobe in Cactus Flower, 1969, and Butterflies Are Free in 1972.  He also had a great flair for show-girl costumes and model's fashions.                                                             

These two models show the unmistakable look of the 1960s. The flare in the pants matched by the flair of the styles.

 While Edith Head had already been designing costumes for over thirty years by the late 60s, she knew how to adapt to the times. The sketch below was designed for one of the dancers with Shirley MacLaine in Sweet Charity,1969, another time-capsule film of the late 60s. Ms. MacLaine plays a singer and dancer in this Bob Fosse film, a great showcase for her talents.

                      
                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                

Another looker who danced was Ann-Margret. The sketch below shows one of the many costumes Edith Head designed for her playing an author who lives out her fantasy story lines in The Swinger, 1966.  Miss Head captured the roles well with her costumes, though the movie was one of those studio productions based on a poor script.

                                                                         
Renie Conley was another designer who had started in the 1930s and was still active in the early 1980s. The sketch below, previously used in my post Mod a la Mode, just happens to
have been designed for a scene at the Whisky a Go-Go. Though the production is unknown, it was designed during the late 1960s. Renie had designed Kitty Foyle for Ginger Rogers in 1940, worked on Cleopatra in 1963,  and worked on one of her last film costume designs for Kathleen Turner in Body Heat in 1981.

                                                                          

      Styles of the 1960s come back in vogue every few years, and were even seen last year. And now the late 50s-early 60s look popularized by the Mad Men is back. Whether its 50s or 60s, both periods had great styles and an emphasis on daily fashion that, sadly, has been lacking over most of the last decade.  Maybe it's time to go-go.

For more on Mod, see my March 27, 2010 post, "Mod a-la-Mode." 
 http://www.silverscreenmodiste.com/2010/03/mod-la-mode.html