Editor’s Note: This is an update of a story that originally ran in April 2013. Do you have family or personal photos from the 1960s? Share them with iReport!
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As “Mad Men” returned for its seventh season, many viewers tuned in to see what happened next for Don, Peggy, Pete and the other characters of the hit AMC show. Many were eager to see the fabulous clothes the actors wore.
We can’t help but wonder – was all that glamour real, or is it just the magic of TV? We asked readers to share their snapshots from 1967-69 and show us what the late ’60s really looked like.
Janie Lambert, 61, says she thinks “Mad Men” portrays the decade’s conservative fashion and mod look accurately. But she remembers the late 1960s as more colorful and vibrant.
“My favorite looks in the ’60s were the bright colors and bold patterns, stripes and polka dots, miniskirts, long hair and pale lipstick,” Lambert says.
Many iReporters strived to keep up with the fast pace of the changing fashion in the late ’60s. Patricia Anne Alfano, 66, went from a British-inspired mod style cheerleader to a hippie in a matter of three years.
In 1967, Alfano was an “Eaglette” – an NFL cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles. Unlike today, the cheerleaders were covered from head to toe. The uniforms had long sleeves, and the cheerleaders wore gloves and cloth helmets.
“From the early 1960s until 1967, I spent tons of time on my hair,” she says, noting her mod hairdo in the picture is actually a wig. “Wigs were big back then. Everyone had at least one.”
In 1968, the style began to evolve. Alfano still spent a lot of time on her hair, but her peers began heavily criticizing all things materialistic, so the style became more casual.
“I was still ‘fussing’ a bit with my hair, but the times were changing, and so was I,” she says.
The changing fashion of ‘Mad Men’
A year later, Alfano joined the “flower children,” moved to California, grew her hair out and wore more flowing clothes. She says many women stopped dying their hair or wearing makeup. Some even stopped shaving.
“It was all part of the ‘revolution,’ and the anti-establishment movement,” Alfano says. “I must say, though, that through these turbulent times, I did continue shaving my legs and underarms.”
Living large in Don Draper’s New York
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In 1969, the fashion changed to more vibrant, hippie clothing.
Though Nikki C. Morris, 64, wore a yellow dress with long white gloves to her high school prom in 1967, colorful dresses in the late 1960s weren’t too appealing to her.
“All I remember about the fashion of that time was that it was too colorful for my tastes,” Morris says. “I remember thinking that most of the dresses and the girls wearing them looked like Easter eggs. I wasn’t a fan.”
