Trend Alert: 60s Beatnik Style

Trend Alert: 60s Beatnik Style
Ah, the beatnik era of fashion was so tres chic!
What is a “beatnik”? A Beatnik was a young person in the 1950s and early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation. The Beat Generation is a literary movement started by a group of authors (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to name a few).
Kerouac introduced the phrase “Beat Generation” in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time.
This group was named as such because they were the post-war, “beat” generation. They were anyone who rejected mainstream materialism. And while they began as a few select writers, the beatniks grew to include artists, poets, writers and musicians. They were the countercultural rebels who existed before the hippie movement.
Andy Warhol

While in the mainstream, adolescents were donning billowing hourglass skirts in an echo of Christian Dior’s New Look, beatniks opted for black, lots of black, and favored streamlined silhouettes which deferred attention away from themselves. Straight-leg cigarette pants and black turtleneck sweaters became a uniform of choice, while women took to wearing black leotards and stirrup slacks – tight clothes which allowed freedom of movement AnotherMag.com

 

With the movement came the fashion. Much of beat styles consisted of berets (which may have been influenced by the popularity of jazz music), black loafer shoes, ballet flats, turtlenecks, skinny black pants, newsboy caps and of course, striped tops. The beat generation didn’t last, but the style certainly did.

 Black Turtleneck, $39 Urban Outfitters
Here, we translate the beat inspiration into more modern day style:FW '17-18 Parisian Beatnik

 

Miss Selfridge striped crop top $32 Asos.com / Diane Von Furstenberg oversized jacket $545 / Yves Saint Laurent slim jeans, $235 / Golden goose shoes, $297 / Aspinal of London leather purse, $470 / Chunky gold chain bracelet / Gucci embellished belt, $770 / Louis Vuitton square scarf / Ray-Ban round frame sunglasses / Apple Red newsboy cap / Urban decay eye shadow / Too Faced Cosmetics blush, $28  / NYX oil free foundation, $8.05 / Milani Red Lip Gloss, $8.99