With its A-line dresses, knee-high boots and beehive hairstyles, Sixties fashion defined a generation. This season, despite the midi-length look and the feeling for fetish, it's making a comeback, thanks in part to the retro glamour of the original supermodel, Jean Shrimpton.
Born in 1942, to a family of Buckinghamshire farmers, her rise to worldwide fame inspired young women at the time, her awkward, gamine beauty captivating the men. Her story is set to be retold in the forthcoming BBC Four film, We'll Take Manhattan , while her style legacy is visible on many of autumn's catwalks. Taking inspiration from the former Burberry model, Christopher Bailey used "the Shrimp" as a springboard for autumn to create a Sixties-themed collection for Burberry Prorsum, where bright check patterns, oversized coats, bell-shaped sleeves and mink flat caps hark back to her heyday. A standout tunic dress in peacock-blue silk, cinched below the waist to create a dropped-skirt effect, might have come straight off the young Shrimpton's back.
Posted in: Jean Shrimpton
