Carnaby Street
By
1965, London had become the fashion capital of the world as far as
young people were concerned. At it's centre were three streets -
The Kings Road in Chelsea (put on the map by Mary Quant),
Kensington Church Street (where designer Barbara Hulanicki ran a
boutique called Biba), and Carnaby Street, which not so long
before had been a run-down back alley behind Regent Street.

Carnaby Street became a Mecca for bright young things and
clothes fanatics of both sexes. It owed its success to John
Stephen, a Glaswegian who decided that men's clothes should be as
much fun as women's.
His first boutique selling pink hipsters paved the way for
dozens more, making the street a major draw card for British youth
and overseas tourists who came to stare at the parade of
long-haired young men - many in the latest Eastern style kaftans
and beads - and their mini-skirted girlfriends.
The girls either wore their hair long as well (but always
straight), or cropped into the angular cuts made popular by hair
stylist Vidal Sassoon.

|