What Street Style Looked Like in the Swinging Sixties, Featuring Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
Six decades ago, the photographer Frank Habicht left behind his native Hamburg to join those flocking to London just in time to join in on its cultural revolution; a time now known as the Swinging Sixties. While Habicht also used his photos to explore class and political divides in then contemporary British society, he also took a more in-depth look at the ways and customs of the hippies, rockstars, and “It” girls who quickly became the stars of their generation. (They weren’t, of course, exactly hard to find, given that many achieved that status thanks simply to their eye-catching style.) Take, for example, their hairstyles: Jane Birkin has sent decades of women on the quest for perfect bangs ever since, whereas Twiggy inspired enough of her peers to get one of Vidal Sassoon’s signature geometric cuts that he, too, became one of the leading names of the era. (And let’s forget the mop tops of the then up-and-coming Beatles, who in fact copied their look from the woman who first photographed them, Astrid Kircherr.) Thanks to their favorite pastimes of strutting about and protesting, it also wasn’t hard for Habricht to come across a fair share of them in London’s streets; in addition to Birkin, Vanessa Redgrave and Serge Gainsbourg, are just a few of those whose black-and-white portraits can be found amongst the art students and Portobello Market stall vendors (not to mention inexplicably butt naked women) in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, a new book of Habicht’s photography published by Hatje Cantz. Take a look back at them all in their heyday, here.
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Frank Habricht, Part of the Scene, 1969. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Gone by Times – Renee, Westminster Bridge. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Lost in a Dream – Serge & Jane (Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin). Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Untitled, 1969. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Peace Message – Vanessa Redgrave. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, No Loss of Face, Earles Court, London. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Isn’t Life Strange – Stallholder, Portobello Market, near Knightsbridge, 1969. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Live It to the Hilt – Renee, Westminterbridge. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Fine Arts Student, St. Martin’s College, Holborn. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold—King’s Road. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Street Carnival, Marble Arch, 1964. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Flower Bear – King’s Road, 1967. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Marriage à la mode. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
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Frank Habricht, Bare Essentials, near Knightsbridge, 1969. Featured in As It Was: Frank Habicht’s Sixties, published by Hatje Cantz.
