Sally Allen: The 1960s were a fabulous era

I was at the Marist Convent School at the start of the 1960s and then, after taking the 13+ exam, I moved to Torquay Girls' Grammar School after which, I began an apprenticeship at Stredwicks hair stylists.

It was such an exciting time to be a young girl. Simply everything was changing and I, along with my four fellow apprentices, had a ball. We are all still friends and it is such a joy to reminisce about our fun times together.

At the centre of the seismic change in society in the 1960s was fashion and music and as far as fashion went Mary Quant was the dynamic trailblazer extraordinaire. When she sadly died this month at the age of 93, it brought back all the memories of the mini skirt, pop art and colour.

At Stredwicks, it was a time of bouffant hair, piles of coils and then the pioneering asymmetric hair cut created by the equally brilliant, Vidal Sassoon.

I certainly embraced the mini skirt big time; to the degree of really just wearing what looked like a large belt or pelmet. Every single penny I earned was spent on trying to buy the latest look and as soon as I could, I went to London to shop at Bibi in Kensington Church Street.

Wow, that was fantastic. I just wish I had kept all those clothes, but of course I wouldn’t be able to get into them now!

Quant was brilliant and she changed fashion for generations to come and everything you see now, if it is any good, gives a nod to her foresight and vision. It is amazing, too, that her styles don’t actually look out of place now, 40 years later.

She was wholly responsible for the fashion revolution which took place, and which was epitomised forever on models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton. Nothing like it had been seen before and it swept the world.

Sadly, these days, fashion is very boring and every season the new styles are unlikely to be that different to the last one.

Last week, I watched the movie 'Mrs Harris Goes to Paris', which I found both moving and wonderful. It showed the fashion world as it was before Mary Quant. Fashion was not for the masses, it was haute couture or just pretty awful; and who could afford haute couture! Not many. So, Quant changed life for women virtually overnight.

The 1960s was an incredibly inventive decade and my husband, Norman, who turns 93 this month, was also at the forefront by reinventing an industry previously talked about in hushed tones - hair restoration, wigs and transplants - and turning it into a global business.

He even supplied all the wigs for Sean Connery in the Bond movies. Marketing and PR hadn’t really been thought of in the same way before, but in this Norman was a trailblazer like Quant and so he created a business which had multiple clinics in most countries around the world.

His friends, all from the East End of London, including Vidal, were quite exceptional. Among them was Tommy Yeardye created Carmen rollers. He married a Chanel model and their daughter Tamara subsequently created Jimmy Choo. Maybe it was something in the water in those days?

Torquay was also booming and vibrant in the 1960s. As soon as work was finished it would be home to curl the eyelashes around a Biro pen to heat on the radiator, put in the Carmen rollers and get ready to go out.

In those days we would all meet at the Market Inn in Torwood Street and then move on to the Walnut Grove, Casa Marina - my personal favourite - Compass Club, Carlton Club and Shiphay Manor; maybe followed by a hamburger off a stall on the harbourside.

It was heady stuff in those days, not a lot of sophistication but tremendous fun, and we had so much choice.

The town also used to be safe in those days. I don’t remember ever being frightened at night and yet in the summer, the town was teaming with drugs of all descriptions. I really don’t understand why society has become so aggressive and unpleasant.

As they say, oh for those halcyon days of yore! I am not sure we will see the like again because it was all so fresh and new then. Now, obviously there are still trailblazers, but it is somehow different and maybe it is because of the lack of 'joie de vivre' in our development and subsequent advancement.

I simply can’t imagine the Artificial Intelligence of the future having a clue about the need for 'joie de vivre' for the human soul to thrive.