All language subtitles for American.Style.S01E02.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

Great style is something
that is grown from within.

Woman: Style is culture.

Style is expression.

King: There is no stopping point
short of victory.

All of us must stand up
and say no more.

Gunn: I don't believe that there
has been a fashion decade

as tumultuous as the 1960s.

Woman: Peace and love and things
like this,

basically, they're great.
They really are.

Woman: People celebrated their
bodies, literally,

by showing their bodies.

Skirts went up.

Narrator: The birth control pill

is very effective if taken
as directed.

The pill, it's a symbol of the
radical changes in the culture.

Man: People realizing that how
you presented yourself

was a political act.

It was an artistic act.

It was something
to have fun with.

Gunn: Disco was a wild, mad,
drug-saturated party scene.

Man: Through the '60s, '70s,

our style and fashion
represents freedom.

Man:
When people think of the '50s,

they think of something that's
very stiff and conservative.

We're talking about a time
in which society

was completely dominated
by white men.

This is the sort of era
of conformity.

Woman:
You know, in the '50s,

everything was kind of,
like, repressed.

In the Eisenhower era,
everybody's still buttoned down.

Things seem to be
in black and white.

Everybody wanted to look
like everybody else.

Nobody wanted to stand out.

A man could not be in business
in the '50s

and even the early '60s
unless you were wearing a hat.

But what happened,
the world was changing.

The world was changing.

Narrator: The United States
elected its 35th president

in 1960,
John F. Kennedy.

The youngest man ever elected.

We stand today on the edge
of a new frontier.

The frontier of the 1960s.

The frontier of unknown
opportunities in peril.

We begin the '60s
with the Kennedy administration.

Kennedy represented
youthful optimism.

Man: When Jack Kennedy's
becoming president,

we were not going to be
a rural country anymore.

We were now an urban country.

Jack Kennedy was cool
and sophisticated

and cosmopolitan,
and so was Jackie.

Woman: You see with
Jack and Jackie this idea

that they represented something
that was young and aspirational,

and that seemed to people
strikingly different

from the last
few presidential couples.

I mean, so different than
the Eisenhowers, for example.

Woman: To have this new outlook
in the White House

was definitely helpful
to the youth culture

because they finally said,

"Okay, there's someone
that actually represents us."

There was a reason that
John Kennedy took his hat off

for his inauguration.

He chose to signal to,
you know, the millions of people

who were watching that
this was a new generation.

It was a new time.

And all of a sudden, men thought
that hats were old-fashioned.

Woman: John Kennedy had
the style

of a kind of wealthy,

upper class,
New England person.

So it was more casual than
the sort of typical,

ruling class person.

Man: Kennedy carried himself
with simple style.

It was never overthought.

It was very much with ease.

Style matters with Jack Kennedy,

and his style
is grace under pressure.

He defines cool.

President Kennedy's youth,
his sartorial excellence,

his great physique
were all differentiators,

I will say,
from prior presidents.

He looked fantastic.

Woman: Jackie Kennedy was so
beautiful and so stylish

and seemed to not sweat
the details.

Man:
She was like American royalty.

There was a kind of
impeccability about her,

but yet,
it was also relaxed.

Simple lines, bright colors,
beautiful sorbet colors.

Man: Her pillbox hat.

We still call those collars
that she wore,

the little rounded collars,
Jackie Kennedy collars.

They weren't hers,
but she made them hers.

Woman: It was decluttered.

It wasn't fussy
or overly feminine.

It was just chic.

Everyone was picking up
on how she dressed.

People could replicate
her style.

Woman: She was very intelligent
about thinking

how her style
was perceived.

She really had a sense
of how you could use style

from a political point of view
to get a message across.

Woman: When she came to
the White House

and became First Lady,

it was very important to her

to have
an American designer.

So she turned to Oleg Cassini,
who is a fashion designer,

but he was really a costume
designer of Hollywood

for many, many years.

And one of the reasons
that she turned to him

knowing that he was
a costume designer,

knowing that he knew
how to package stars,

both for the camera
and off camera,

that was critically
important to her.

Narrator: The presidential plane
landed at Orly Airport in Paris.

President Charles de Gaulle

greeted the American
chief executive.

Man: Jack Kennedy goes to Paris

because he wants NATO
to stay supreme.

He wants to meet
with the French leader.

De Gaulle and Jack Kennedy
did not get along terribly well,

but he and Jackie Kennedy
got along incredibly well.

She completely charmed them.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

She loved French fashion.

She knew who the top
French designers were.

I promise you,
Bess Truman did not.

Narrator: Mrs. Kennedy,
till this night,

had been wearing
American-designed clothes.

French fashion houses
were besides themselves

that peace came in the form
of Mrs. Kennedy's decision

to wear a gown made by Givenchy,

one of France's
leading designers.

She actually was one
of the first First Ladies

to kind of use
fashion diplomacy.

She took that opportunity
to celebrate French couture

in France
and sort of honor it that way.

She certainly captivated
the Parisians.

I am the man who accompanied
Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris,

and I've enjoyed it.

It certainly was the first time,
I think,

that Europeans had seen
a President

and a First Lady
as icons of style.

As, you know, a couple
that shared

that particular connection
and that value system

which had always been
very important in Europe.

But, you know, I think that
really was a turning point

for how everyone thought about
what you could do with an image.

When Kennedy's in Paris,

he is epitomizing the triumph
of American culture.

The big music in all of Europe
was rock and roll.

The most interesting artists
of the era

were Jackson Pollock
and his drip paintings

and Mark Rothko
and his color codes

and Robert Rauschenberg
and his collages.

We were selling our
pop culture and art

and style all over the world,
and everybody was buying.

But there was also
the civil unrest at home.

We're marching today
to dramatize to the nation,

dramatize to the world,

that hundreds and thousands
of Negro citizens of Alabama,

but particularly here
in the Blytheville area

denied the right to vote.

The Civil Rights movement

is one of the defining moments
of the 1960s.

Freedom Rides
and March on Washington.

Martin Luther King
as a symbolic figure.

Also someone like Malcolm X.

These are all parts of that era.

As a little girl, I can remember
very distinctly looking

at a black-and-white television
in our living room,

and these horrific, you know,
film of black people

in the South having water hose
turned on them

and the dogs attacking them.

And Martin Luther King
and this whole idea

of conquering hate with love.

The television was showing us
the plight of people in despair.

Look at any
civil rights footage.

These are African-Americans
wearing church clothes.

It's symbolic to say,

don't judge me
on the color of my skin.

Man: I think the
African-American community

always wanted to look nice

because they did not want their
lack of being dressed properly

to be held against them because
so many other things were.

It's not just civil rights
of black people.

It's civil rights of all people.

Certain people are frightened
of other people being included.

It's about inclusion.

You had all these different
groups question,

are we really equal?

And when they questioned
themselves,

they discovered they weren't.

So the '60s was, like,
we've got all these issues.

What are we gonna do
about the issues?

Announcer: "Firing Line"
with William F. Buckley Jr.

and Hugh Hefner.

Tonight, the "Playboy"
philosophy.

It is, I think, important
for the record to establish

that you are seeking, in effect,
to annul the traditional code

about what is proper
sexual behavior.

Let me ask you think, did you --

I'm suggesting
that we re-examine.

You suggested that two
or three times or stated two --

it's not true that I'm not,
by any sense,

because the end that I'm seeking
is really very similar.

The real key to the philosophy

is not offering an alternate
moral code

to the traditional one,

but a suggestion that we're
apt to find some better answers

if we re-examine many of these
old, traditional ideas.

You can't underestimate
the power of Hugh Hefner

when he invented
the "Playboy" philosophy.

While he was a sexual
revolution pioneer,

Hugh Hefner,
he was also a misogynist.

"Playboy" magazine
was the first time

that girlie magazines
were being sold

in reputable stores
over the counter.

Man: There is no magazine
after World War II

that has the impact on fashion
and style

as much as "Playboy."

"Playboy" was for men
like "Vogue"

and other magazines
were for women.

They taught men to see
themselves

as consumers and creators

and drivers of culture
and consumers of fashion,

and there weren't
a lot of fashion magazines

for men before "Playboy."

Woman: The "Playboy" man
is very sophisticated.

In Hefner's first letter
for "Playboy,"

I think he said something like
he loves to listen to jazz,

you know, read Nietzsche,
and he knows how to,

you know, make hors d'oeuvres
and all this stuff.

Woman: "Playboy" had a huge
impact on American society.

Hefner was creating
a new sort of male image.

It was telling men that
they also didn't have to be

just conscientious,
working drones.

It marked a kind of shift
between a culture

that emphasized
productivity and restraint

to one that emphasized
pleasure and consumption.

Narrator: Most people want to
decide for themselves

how many children to have
and when to have them.

The pill really has
revolutionized social,

as well as medical,

way the birth control picture
in the last decade.

There wouldn't have been
a sexual revolution

without the pill,
because the pill decoupled

women being sexually active
from women fearing

or inevitably
getting pregnant.

The pill had an enormous impact
on women's lives

and their attitudes,

and therefore,
also, their style.

If you could take a pill
and not get pregnant,

then women's whole behavior
could change completely.

It's a social revolution
for women.

You're a free person,
then you can kind of enjoy

your life or your sex life
or whatever, you know.

All of a sudden, it just brought
a different spirit to women,

more empowered, more freedom,
more control over themselves.

Woman: The pill was the single,
transformative,

medical miracle
for men and women.

You know, to change
their attitudes toward

how you could be
as a single person.

Man: Isn't this whole subject of
sex being discussed

and written
and talked about too much?

People are now talking about it
a great deal,

and I don't think that's so bad.

Woman: I do.

I think it's a pity.

I think it spoils the mystery.

Man: In 1965,

when Helen Gurley Brown
took over

"Cosmopolitan" magazine,

she completely
changed the magazine.

She took a couple redo.

Man:
Helen Gurley Brown represented

the intellectual woman
who was liberated

and was empowered
of her own independence

and her self-worth.

For her first cover,
which was the July 1965 issue,

she puts this model
named Renata Beck,

right on the cover with,
like, large breasts

and big, blonde hair
and a very kind of,

like, sexual expression
on her face.

And she wanted to project
the image of "Cosmopolitan"

as shaking things up.

Woman: "Cosmo" was all about
giving women permission

to be as, you know,
sexy and sexualized

and articulate about their own
sexuality as you want it to be.

Woman: This was one of the first
times in this country

that anyone had come out
speaking about sex so frankly

and honestly
and out in the open.

I did several of
the covers myself.

They were daring.

I remember walking in
for one of them,

and they handed me what looked
like a bunch of strings.

And they said,
"Here's your outfit.

Put that on."

It was Norma Kamali's
first time on a magazine cover.

And that was the kind of cover
that dared women

to go
where they'd never gone before.

Woman: The effect of
"Cosmopolitan"

rocked a whole culture.

Helen Gurley Brown
really impacted

the nation of women,
particularly young women.

Skirts went up, and you know,
people celebrated their bodies,

literally,
by showing their bodies.

The mini skirt is really just
a physical embodiment

of the desire
for sex in some ways.

It's meant to attract the eye.

They are out in front,
and they are taking control

and using their sexuality

as something that's very
powerful for the first time.

Woman:
There is an ongoing debate

about who originated
the mini skirt.

Most people associated
the mini skirt with Mary Quant.

Woman:
Andre Courreges always claimed,

"I was the man
who invented the mini skirt.

Mary Quant just popularized it."

And Mary Quant said,
"It wasn't Courreges or me.

It was the girls in the street."

It was definitely not a question
of fashion designers

imposing the mini skirt.

It was a question of coming
out of youth culture,

girls were wearing shorter
and shorter skirts.

They were taking it
upon themselves

to give themselves
their own identity,

so fashion designers were really
just kind of reflecting back

to them what they saw
that they were interested in.

Man: It came from young people
who wanted to style themselves

in a way that signaled
their departure

from mainstream society.

It was stunning.

This nation and the world

had never seen
anything quite like it.

Narrator: Everyone is coming
to the New York World's Fair.

They're coming from the four
corners of the Earth

and from Five Corners, Idaho.

Man: The 1964 World's Fair

was the most well-attended
event of human history.

Over 75 million people attended.

They have all of these
incredible pavilions

showing you what the modern
world's going to look like.

Man: I believe what was
so captivating

was we had proven ourselves
in World War II.

We had now become a world
leader as a country.

We had a lot of technology
we were really proud of,

and we were really upping
our game in the space race.

It became a huge part
of American inspiration

and American pride, as well.

The Space Race was
very influential in design.

Kressley: People were wearing
unusual, manmade fibers.

They were wearing
sleeker silhouettes.

They were wearing moon boots.

Woman:
There were bubbles everywhere

and A-line mini dresses.

Architecture was changing.

It was becoming
more modern.

So the world was
really changing.

The Saarinen Terminal
was iconic.

It was a lot of imagination
to this approach.

There was John Lautner
who made you feel

like you're walking
into the future.

Man: Lautner grew out of
Frank Lloyd Wright.

I knew him personally,
and I loved everything he did.

He did something that not
very many people did.

He took nature and this kind of
futuristic, architectural look

and pushed them together
like no one had ever before.

That's what's kind of magical
about his architecture.

It's very livable.

Space had an impact
on everything,

design across the board.

Lyndon Johnson: We want nothing
for ourselves,

only that the people
of South Vietnam

be allowed to guide their own
country in their own way.

You know,
when John F. Kennedy died,

in his place
comes Lyndon B. Johnson.

The youth culture
never embraced LBJ.

He's wearing big belt buckles,
cowboy hat, plaid shirts.

He's seen as something alien,

and he has none of the cool
of Jack Kennedy,

none of the cosmopolitanism
that they're craving.

Man: Youth culture starts to
rebel against Lyndon Johnson,

the Vietnam War.

It ultimately comes
to split the society,

and so when you look
at hippie culture,

it's really oppositional
to the Vietnam War.

Woman: They have no concept
of out loving the enemy,

so we're gonna change it.

But we're not gonna change it
with bombs and guns.

We're gonna change it
with fuzzy sweaters and flowers.

Woman: Fashion has always been
a tool of protest.

You know, clothing has always
been a symbol of the opposition.

Man: People were realizing
that how you presented yourself

was a political act.

It was an artistic act.

It was something
to have fun with.

Woman: Young people were having
their own style,

their own attitudes which were
expressed in their clothing.

It was very egalitarian.

It was anti-hierarchy.

It was about asserting
your individualism

against a social authority.

We saw influences of sort
of Hinduism

and Eastern Asian
culture coming in.

Gunn: Women aren't shaving
their legs or their armpits,

and no one's
wearing deodorant,

and women are wearing muumuus
and caftans

and Jesus sandals
are in abundance.

If you're dropping acid
and seeing 85,000 new colors

you haven't seen before,
umm,

you want to wear
some pretty crazy outfits.

Gunn: Men are wearing ripped
and torn clothes,

and we are going shirtless,

and people don't care
about grooming.

For men, of course,
that's when long hair began.

They grew their beards.

Everything was about let it go.

Woman:
When men had their hair long,

it was a statement
of anti-establishment attitude.

It was a statement
of individuality,

that you're gonna be
your own person

and not just this kind
of corporate flunky

who did everything
to serve the man.

Don't be afraid.
Don't be ashamed.

We want black power.
We want black power.

Crowd: Black power!

We want black power.

-Black power!
-What do you want?

Black power!

Man: The late '60s sees
the emergence of

a different approach
to racial politics.

It's not the civil rights
movement anymore.

It is the emergence of what
comes to be known

as black power.

You have the emergence
of a younger generation

led by groups
like the Black Panther party.

Man: Black Panthers adopted
a more militant stance

towards social justice
and racial politics in America.

The Black Panthers used style.

They used their bodies.

They used fashion.

Black Panthers, the big symbol
becomes the beret.

They're taking a military look

that's not part
of the Vietnam soldier look

and adopting it
to urban warfare.

The Black Panther look,
well, it was natural hair.

It was wearing
lots of black clothes.

It was black leather jackets.

It was definitely associated
with revolutionary

liberation movements
around the world.

That was a very, very powerful
and stylish look

that presented an image
of powerful and chic

and proud black people.

Man: Black Panthers,
they pioneered

a broader style culture

that was not just about fashion,

but it was also about gestures
and language and speech

and music as well.

Man: And so the style imagery
from the Black Power movement

is something that
would be appropriated

by various cultural forms
and groups

in many generations long after
the Black Power movement itself

had passed on.

Woman: Roy H. Frowick

dropped his first
and his last names

and won fame
and fortune as Halston.

Halston was once known
primarily as the man

who put Jackie Kennedy
into a pillbox hat.

Woman: Halston was an iconic
designer of the 1970s.

Man: If you looked at clothing
and fashion of the '60s,

and then saw the '70s, you were,
like, this was a radical change.

Woman: I worked with Halston,
you know,

when he was the hot shot
movie star, fashion designer.

His parties were legendary.

Man:
I knew Halston socially.

Conversations would happen.

I was an actor.
I wasn't in fashion.

He was interested in my opinions
because I wasn't into fashion.

And he offered me a job
being one of his assistants.

His staff was very young.

We were still connected
to the streets.

We were still connected
to the younger people,

not the rich people
that were buying his clothes.

And that's what we brought

as assistants
into the House of Halston.

He had the classicism
and he had the street, as well.

And the street was
where the party was.

Halston first became famous
for his hats,

his little pillbox hats.

And then he moved into making
very modern,

streamlined clothes.

Very, very easy-looking
garments,

but with a lot of panache.

Kressley: It allowed the fabric
to kind of just graze

over a woman's curves,
and it was revolutionary.

It was very new
because it was minimalistic,

and we hadn't seen
minimal in fashion.

Man: Halston's view of
American fashion

was about stripping it
of ornamentation.

So Halston was all about the cut
and all about the fit

and all about the movement
of whatever the fabric was.

Everyone wore his clothes.

Man: In the history of
American fashion,

there really had not been very
many famous American designers.

Halston was the first rock
star of American fashion.

In 1973, this Franco-American
alliance

decided to put a fashion show
on to raise money

for the restoration
of Versailles

because Versailles
was in bad shape.

It was the brainchild
of a brilliant PR person

named Eleanor Lambert.

And she would create
these events that were amazing.

Eleanor Lambert conceived it
as a fashion show.

Eleanor Lambert knew
it was no fashion show.

She was telling everyone
it was a battle.

And it featured five
American designers

and five French designers.

As far as the American designers
are concerned,

we had Halston,
Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass,

Stephen Burrows,
and Anne Klein.

Her number-one assistant
was Donna Karan.

Anne was the only woman,

so all the practicing was
sort of going on in New York.

Picking out the clothes
and how we're gonna do it.

And then we hit Versailles.

Now, the French went all-out.

Woman: The French put on very
elaborate fashion shows

with beautiful clothes
and elaborate sets.

Man: The French part lasted
2 1/2 hours.

They had so much scenery
and so much things

that had nothing to do
with the presentation.

They had big imitation boats
that were highly decorated

coming in with the girls
standing still

with the French design on it.

The French show was so long
and so boring

and so overstuffed,
the fashion was lost.

It was a hodgepodge.

When the Americans came on,
from the very first moment,

we pumped up the music.

I don't think they ever heard
Al Green

played in the Royal Theater
of the Palace Royale.

They never heard Barry White
and Love Unlimited.

Now, the whole idea of models

moving to contemporary music
was new.

Woman: "Bonjour Paris"
opened the show,

with all umbrellas and raincoats
with Liza Minnelli.

We used music and lights

and the girls themselves
to show the clothes.

Our girls strutted and walked.

The movement, the energy,

the throwing of clothes,
the showing the clothes.

The clothes never stopped
moving.

Karan:
And that was the first time

that kind of modeling
had hit the runway.

You know that the clothes
were free.

The bodies were free.
The energy was free.

The French didn't know
what was happening.

They'd never seen anything like
this at all,

and they went wild.

Man: They were standing up.

They were trying to dance.

And when it was all over,
these beautiful silk programs

that I think cost $200 to buy,
they were throwing them up

on the air
and throwing them on the stage

as if they were
at a rock concert.

We were dominated
by African-American models.

Man: It was a coincidence
that there were so many

black models in the show.

Man: We weren't counting.
Nobody was counting quotas.

Nobody was saying,
"We have eight black girls

and only four white girls."

Nobody was doing
that kind of math.

Man: It was not intentional.

These were all girls who knew
how to show clothes beautifully.

Woman: American designers
totally cast

the French fashion world
into the shade,

and the Battle of Versailles
became famous right away.

It was such a shock, both for
the French and the Americans

to see the Americans
doing so well.

The Battle of Versailles
legitimized the idea

of American style and design,

it said, this thing
really does exist.

It isn't just copies
of European fashion,

which is what everyone
had sort of dismissed it as.

It changed from then on,

because France started
imitating America after that.

It really was the beginning
of a seismic shift

in fashion in the world.

Narrator: Once upon a time,
there was three little girls

who went to the Police Academy.

Man: "Charlie's Angels" was
a very popular television show

in the late '70s.

Farrah Fawcett was
the most identifiable

of the show's stars.

Farrah Fawcett is perhaps
best known for the iconic poster

that she did in the 1970s.

Man: There was a serape
blanket behind her.

Her blonde locks
were feathered to the gods.

Woman: The hair was the first
thing that entered the room.

It was, like, whoo,

hair that did this

just without any help.

She chose to wear her
red Norma Kamali bathing suit.

Woman:
Farrah was a great customer.

I did a test of these
red swimsuits,

and I only made,
I think, six of 'em.

And I said, we've got
to change the fit.

I hate this.

And then I see this poster,

and that was
the suit she wore.

And that was on the wall
of every little straight boy

that I knew when I was
an adolescent in the 1970s.

I even had the Farrah
Fawcett poster.

The poster was
an unprecedented success.

Six million posters were sold.

Lucky for me,
it's in the Smithsonian now,

if you can imagine.

I think one of the reasons
that it resonated so much

is that she really embodied
a look of

what the ideal American girl
was in the 1970s.

Outdoors, athletic, healthy.

Man: But there's kind of
a sexual ferocity

that's also mixed in there.

And even to this day,
if I do photo shoots,

if they're trying to give
a period look,

they say Farrah Fawcett.

Woman: Everyone talks about
Farrah Fawcett

in the red bathing suit,

and what I think that shows
everyone is

just the way
that an item of clothing

can become a symbol
of a moment.

A kind of totem of a time
in our culture.

When it comes down
to American style,

you cannot leave out
Farrah Fawcett.

Woman: In the 1970s,

as women are
going into the workforce more,

some women move
towards trousers and pantsuits.

Others were saying, you know,
can you wear a dress

and still be a successful
working woman?

Woman: Diane Von Furstenberg
went to a guy she knew in Italy

and said, "Well, I have
this idea for a dress.

Can you make it for me?"

I made a few samples,
and I came to America.

I knew nothing about
American fashion,

and I lived
an American dream.

At age 25.

Diane was really in
the middle of the cool

because she was hanging out
with everyone at Studio 54,

and everyone looked at Diane
as becoming the new girl in town

with an incredible
look of her own

with her mane
and the wrap dress.

Woman: The wrap dress
is really like a kimono.

It's a dress with no zip
and no button,

and it existed before,
but nobody did it in jersey.

Cybill Shepherd wore it
for "Taxi Driver."

It was such a moment
at that time.

Gunn: It has an elegance
and a sophistication.

At the same time, it's so easy.

Put it on like a shirt
and wrap it around.

Nothing could be easier.

Woman:
It was relatively affordable.

It came in a million
different prints,

and it sold like hotcakes.

Von Furstenberg:
It is extremely flattering.

It is both proper and sexy.

You get the guys,
and their mothers don't mind.

Man: The little wrap dress

was worn
not only by secretaries

who could afford it,
but it was worn by socialites.

And it was the first dress

that liberated American women
and said,

"This is a go-to dress
for every woman.

Office to boardroom to society."

How many iconic items of fashion
can we cite that were created

fairly recently
that have had staying power?

That wrap dress is a phenomenon.

Woman: Diane Von Furstenberg

became a symbol of
women's liberation,

and women's empowerment,

and that dress embodied
all of it.

Von Furstenberg: 45 years later,
it's still around.

I made the dress, but really,
the dress made me.

There's a new form of assault
on city streets these days,

an audio assault.

The sound of disco music

pouring from portable radios
and cassette tape players.

It's part nuisance,
part culture,

and part sociology.

So disco gets its start
from funk

and soul music
of the 1960s and '70s.

Disco was a wild, mad,
drug-saturated party scene.

You danced the night away
with all your gyrations.

You were covered with sweat,

and people were
absolutely captivated

by the whole experience.

Man: Disco was very important
in terms of

people being free
to express themselves.

It showed us that
we can party together.

We can enjoy one another.

There are elements
of disco culture

that grow out of
African-American culture.

There are elements
of disco culture

that grow out of gay culture.

It had been going on,
but it was underground,

and in the '70s,
it came above ground.

Woman: It was definitely
an important music phenomenon

and had a big impact
on fashion for that decade.

Man: Disco brought out
some peacocking.

Disco said, "I very much care
how I look,

and I want to look good."

And not just women presenting
sexually that way,

but also men.

Well, Studio 54 was the mecca,

and what would you wear
to Studio 54?

The flashiest outfit
you could possibly find.

Man:
Guys would often wear suits.

Women would often wear dresses.

Platform shoes were big,

and disco sunglasses were
sometimes in vogue, as well.

It was very much a kind
of upscale, aspirational music.

And so a sense of fashion
was also upscale

and very much
aspirational, too.

♪ Macho, macho man

♪ Macho man, yeah

♪ I've got to be a macho man

♪ I've got to be a macho,
macho man ♪

Each member
of The Village People

was dressed as a kind of
anthemic male masculine style.

Gay men eroticized archetypes

that aren't typically
very gay-friendly.

Construction workers, cops are
clichéd bigots and homophobes.

Man: But it was so camp,
it was so over the top,

it's shocking and amazing

that there were a lot
of straight people

who just didn't even know
what was happening at all.

When I was a little kid,
one of my favorite groups

was The Village People.

I was kind of, you know, naive.

No gaydar at all, so I was
just taking Village People

at face value.

I'm just, like, man, these guys

are some cool-looking
dudes, man.

They got an Indian.
They got a police officer.

You got a guy
with all the leather.

Oh, my God,
these guys are amazing.

You know, I'm singing songs.

They had a song called
"Fire Island."

I'm just, like, "Yeah, man,
this is the bomb."

Like, I just didn't get it
until somebody broke it down.

But then even after that,
I was, like, "Ehh, so what?

The music's still great."

Man: This is now officially

the world's largest
anti-disco rally!

Woman: 50,000 people, the
largest crowd of the season,

showed up at
Chicago's Comiskey Park.

Many had come for
disco demolition night.

Man: Local radio morning man
Steve Dahl was the catalyst.

He is anti-disco.

Woman:
Between games, as planned,

a huge box containing
thousands of disco records

was blown up.

Man: Yeah!

Let's blow it up real good!

Woman: Fans stormed out onto
the field in the thousands.

Disco records were hurled
like Frisbees.

Bonfires were set.

Bottles were thrown.

The melee lasted an hour
and a half

and resulted in 39 arrests
and a few minor injuries.

Why did they get
all hyper?

They wanted to blow up the disco
records they don't like.

The disco demolition
destroyed Sox Park,

burning disco records.

They had to cancel the game

because they so screwed up
the ball field.

It was a kind of rage.

There was a lot of pushback,
and some of it was racist,

and some of it was sexist,
and some of it was homophobic.

Man: So many of the major
successful disco artists

were black or Latino.

Part of the reaction
was the idea that, you know,

let's get some whiter music
back on the radio

and back into popular culture.

Man: Disco was just perceived
by some as a threat

because this was
the music of queers,

and this was the music
that was pouring out of clubs

where there were

gay people dancing
with straight people,

and white people
dancing with black people.

And it was just perceived
as violating multiple levels

at multiple times
different taboos.

I think the reason why disco
was such a phenomenon was that

if you look at
what was happening in America,

it wasn't very much fun.

There's a malaise that comes
into the American life,

and disco was a way
to break from the malaise.

Man: Disco brought so many
different cultures

and gender
and race, class together.

The music had a joy to it.

And no matter what was
going on in your life,

while that music was on,
you were free.

Woman: The 1960s were
a combination

of sort of the highest of highs
in American history

and the lowest of lows.

The '60s is an era
of assassinations,

civil rights, counterculture,
and the birth of feminism.

Man:
All the many different styles

that American youth adopted

in the late '60s
and early '70s

had some bearing upon rebellion
in American society.

So you had everything from blue
jeans to black leather jackets,

natural hair.

There's a transition
in the 1970s.

A lot of stuff
came out of the '70s.

Wide ties, flair,
sort of terrible, muddy colors.

Things that we first
looked at it and thought,

"Oh, God, that was a mistake,"

have become part of
the grab bag of history

that's endlessly referenced
by designers.

Man: One cannot over-estimate
how the '60s and '70s

just smashed paradigms.

It divided the country into two

between mainstream culture
and counterculture.

So we look at the '60s and '70s

as about a 20-year period
of revolution and style.

The 1980s was excess
on top of excess.

Man: With every ying,
there's a yang.

A pendulum swings
so far to one side,

it swings back to the other.

And the world changes.

Profoundly.