Gear Guide, 1967: Hip-pocket Guide to Britain’s Swinging Carnaby Street Fashion Scene

The late 1960s ushered in a fashion revolution and Carnaby Street was its epicenter, birthplace of the mini-skirt and wildly exuberant fashion statements, all vividly brought to life in this reproduction illustrated pocket guide to London's swinging fashion scene at the height of its popularity and influence in 1967. Informative and entertaining chapters explore how the fashion trends began and developed and provide store-by-store reviews of the most happening and with-it boutiques with descriptions of decor and what celebrities one might expect to see there. Period photographs illustrate the era's most eye-catching fashion trends and clothing descriptions include equally eye-popping 1967 prices such as $4 dresses and $8 overcoats. The guide also includes amusing predictions about fashion beyond 1967 such as disposable paper clothing including paper shoes, transparent dresses and the inevitable "space travel" clothes that would come "when and if" we reached the moon.

Excerpt from Gear Guide, 1967

Gear, 35 Carnaby Street. Open Mon-Fri 9:30 am - 6 pm. Sat close 4pm.
Inviting looking place this. It's very hard just to pass by without looking in. Everything is pink and warm looking. The walls are all deep pink. Near the window there are thousands of bright feather flowers stuck in hundreds of pink tin tea-pots. There are also a lot of mobiles made with pink and orange wax discs. GEAR started by selling furniture..Now, however, they make up super children's clothes and sell everything from old coffee grinders (about four pounds ten), and Beardsley prints to label buttons that say corny things like "I HATE EVERYBODY". They sell trays, plates, aprons, carrier bags, teacloths and wastepaper baskets, all decorated with the Union Jack. They even have—Surprise! surprise!—flags decorated with the Union Jack!