Meet '60's fashion fan Nicole

Nicole Frattaroli is a 20-something makeup artist who considers herself a child of the 1960s. The bumper sticker on her car probably reads “Just Visiting This Decade”.

By trade, Nicole helps women look their best in the beauty department of a local pharmacy, but considers the 1960s – a time of social and political upheaval – a series of years when fashion spoke more meaningfully to her than any time before or since.

“Clean lines, pastel colours, mock necks, the birth of the iconic shift dress… many of the things we see in stores today are heavily inspired by the 60's. It’s timeless! Women were constantly maintained and manicured. Nails were painted before breakfast, and hair was in rollers by noon. I adore the glamour of it all and how effortless the women of that time made it seem.”

While she acknowledges that women didn’t have the freedoms they have now (and for which she is grateful), Nicole laments the lack of chivalry between women and men.

“I do feel in some strange way that we were respected more so then than now. Just the way men treated women and how they opened the doors and paid cab fares without any hesitation. Everything was done with such class.”

One fashion icon to which Nicole particularly looks up is English supermodel Twiggy (born Leslie Hornby), who, she says, “embodied the 60’s like no other. From her iconic pixie hair cut to her enlarged doll-eyed eyeliner, she set trends that would live on forever. It’s said that short hair for women became popularized after her magazine advertisements started to hit the newsstands. She wore the big circle sunglasses, shift dresses and white boots, circle earrings.”

Nicole is also a big fan of Audrey Hepburn, “the epitome of femininity. She was elegant and graceful. Even when she had a cigarette in her hand, she still looked demure. Her style was chic yet sexy.”

Nicole’s favourite movie is – surprise – Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

“It was one of the first movies I remember my grandmother had put on for me to watch when I was little. I remember falling in love with Audrey’s look, her diamond necklace and black shift dress with her black gloves on, everything about it just mesmerized me. ‘Would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse? A girl doesn’t read this sort of thing without lipstick’…. one of my favourite lines from the film!

“I just love the idea of lipstick giving so much power to women.”

Question: what makes fashion trends go “out”, brings them back “in”? Nicole advises not to fall under the influence of the big houses like Chanel, Dior and Prada.

“Their advertisements are everywhere, from magazines to film. And (when) celebrities are seen sporting their fashions, that’s when a trend is really set! However, I think style is personal. It’s who YOU are, and fashion is heavily recycled. What you see now has been done and seen before.”

Wisdom passed down to Nicole from her grandmother.

“I would always raid her closet and try on all of her old clothes as she’d tell me stories of when she was younger and how fashionable she was wearing them. I really fell in love with the beauty queens of the era after researching more and more as I got older. I idolize women like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. I don’t have (anyone) I look up to from my own generation as much as I do women from then. We can be as dolled up as we choose to be and we shouldn’t be judged for it.”Read more at:formal dresses melbourne | semi formal dresses