Culture & Style
Style as Revolution
In 1968, what you wore, watched, and hung on your walls was a political act. Culture exploded in every direction at once.
"Fashion wasn't just fashion — it was a manifesto."
The year 1968 was a cultural earthquake. From the boutiques of Carnaby Street to the psychedelic poster studios of San Francisco, every corner of creative life was being reinvented. Young people didn't just consume culture — they created it, wore it, and used it to challenge the establishment.
The old rules of taste, decorum, and propriety were being torn up and replaced with something louder, brighter, and more honest. Art, film, television, and fashion all converged into a single, unstoppable wave of change.
The Look of '68
The Look of '68
Mini skirts, bell-bottoms, psychedelic prints, and the Nehru jacket — fashion in 1968 was anything but subtle.
Mini Skirt
Mary Quant's revolution hit full stride. Hemlines climbed higher as a symbol of liberation and youth power.
Bell-Bottoms
Flared trousers became the uniform of the counterculture, worn by men and women alike as a rejection of conformity.
Nehru Jacket
The collarless jacket, popularized by The Beatles' Indian phase, brought Eastern influence into Western wardrobes.
Psychedelic Prints
Swirling, eye-popping patterns inspired by LSD culture and Op Art made clothing a canvas for the mind-expanding era.
Silver Screen
Cinema in 1968
Hollywood's old guard gave way to a new wave of daring, provocative filmmaking.
The Year in Film
Hollywood Reimagined
Stanley Kubrick
2001: A Space Odyssey
Kubrick's visionary masterpiece redefined what cinema could be — a meditation on humanity, technology, and the cosmos.
Franklin J. Schaffner
Planet of the Apes
A sci-fi allegory for race, war, and nuclear anxiety that shocked audiences with its iconic twist ending.
Roman Polanski
Rosemary's Baby
Polanski's psychological horror tapped into the era's paranoia and distrust of institutions.
George A. Romero
Night of the Living Dead
Shot on a shoestring budget, Romero's zombie film became a landmark of independent cinema and social commentary.
Peter Yates
Bullitt
Steve McQueen's cool detective thriller featured the most celebrated car chase in film history.
Gene Saks
The Odd Couple
Neil Simon's comedy became a cultural touchstone, with Lemmon and Matthau delivering career-defining performances.
On the Air
The Tube in '68
Television brought the world's chaos — and its comedy — into every living room.
60 Minutes
CBSLaunched in 1968, this groundbreaking newsmagazine changed journalism forever with its investigative format.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
NBCThe wildly irreverent sketch comedy show captured the era's anarchic spirit with rapid-fire jokes and political satire.
The Tonight Show
NBCJohnny Carson's late-night institution was the cultural barometer of the era, reflecting and shaping American tastes.
Star Trek
NBCIn its second season, Roddenberry's visionary series tackled race, war, and equality through the lens of science fiction.
Visual Culture
Art & the Psychedelic Vision
From concert posters to gallery walls, 1968 art was electric, political, and impossible to ignore.
The psychedelic poster movement, born in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, produced some of the most visually arresting graphic art of the 20th century. Artists like Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso created swirling, barely-legible masterpieces for the Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom.
Meanwhile, Andy Warhol's Factory was churning out Pop Art that challenged the boundary between commercial culture and fine art. The assassination attempt on Warhol in June 1968 sent shockwaves through the New York art world.
Psychedelic Poster Art
Swirling typography and kaleidoscopic color for concert halls and counterculture events.
Pop Art
Warhol, Lichtenstein, and others blurred the line between advertising and fine art.
Op Art
Geometric patterns that created optical illusions, influencing fashion and graphic design.
Street Art & Protest
The Paris May '68 uprising produced iconic stencil art and slogans that still resonate today.
Explore More of 1968
The music, the politics, the people — every corner of the year awaits.