This film is part of Free

Beachwear Fashion Show at Portland

The fashion world descends on Portland.

News 1965 1 mins Silent

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Overview

Miss World 1964 Ann Sidney hosts a beachwear fashion show at Portland. The hairdresser turned model was originally from Poole in Dorset and was crowned Miss World in November 1964 at the age of nineteen. She also won with a mod-style short haircut, made famous by Jean Seberg and Twiggy and representing rebellious and original hairstyles for women in the sixties. British fashion at this time was heavily influenced by pop music and the emerging subculture of mod.

The Who, the Small Faces and the Beatles were helping export British style around the world. Fashion magazines, cinema and television became the media of the masses and cheap affordable fashion became accessible to all as never before. The bikini two-piece swimsuit introduced by Louis Reard in 1946 was also by now a confident fashion statement. Before turning to an acting career, Ann Sidney went on to crown Miss World 1965, Lesley Langley from Weymouth in Dorset, the second time any country had won the beauty pageant two years in a row and the third time it was won by Miss Great Britain. Perhaps it is something in the Dorset water.