Funky cats displace the sack, 1969-1970

"Even in the 'natural shoulder' realm, insurrection was becoming orthodoxy and the establishment was on the run:

Rather than confuse "traditionalism" with a way of life, these young businessmen [retailers] are making the world of the natural shoulder swing. Why not, they reason, their customers are. And that's been the problem of traditional clothing and selling during the past five years. Today's young men have taste and they hardly need the sober respectability of a sack suit. They welcome change and want a contemporary approach to clothes that really meshes with their way of life. In short: Their lives aren't dull and they don't want to dress that way. - "Traditionals Again Lead the Way," Men's Wear, March 14, 1969."
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"(McCloskey) characterized the considerable changes that had shaken the clothing industry during the 1960s as no less than a revolution in "gestalt," "a national change of consciousness" brought on my the insurgent hip: "For some - the young - it was easy," he wrote.

But the transition from a conditioned, receptive, Ivy-oriented, drinking, middle-brow national gestalt in the U.S. during the Sixties to the heady freedom and spontaneous bliss of doing your own thing (staying young forever) was to create a gulf in the mind too vast for bridging by many older Americans. By decade's end, the man in the gray flannel suit had been dispelled by the undeniable look of funky cats and frontier princes, and the millions who followed Moses out of Egypt were to catch a glimpse of a brand new Promised Land. - Jason McCloskey, "Aquarius Rising," GQ, March 1970."

Source:

The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism, Thomas Frank