The Beat Generation of the 1940s and 1950s, was a subculture of intellects, writers, artists and musicians "beat" down by society.
Women of the Beat Generation is a book I have read a dozen times and will continue to read. Most of the men during this time period receive the most recognization, such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. However, the women of this generation, like Hettie Jones, Diane di Prima and Elise Cowen are also very inspirational. The street trends created by the beatniks included avant-garde looks considered "cool", with garments primarily in black and unadorned.
This picture of Allen Ginsberg and Elise Cowen was taken in Greenwich Village in New York during the 1950s.
This image was adopted from: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Images/cowen.gif
The functionality and "cookie-cutter" style of the 1950s was a complete rejection for the "Teddy Boys" in England. This subculture of young to middle upper class men and women began a social movement and style reminiscent of the Edwardian period that slowly began to trickle up to the upper classes. Their Edwardian style can be seen in this photo taken in London during the 1950s, with the elongated and almost draped men's jackets, skinny ties and slim legged pants. 
Anti-war and anti-establishment were the prominent discourses heard from the Hippies in the United States during the 1960s. This free love movement created a lot of street trends including jeans, ethnic garments and accessories, long hair and fringed leather jackets and bags. Seen here is a photograph taken of some hippies in California during the 1960s.
Brazilian-born designer, Alexandre Herchecovich lit up the runway in New York this year with his disco-tastic designs for his Fall 2009 collection. Sequins were seen from head to toe, from the leggings to the dresses. It seems that every garment can be quite electric with sequins, just like Disco.
Cristophe Decarnin, head designer for Balmain, was quoted as having "disco fever" when designing his most recent Fall 2009 collection, shown in Paris this year. The entire collections reminds me of a shiny shiny disco ball. The futuristic and synthetic trends of the Disco era can be seen not only in the fabric choices, but also in the sequents and in the shapes of the shoulders.
