Pull Out Your Babydoll Dresses, We’re Having a ‘60s Go-Go Girl Summer

Last year, I wrote about the obsession with the babydoll aesthetic, and Sabrina Carpenter was the poster child. Sparkly bodysuits, big hair, feathers. The ‘60s have Hollywood in a chokehold, and Carpenter was the harbinger. I’m predicting we’re in for a Go-Go Girl Summer, thanks to the signer’s iconic Coachella performance and new work by her fellow musicians, Laufey and Olivia Rodrigo, all sharing a love of mini dresses, hair scarves, oversized sunglasses, bouffants and sky-high platforms.

For context, in mid-April, Chinese-Icelandic pop/jazz/classical sensation Laufey debuted her music video, “Madwoman,” in support of her album A Matter of Time: The Final Hour. The project was a cavalcade of the who’s-who of the Waisian (the affectionate nickname half-Asian/half-Caucasians will give each other) talent set. Hudson Williams, Alysa Liu, Megan Skiendiel and Lola Tung all starred in a Slim Aarons-esque poolside tableau, with a dose of 1960s Hong Kong à la Wong Kar-wai on the side. The gals all congregated at a mid-century modern estate, sporting thick, brightly colored fabric headbands and ostentatiously large sun hats, shift dresses and soaring knee-high Go-Go boots.

Laufey’s music video came on the heels of her friend Rodriogo’s announcement that her third studio album would be released in June. Titled you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, the album’s cover art showed the “drivers license” singer vaulting into the sky on a swing, wearing platform Mary Janes, knee-high socks and babydoll dress with a Peter Pan collar. Rodrigo then released a music video for the lead single, “drop dead,” wearing a similarly ‘60s-coded ensemble (including boudoir bottoms) as she galavanted through the empty hallways of the Palace of Versailles.

Meanwhile, Carpenter stayed true to her style for her Coachella weekend, opting for a cream mod dress, jaunty houndstooth pillbox hat and two-tone boots for an appearance at Sabrina’s Pit Stop, her eponymous pop-up hosted in partnership with Airbnb during the festival weekend.

All the performers’ looks felt like they’d been ripped out of the pages of a fashion magazine circa 1968. It brings to mind the fashion of icons like Nancy Sinatra, Goldie Hawn, Joey Heatherton and the Go-Go dancers who popularized the short hemlines, dramatic bouffants and cut-crease eyeliner. With summer coming (and predicted to be a scorcher), I’m ready to embrace these flirty, fun-loving silhouettes.