vivienne walker BEATNIK/MOD

I grew up in Adelaide, where it was very conservative. Young ladies were supposed to wear white gloves and be prim and proper, so when the beatnik craze came around, it was a rebellion to dress differently. I was 17 at the time, in 1962. My friends and I would dye our hair a harsh blue-black and put on white lipstick and black eye make-up (the more, the better). The girls would have a beret and black stockings or skinny pants, and the guys would have a striped t-shirt and goatee. We’d buy everything secondhand from the Red Cross.

The Beat Generation started in the 1950s in America, but it didn’t arrive in Australia until much later. In America, it was an intellectual, literary movement, all about poetry, jazz music and individual expression, which had a lot to do with the need for social change. But not so much in Australia. Thinking back, it was a lot of posing. You’d go to a friend’s place to talk and listen to Charlie Parker and Lennie Tristano. It was more about being seen and considered cool. But we made our own fun – no one had any money for drugs and alcohol, so we’d ride our bikes around a lot.

The biggest thing was to go to a midnight dance. We’d tell our parents we were staying over at a girlfriend’s place. I remember one guy took us in a lowered Holden that didn’t have any seatbelts, and we’d drive an hour out of Adelaide to go dancing.

At the end of the night, someone might have enough money for a Coke and we’d all take a sip.

After school, I was working for the government and decided to go on a holiday. My parents said it was most unusual for young ladies to go by themselves, but I went to London for 10 days anyway. It was absolutely mind-blowing. It was 1965, and the look had changed to ‘mod’ – there were boutiques on Carnaby Street like Mary Quant and Lady Jane, and musically, it was about Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.

It was a shock to come back to Adelaide. I remember getting off the plane in my long boots, wearing a skirt with buttons up the front, which were undone to just above my knee. My brother was horrified. Even though I’d travelled for a short time, I felt stifled back home, so it was great to get the opportunity to work in New Guinea the following year. I stayed for seven years, working different jobs. I even opened a mod dress shop called What’s New Pussycat for the European people there who worked in airlines or government jobs.

The fashion moved quickly from one thing to another back then – from the Beat Generation to rock ’n’ roll and mod to the ‘flower power’ generation. When I was younger, it was about wanting to belong to a group and be different. I still don’t think I conform to the usual idea of a 75-year-old, though. I enjoy myself and ride my pushbike like I used to all those years ago.