--- description: Photos from a long-ago summer in New York City celebrating the eye-popping fashions of the young and what LIFE called 'That New York Look.' title: Summer in the City: Revisiting the Ultra-Cool 'New York Look' of 1969 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cb3f6723755b5c3/69884a6de20a87ec26a8abfd/19_00846306.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Culture](/tag/culture/) ## Culture Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Sixties Fashion: Revisiting the 'New York Look' of 1969 by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 6, 2014 4:59 PM CUT  Men ogle a young woman wearing pink pants and a gold top, New York City, summer 1969. Men ogle a young woman wearing pink pants and a gold top, New York City, summer 1969.Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 6, 2014 4:59 PM CUT Summertime in pretty much any city is a different experience than any other season, but summer in New York is another world. Many of the people who can afford to escape from Gotham in July and August usually do so, and even if their numbers are relatively small among the city’s eight million souls, the extra elbow room that their absence provides the rest of us on the streets, at the museums and in the parks, bars and restaurants lends the metropolis a far less frenetic vibe. It’s not that the city’s unique energy vanishes; instead, it’s directed toward the pursuit of leisure — street fairs, picnics and plays in the parks, free concerts, people-watching — rather than New Yorkers’ customary quests for money, power, fame, an apartment with _two_ bathrooms. . . . In the summer, despite baking in the sweltering heat, encountering undefinable and often jarring aromas around every street corner and dealing with the constant prospect of citywide blackouts, New Yorkers give themselves license to _slow down_. To cease striving. To breathe. [\[See the gallery, “Jewel of Manhattan: LIFE in Central Park, Summer 1961.”\]](http://life.time.com/culture/central-park-photos-of-the-jewel-of-manhattan-in-1961/#1 "undefined") In August 1969, meanwhile, LIFE magazine was busy celebrating not the season itself, but the eye-popping fashions that the “young people” — which, judging by these pictures, meant anyone under the age of 40 — were sporting during the summer months. In a cover story shot by photographer Vernon Merritt III, LIFE lauded “That New York Look” with an almost poetic zeal: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Here, in recognition of the singular look and feel of that long-ago New York summer, LIFE.com presents a number of the photographs that ran in the “New York Look” article, as well as some other, atmospheric shots that did not run in LIFE. Take a look — and then go ahead. Get outside. Take a stroll. Flirt. It’s summer, after all.  Tip-Toe Inn (1965, inspired by New York City delis built in the 1920s): "The interior spaces tend to be tiny in New York, and consequently they feel more crowded. So we frequently try to make things small, just to make them feel more like New York…I liked this deli’s degree of clutter." —Dan Bishop Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Young couple with a balloon in Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Young couple on the Staten Island Ferry, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A couple on the street in New York, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Young people at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Young woman wearing fashionable sunglasses, New York, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Private party on the balcony of a New York City apartment building, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Men ogle a young woman wearing pink pants and a gold top, New York City, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Young people at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  A couple embracing, New York, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  New York City, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Hare Krishna devotees wear traditional saffron robes and chant in a New York park, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Children in Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Girl in a pink dress holding a parasol leans against a tree in Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  People relaxing in New York's Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  People relaxing on rocks in Central Park, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Kids rowing in Central Park's lake, 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  New York City, summer 1969. Vernon Merritt III—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images   LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969\. Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969\. Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969\. Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969\. Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969\. Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode; see button at right. 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