Mod minis are back, and the sixties brought colour with them

The 1960s were on every mood board in New York this week. Micro-mini dresses with punchy primary-colour blocking, shapeless shifts in purple and vivid green, a swing dress built from a house's own Warhol portrait — the references were so direct that several collections read as a group show about a single decade.

The revival is not subtle, and it is not trying to be. The sixties mini was always fashion's shortest, most optimistic argument: a hemline that assumes the future will be fun. After several seasons of hemlines dropping and silhouettes apologising, the appetite for that optimism is itself the story. One New York trend report this week named 'mini mod' the first of the season's defining trends, citing primary colour blocking and unexpected paneling across collections.

My take: what separates a good sixties revival from a fancy-dress one is proportion discipline. The mod look only works when exactly one element is period-correct — the hem, the boot, or the colour block — and the rest is thoroughly modern. A micro-mini with a flat knee boot and bare styling reads as fashion; add the beehive and the white eyeliner and you have a theme party. The best looks on the floor understood this. The worst ones are already on resale sites.

The version to buy now: a swing or shift shape in one strong colour, worn with current accessories. It photographs like the runway and behaves like the rest of your wardrobe.