Although its origin is disputed, the name Swinging London came about during the early years of Harold Wilson’s Labour government, which was elected to office in 1964. An enormous upsurge in creativity accompanied the economic optimism created by the gradual loosening of post-war austerity. Suddenly London was full of innovators. The Beatles were invited to 10 Downing Street. Trendy nightclubs broke out like a rash, among them the Ad Lib off Leicester Square and the Bag o’ Nails round the corner from Carnaby Street.

Pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio City played far cooler music than the official networks did, although the TV show Ready Steady Go, which went out on Friday nights (slogan: “The weekend starts here!”), did play host to most of the happening bands. In painting, artists such as Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake reinterpreted pop art with a home-grown slant, and David Hockney set about refining his own brand of ironic understatement.

There was a whole new dynamism to the fashion industry, centred on Carnaby Street on the northern fringes of Soho, which took in the likes of Mary Quant and Ossie Clark. Other centres of gravity were the King's Road in Chelsea and Barbara Hulanicki’s Biba stores in Kensington. From the mid-1960s on, the young no longer bought clothes from outfitters or clothing stores, but from boutiques. The Apple Boutique on Baker Street was one, a short-lived spin-off of the Beatles’ record label.

Styles were mixed and matched with thrilling abandon. The Mod era, which had lingered on from the late 1950s, still inspired an instinct for sharp dressing in young men, defined by the well-cut suit topped with American army surplus parka. A more up-to-date look was the man-about-town style influenced by bands such as Manfred Mann, which involved collar-length hair, sideburns, three-quarter-length leather coats worn over roll-neck sweaters, and elastic-sided boots.

Women emulated the look popularised by the first generation of waif-like models, most notably Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton. Apart from the ever-shortening miniskirt, there were bell-bottomed trouser-suits worn over low heels, long knitted tops, little coats with oversized buttons and high-heeled go-go boots – the kind that, in the words of Nancy Sinatra’s bizarre 1966 hit tune, were “made for walkin’ ”.

With hair, anything went, from Twiggy’s short pageboy bob to the long, straight, folksy Mary Hopkin look. There were beehives and bouffants held in place with half a can of Elnet hairspray, while make-up either went heavy – as in the panda-eyed Dusty Springfield trend, with eyes peeping through layers of black kohl and false lashes stiff with mascara – or disappeared altogether in the back-to-nature ethos of the pop festivals.