Innovations lay in the altered cut of trousers, flaring them at the hem in the late 1960s (a style which continued well into the 1970s) and also of shirts and ties – shirts became skin-tight with long-pointed or rounded collars and ties were enlarged to the fashionable kipper shape. But throughout the 1960s the most characteristic garment for teenagers, students and other young people were denim jeans (worn with T-shirts or sweaters and running shoes). It was a cheap, practical yet stylish form of dress, both classless and a badge of freedom from convention.