Their movement rippled across the planet in the 1960s, but are they influencing today's style?
The hippies, like other subcultures of the 1960s, were the answer to the definitive American dream: a good job, a house of their own, a couple of cars, a couple of children, and going to church on Sundays. This ideal capitalist life was the ultimate dream for those who survived the Great Depression and World War II with all their hardships and hardships, but did not suit the generation of baby boomers, whose whole life fell on the rapid economic growth of the post-war years.
Accustomed to living in relative prosperity, they did not make a cult out of it, placing above the freedom of expression. The rebellious youth of the late 1950s and 1960s protested against the conservatism and puritanism that characterized both British and American society at the time.
The second reason for the rise in rebellious sentiment among young people was the full-scale US intervention in the Vietnam War in 1965. The American military was still conscripted, and would-be recruits were reluctant to die in the overseas jungle for values they did not share.
From Persians to Beats
As the hippie movement became global, journalists and academics around the world became interested in its roots. The source of the subculture was called the teachings of the Zoroastrian religious leader Mazdak, who lived in the 5th century AD, who preached life in the commune and an equal distribution of benefits among its members. "Equally for everyone!" - this slogan of Mazdakites was equally suitable for hippies and builders of communism in the USSR.
Photo: Hulton Archive / Getty Images Hippie groups celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 1970. In the foreground are tie-dye shirts - one of the inventions of hippie fashion.
Promotional video:
A young couple dances to a psychedelic light show at The Electric Circus, New York's East Village.
1970 year. Woodstock has already died down, and everything that comes later will only be a pitiful repetition. But these young people still enjoy youth and freedom at the Isle of Wight Pop Festival.
Another source of inspiration for hippies was the Lebensreform movement, which was popular in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His followers preached a return to life in unity with nature, veganism, a raw food diet, sexual freedom, avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and the use of alternative medicine. And if the Persian roots of the hippie subculture look somewhat far-fetched, there is a direct connection with the "Lebens reformers" - in the 1920s, many German migrants came to the United States, some of whom shared these views.
The first stores of healthy food and alternative medicine overseas were opened by the Germans. Healthy lifestyles became especially popular in Southern California, where the Nature boys movement was formed to advocate a return to roots. On their farms, they grew organic food, kept the economy as close to natural as possible, and paid great attention to physical education.
But the main progenitor of the hippie subculture is the beat generation. It was beatnik writers and poets like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neil Cassidy, and Ken Kesey who first brought up the anti-war theme, started using LSD and socializing with psychedelic musicians, and created the first commune in California. Most of the beatniks eventually joined the hippie movement, and some researchers even believe that hippies are the rebranded beatniks.
However, speaking of hippies, one cannot but mention the hipsters. No, this is not about Apple lovers, plaid shirts, Ray-Ban glasses and thick beards, but about the original hipsters of the late 1940s. They loved jazz and imitated African American jazz musicians in every possible way: they wore similar clothes, played jazz, smoked marijuana and preached much freer sexual relations. The term "hipster", like "hippie", originated from the expression to be hip - "to be in the subject."
Total subculture
As a result, in the early 1960s, an unprecedented subculture was formed that influenced all spheres of life: religion, politics, social and sexual relations, food, music, art and fashion. Hippies advocated free sexual relations, life in communes, travel around the country, used marijuana and LSD, listened to psychedelic music, were fond of oriental spiritual practices and religions (mainly Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism), were pacifists and vegetarians.
Who Said Hippies Are Far From Glamor? A little pink, a little purple, bright makeup and a Hollywood smile - is not glam hip?
Young influencer Samantha Sasson poses in hippie and boho-inspired clothing at New York Fashion Week 2015.
Of course, real hippies would never dress like that. But for the characteristic colors and psychedelic print, you need to thank them.
Much of this later went beyond the subculture and became mainstream. Nowadays, no one can call a vegetarian and vegan keen on yoga and meditation a hippie. As well as the lover of traveling in a van, making a living by concerts in clubs and selling their own CDs. The same thing happened with hippie fashion.
The hippie appearance was supposed to emphasize their non-conformism and individuality. Hippie clothes were not supposed to limit their freedom, so almost all things were simple and free cut. Hippies loved ponchos, loose shirts, stretched sweaters, bell-bottomed jeans, girls wore wide dresses and skirts. In this case, only natural materials were used - no synthetics.
Due to the fact that hippies preached a departure from capitalism with its cult of money and the power of corporations, all their clothes had to be either second-hand or hand-made, or better both at the same time. Individuality was achieved through abundant decor and experiments with color: numerous stripes, jewelry made of beads and leather, dyeing denim and cotton using the tie-dye technique.
Hippies generally favored bright colors, oriental and floral patterns, and psychedelic prints. Much in the appearance of the representatives of the subculture was taken from the Indians. Hippies wore necklaces of flowers, adorned their clothes and hair, men often went topless and wore long hair. In order to somehow curb the latter, both men and women wore headscarves and bandanas, head laces and headbands.
Inspired by freedom
The hippie subculture could not but influence fashion, because the most popular musicians of the 1960s were close to it. John Lennon and Janice Joplin painted their Rolls-Royce and Porsches with psychedelic pictures, The Beatles dedicated songs to LSD, Jimi Hendrix appeared on stage in hippie outfits. Some elements of the hippie style began to permeate the catwalks after the Summer of Love, but the effect of the 1969 Woodstock festival - the pinnacle of the hippie subculture, from which the movement began to decline at the same time - was like an earthquake. The impulses from him shook completely different spheres of life for a long time, including fashion.
Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, who worked at Chloé in the early 1970s, really fell in love with the hippie aesthetic. Fashion designers tried to transfer some of the solutions from the hippie wardrobe to the catwalks, followed by such designers as Hanae Mori, Roy Halston, Thea Porter. Headbands and scarves, dresses of acid colors, oriental and psychedelic prints, tie-dye, loose fit - fashion designers brought hippie style to the masses.
The 2017 Roberto Cavalli collection seems to have arrived from the past. Loose dresses, embroidered vests, boots - “Summer of Love” can be repeated!
Characteristic print, vest and ribbon - there is almost nothing left of the hippie style.
Voluminous long dresses with a free cut were popular at different times, but such things hit the catwalks precisely after the planetary success of the hippie subculture.
Many solutions from the hippie's wardrobe immediately became mainstream. Flared trousers and miniskirts, cropped tops and ponchos, bright colors and floral prints, long hair for men, mustaches and beards - everything that was an attribute of hippie style in the 1960s, after 10 years has become an integral part of the disco style.
Hipstolgia
The era of hippies is already history, and quite distant. What in the 1960s seemed almost revolutionary demands is now the norm. The sexual revolution has won, a healthy lifestyle has become mainstream, and the music of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix has become classics. Nevertheless, Summer of Love and Woodstock still inspire designers today. In the mid-1990s, Tom Ford designed several collections for Gucci, the style of which was called "hippie chic". “Oh, yes, I just got something from my childhood,” Ford said with a smile about the 1996 collection.
His basic designs have not changed since the late 1960s: flared jeans, miniskirts and maxi dresses, loose blouses and shirts, leather and suede jackets. But the materials and workmanship have changed. Cotton and linen were replaced by silk and knitwear, while accessories made of leather and beads were replaced by silver and luxurious jewelry.
Hippie chic periodically returns to fashion. In 2014, several brands' collections featured loose-fitting maxi dresses in floral prints typical of hippie chic, presented by Zimmermann, Chloé and Etro. Psychedelic prints, loose fit, ponchos and fringes - this is already the Roberto Cavalli Resort 2017 collection. Inspired by the hippie style, the Anna Sui spring-summer 2018 collection.
In general, among the trends of 2018, the return of the floral print, bell-bottomed jeans, fringe and short tops can be attributed to the hippie trends. In the 21st century, hippie style does not exist in its purest form. Designers most often use only individual solutions that are characteristic of it. Much has become so mainstream that we don’t even think about hippie roots.
One of the reasons is that, unlike most subcultures, the hippie movement has almost completely disappeared, and the rare communes that have survived to us, like the Danish Free City of Christiania or the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, are perceived as gatherings of strange outcasts, nostalgic for a long time. bygone era. The most massive subculture of the 20th century, which protested against capitalism and the consumer society, simply dissolved in it, becoming a part of its history.
