Today it’s Chanel suits, Hermes Birkins, and Christian Louboutin heels. Forty years prior on August 16, 1969 we were rocking – and strutting – to different beats.
Taking a trip down memory lane and anyone who was a hippie then most probably challenged personal hygiene, partied with hallucinogens, and maybe even participated in a bra burning. And while all that might be in the past, it’s far from forgotten. As the ultimate anti-fashion fashion event – no designers, clothing optional, and a whole lot of love (think the look sported by love interest, Jenny Curran in Forrest Gump) – who would have guessed today’s designers would look to Woodstock to incorporate some hippie-esque elements into their Spring/Summer 2009/2010 and Autumn(Fall)/Winter 2009/2010 collections.
(Believe it or not, the era had nothing to do with fashion. More likely, it victimized it – leaving it for roadkill, while the “love the one you’re with” ethos of the 60′s and 70′s was more mainstream than any Gucci fringe stiletto boot fashionisers might fall for this season.)
Though it was the time of sex, drugs, and good tunes, anyone who lived it will tell you Woodstock did everything to torture the fashion of the day. Let’s reflect. From the original Birkenstocks clogs (the teenagers’ uniform of the early 90′s) which soon evolved into the famous Dr. Scholl’s sandals and from there your typical everyday flip-flops. And it continues… from there we got lost down the path of Tevas (shame on the people who wear them with socks, no excuses!) evolving into one of the most hideous shoes (which was headed towards bankruptcy just a month ago and still holding my breath), the Crocs. Can you see how Woodstock stole our fashion!?!?
Susan Reynolds, an American author who attended Woodstock and is currently compiling stories from fellow festival goers, said they wore skirts up to their behinds or to the floor, including ratty bell-bottomed jeans with the frayed edges, all dirty and dragging on the ground collecting the dust and memories that the era would be remembered for.
And now? We have inserted Casual Fridays into our weekly agenda and they’re spreading faster than swine flu through the rest of the workweek. Khakis, jeans, odd suited polo shirts are now office work staples unlike the glamourous cast of the Sterling Cooper agency from the 60′s set “Mad Men”.
Diane Davis, editor of Stylist.com, said of the change: “Style and fashion became democratic, but on the other hand, an era of anything goes… it was about expressing yourself, decorating yourself, and showing your spirit in a very different way than before.” Of course, we can’t be thankful for everything that sprung from the decade, but it seems that the nostalgia of the time is calling everyone from Michael Kors to high street Banana Republic to release a tribute collection to the fashion circuit of the 1960′s.
But as much as the movement’s revolutionary attack on fashion managed to wipe out decades of glitz and glamour, counterculture fashion of the 60′s was actually challenging. Wrapping oneself in the American flag wasn’t a fashion statement – it was political. While war raged in Vietnam then, wars rage in Iraq and Afghanistan now – and today’s music lovers head to their favourite festival grounds, awaiting the dirt and grit, the photographers and news cameras that inevitably follow, thinking they are being part of history. Except they’re not. Today’s ‘nouveau bohemians’ are just cramming as much toilet paper, overpriced beers, and their newest ‘festival ensembles’, the poster children of American Apparel and Urban Outfitters, forgetting that back then – when Jimmie Hendrix, was calling – boycotting denim was a political statement.
“The hippie aesthetic was motivated by an idea of getting away from the whole fashion system,” said Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “Instead you were expressing yourself… [it] just happened that everybody was expressing themselves in very similar ways.” I find it hard to come to that same conclusion of today’s standards based around what kind of ‘jeggings’ you’re sporting.
Reynolds said: “The attitudes gave fashion a huge push in a more casual, break-all-the-rules direction.” Some rules just weren’t meant to be broken, but how do you fair in this regard, keeping in mind many of you have surely dressed as a hippie for some kind of costume party… My, how times – or should I say fashion – has changed. And yet… how it continues to stay the same.
By Daniella Cagol
