Hippie Deluxe

Nineteen sixty-five launched a decade of revolution, as social, political, artistic, and cultural conflict transformed life in The States, Britain and Europe. The period witnessed the expansion of protests against the Vietnam War and in support of civil rights, as well as the birth of the women's and enviromental movements. Youth rebelled against the stablishment and rejected the values and aspirations of previous generations by experimenting with drugs, plunging into the sexual revolution, and rejecting material definitions od success. The young people who would soon become known as hippies.

Jimi Hendrix (left), Grace Slick & Janis Joplin (centre), and Jim Morrison placed the Hippie look on stage.

The Beatles: by 1967 their starched collar were gone. Instead, the band wore their hair shaggy and posed in an eclectic assortment of colourful prints, velvety, and furs.

  

The Bestles to ok the world by storm in matching outfits in 1963 ( left pic). By 1967, Paul, Ringo, George and John had traded in their staid suits for a more flamboyant style, seen at a press event for the Sgt. Pepper album release (right pic).

For hippies, vintage clothing provided an artful appearance at little cost, and was in harmony with their rejection of materialism and their embrace of the no commercial.

Hippies plundered Salvation Army and vintage store for their colourful "dress-up box" appearance, combining different eras, from the Renaissance, like granny dress, dandy suit, and gypsy skirts that evoked lust fantasies of bygone eras.

Thea Porter Dress with colourful butterfly print from about 1970. The saturated hues and loopy drawing style clearly reveal the influence of psychedelic grapic art. 

Young Londoners in General were rejecting mass produced clothing and pushing the boundaries of mod fashion, experimenting with more outrageous psychedelic style.

Vibrating colours of psychedelic commercial art: The american band Jefferson Airplane, The album Yellow Supmarine, and The Fool. 

The word 'ethnic' came to be used as a catchall for the accumulation of textiles, accessories, and clothing from across the globe that were worn alongside vintage fashion.

The values of indigenous people was an important aspect of the counterculture. They perceived many 'primitives' cultures as more natural than their own, lacking the materialism of corporate-controlled Western Sociaty.
The ethnic look was particularly popular on the West Coast, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has since become identified with iconic rock stars such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick, and the Doors.

Giorgio Sant'Angelo (left) was likely inspired by Sandro Botticelli's early Renaissance masterpiece Allegory of Spring( middle picture), in creating fantasy dressin sheer printed sink. In the early 1970's, british designer Ossie Clark (right) accentuated a Celia Birtwell floral print with a plunging neckline, gathered skirts, full sleeves, and delicate touch of stitched floral.

Youth was sovereign. Camp dethroned good taste. The rich stole their fads from hippies who rejected materialism. Tradicional Seventh Avenue designers including Bill Blass, Norman Norell, Oscar De la Renta, and Geoffrey Beene incorporated elements of street style in their high-end ready-to-wear designs, developing the "rich hippie" look for their well-heeled customers.

Model Veruschka wearing a Valentino poncho dress. Brazilian Magazine: Claudia 1969.

Celebs adopted hippie garments in their lifestyle: Liz Taylor (left), Barbra Streisand (centre) wore a adapted Indian Sari to the American Diabetes Association Benefit in April 1970, and princess Grace Kelly.

Fashion publication: Tweegy And Veruschka

Paris haute couture, which was equally receptive to influences coming from the youth on the street, turned out luxurious garments. A long way from its counterculture roots, hippie chic was born.

A rich patchwork of coloured silks, satins, and velvet por this Yves Saint Laurent dress. L'Officiel Sep.1969. 

Giorgio di Sant'Angelo crafted a dress for his fall-winter 1970 collection from lush velvet and trimmed it with woven ribbons that evoked the trade items incorporated as decoratives elements in the dress of Native American tribes in the 19th century.

Model Jean Shrimpton wearing one of the dresses from Goirgio di Sant'angelo first collection, which featured multiple skirts over embroidered lace pant and a romantic blouse. 

Gloria Vanderbilt was one of the many New York socialites to embrace the patchwork craze, turning old quilts into garments and furnishing fabrics (vogue, February 1970)

Caftan. Vogue Italia. March 1969

The spirit of hippie chic lives on.