Hippie 1960’s Fashions and Culture

“If you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”. These lyrics from the song, “SanFrancisco”, give us a glimpse into what we might expect to see a young hippie 1960’s type, wearing back in those days. They would often give flowers to people on the street and in the parks, hence the name “flower child”.
To this description of course we could also add hip hugger bell bottom jeans, a Pocahontas headband, maybe a chain belt, and a peasant top. Instead of jeans, a granny dress or long afghan dresses. Maybe a halter made of macramé with some beads about the neck. And maybe too fashionable for the early hippies, but popular later with a more sophisticated look, was a velvet top with tiny mirrors embedded into the embroidery. Everything was natural fabrics. The jeans might be patched, with fringed bottoms. Shirts, vests and jackets, could also be fringed. Boots were cool, but not those go go boots. The hippie didn’t want to look ‘fashionable’.
Also no heavy make-up. This would go against what the hippie 1960’s culture believed. Anything that was too manufactured or artificial was not cool.
Remember there was a rebellion going on against the establishment. The children wanted to turn away from what they saw going on in their parents world; war, greed, selfishness, hypocrisy. They thought all that mattered to their parents was a good job and a house in the suburbs.
The ‘Hippie 1960’s Movement’ was supposed to show the rest of the world how to live in ‘Peace’, and that your clothing wasn’t important, because we should look inside of a person for their true value, not at the clothes they wear, or how much money they have, or the college they attended.
Brotherly love would get you through the hard times. So, “do your own thing” and be yourself. Some people made their own clothes.
Of course with this said, we shouldn’t forget that the sixties fashions world was exploding with new and exciting stylish innovations, popular among other sectors of the population, but here we’re mainly discussing hippies.
However as the decade progressed, we will see how certain “hippie” styles did become fashionable.
And there was one designer who mixed it all up into a fresh look that was very fashionable. His name was Bill Gibb.

Many notables wore his fashions; Elizabeth Taylor, Twiggy, and many more.
He was known to put it all together, lace and patchwork, kind of a mish-match of things, but that was the point. A clash of color.
The inventor of the so called “hippie look”. He got many of his ideas from medieval clothing, and African influences.

These hippie styles have made a come-back in recent years. People are buying hippie costumes for Halloween parties and special occasions, and the hippie wedding dress is popular again.

Author; D.A. Grosshans

RESOURCES:
Hollywood Style Vintage

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