That 60s Show
September 17, 2015 5:40 PM Subscribe
Not one of these hippies looks dirty, or stoned, or tuned out; and they all apparently were a lot happier then I was led to believe. Or maybe this is not representative. Neat pictures though.
In general, high school students love to explore new ideas and new systems of belief, but they love to fit in with the cool kids more.
posted by infinitewindow at 5:45 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 5:45 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Cool pictures. But also: I got a sense that these are also the cool kids, who were more about fashion than expanded consciousness. I could be wrong, I'm just going on looks - and most of the looks scream 'daddy has money' to me.
posted by kanewai at 5:49 PM on September 17, 2015 [18 favorites]
posted by kanewai at 5:49 PM on September 17, 2015 [18 favorites]
Or maybe this is not representative
Most of these pictures appear to be from pretty affluent areas (Woodside, Newport Beach, Beverly freaking Hills), which explains why I feel like I'm looking at rich kids playing dressup rather than an actual, like, counterculture.
posted by dersins at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [32 favorites]
Most of these pictures appear to be from pretty affluent areas (Woodside, Newport Beach, Beverly freaking Hills), which explains why I feel like I'm looking at rich kids playing dressup rather than an actual, like, counterculture.
posted by dersins at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [32 favorites]
These look like pictures of the cool kids.
posted by rhizome at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 5:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
In that way I'm calling BS that these are pictures of hippies.
posted by rhizome at 5:51 PM on September 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 5:51 PM on September 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
"Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?"
posted by Kinbote at 5:56 PM on September 17, 2015 [34 favorites]
posted by Kinbote at 5:56 PM on September 17, 2015 [34 favorites]
Not everybody who was alive in 1969 was a hippie. These pictures just seem to show that hippie fashion/culture had some influence on mainstream fashion/culture.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:57 PM on September 17, 2015 [34 favorites]
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:57 PM on September 17, 2015 [34 favorites]
hippies didn't get dirty until 1969. All that mud just never washed off.
posted by philip-random at 5:57 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 5:57 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
People used to smile more?
posted by gwint at 5:58 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by gwint at 5:58 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
I've always thought the buckskin vest was always an especially tone-deaf "I love nature just like those injuns" statement that I'd hope a real hippie would avoid.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
holy cow I just had a flashback to those crocheted ponchos we were all wearing. I WAS SO COOL YOU GUYS.
posted by janey47 at 6:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by janey47 at 6:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
Come on now. The one in the shortveralls and the floppy bucket hat looks a bit stoned.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:02 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 6:02 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
These look like pictures of the cool kids.
In that way I'm calling BS that these are pictures of hippies.
They're high school hippies, not 'real' hippies.
I was one of those. (Class of '70) We weren't allowed to be dirty, at school.
I wouldn't think this was necessarily affluent (although I did see some Beverly Hills references). It looked pretty normal 1969 to me.
I wasn't in a 'rich' school, although it was upper-middle-class suburbia, and this wouldn't have looked out of place at my school.
But these weren't the cool kids- those were still the football players and cheerleaders in 1969.
posted by MtDewd at 6:03 PM on September 17, 2015 [12 favorites]
In that way I'm calling BS that these are pictures of hippies.
They're high school hippies, not 'real' hippies.
I was one of those. (Class of '70) We weren't allowed to be dirty, at school.
I wouldn't think this was necessarily affluent (although I did see some Beverly Hills references). It looked pretty normal 1969 to me.
I wasn't in a 'rich' school, although it was upper-middle-class suburbia, and this wouldn't have looked out of place at my school.
But these weren't the cool kids- those were still the football players and cheerleaders in 1969.
posted by MtDewd at 6:03 PM on September 17, 2015 [12 favorites]
Being a member of the counterculture hippie movement did not necessarily translate into being dirty, or stoned, or tuned out, or dropped out. It just meant taking a different direction, mostly culturally, than their parents took. This translated into fashion that swept the youth generation. I think maybe today's hippies are more dirty than were the hippies back then. The hippies back then were more akin to the hipsters of today, except they represented a true reversal in values from their parents: sexual freedom, anti war, rock 'n roll music, anti-establishment, respect for nature, etcetera. Plus, they weren't dialed into digital media -- which perhaps means the movement was even more widespread than today's hipsters, simply because there was no social media to fuel it. It was propelled mostly by ideals. Fashion was just a way to align yourself with a certain movement to reflect those ideals.
posted by zagyzebra at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by zagyzebra at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015 [14 favorites]
Come on now. The one in the shortveralls and the floppy bucket hat looks a bit stoned.
Well, she does seem to have the munchies, so I might have to give you that one.
Also, that teacher in the final picture? I can remember my first teachers in 73-75 time frame, but I'm guessing hippie culture wouldn't have gone over well in DoD schools.
posted by COD at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015
Well, she does seem to have the munchies, so I might have to give you that one.
Also, that teacher in the final picture? I can remember my first teachers in 73-75 time frame, but I'm guessing hippie culture wouldn't have gone over well in DoD schools.
posted by COD at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015
Most of the 'real hippies' were fairly affluent themselves. The middle and working class kids were either at work or in Vietnam.
posted by jonmc at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 6:04 PM on September 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Those tights in the first picture don't say "hippie" to me so much as "Anime Warrior".
I am fine with this.
posted by selfnoise at 6:06 PM on September 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
I am fine with this.
posted by selfnoise at 6:06 PM on September 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
the (NSFW) internet k-hole is having a kind of 80's punk/metal/goth period if you want more 'authentic' counter culture ephemera
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:10 PM on September 17, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:10 PM on September 17, 2015 [14 favorites]
this guy looks dirty. he also looks like a 35 year old cast to play a teenager in a 90s TV show.
posted by mullacc at 6:11 PM on September 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by mullacc at 6:11 PM on September 17, 2015 [11 favorites]
Charles Manson is responsible for the "dirty hippie" meme.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:13 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:13 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
They are dirty on the inside, tainted with the effluvia of filthy lucre.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:14 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:14 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
Look how thin everyone is.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:15 PM on September 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:15 PM on September 17, 2015 [9 favorites]
Those pictures could totally pass for the Austin Texas 2013 "desert witch" fashion.
posted by Annika Cicada at 6:19 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Annika Cicada at 6:19 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
These are hippies in much the same way as kids who buy clothes at Hot Topic are punks.
[edited to fix awful sentence structure]
posted by scratch at 6:20 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
[edited to fix awful sentence structure]
posted by scratch at 6:20 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
this guy looks dirty. he also looks like a 35 year old cast to play a teenager in a 90s TV show.
He gives off a creepy Roman Polanski vibe.
posted by chococat at 6:24 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
He gives off a creepy Roman Polanski vibe.
posted by chococat at 6:24 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
These look like pictures of the cool kids.
Yeah, that second picture is of kids at Corona Del Mar High School, which is where the kids I teach in K-6 go to 7-12th grades. I know tons of kids there, and they are most definitely the cool, and more importantly, rich, kids. Like the kids who get into Harvard because their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents went there.
That said, there are some really awesome kids there, and even though they still have enough money to appropriate all the cultures, some of them will grow up and do some awesome things.
And holy shit, October 1969 is my birth month!
posted by Huck500 at 6:25 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yeah, that second picture is of kids at Corona Del Mar High School, which is where the kids I teach in K-6 go to 7-12th grades. I know tons of kids there, and they are most definitely the cool, and more importantly, rich, kids. Like the kids who get into Harvard because their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents went there.
That said, there are some really awesome kids there, and even though they still have enough money to appropriate all the cultures, some of them will grow up and do some awesome things.
And holy shit, October 1969 is my birth month!
posted by Huck500 at 6:25 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
"Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?"
Stop trying to make ponchos happen, kinbote.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:26 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
Stop trying to make ponchos happen, kinbote.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:26 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
Those pictures were from a Life Magazine feature and there is probably nothing organic or representative about them. /wetblanket
posted by Western Infidels at 6:27 PM on September 17, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by Western Infidels at 6:27 PM on September 17, 2015 [12 favorites]
I'm pretty sure I can spot half the cast of Manhattan in that "Beverly High School classmates" photo.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:29 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 6:29 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have never in my life seen that thing, which several women in the pictures are doing, of tying a scarf around your leg just above the knee. But I am now hoping it comes back. It's like a fun, colorful tourniquet.
posted by escabeche at 6:31 PM on September 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 6:31 PM on September 17, 2015 [17 favorites]
I also feel like the "young man" Erica Farber is walking with looks a lot like a skeevy teacher hoping not to be seen with her at that moment, but that might just be the spy-camera angle of it.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:33 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 6:33 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Weird pictures. Everyone looks pretty normal for kids in 1969, except for the one person who always seems to be the focus of the shot. Those people look to be just a little conspicuously over-done, fashion wise. Like a designer made them up to be "youthful" but even more.
I have a feeling these might be fashion shots for some publication of the era.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:34 PM on September 17, 2015
I have a feeling these might be fashion shots for some publication of the era.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:34 PM on September 17, 2015
I have never in my life seen that thing, which several women in the pictures are doing, of tying a scarf around your leg just above the knee. But I am now hoping it comes back. It's like a fun, colorful tourniquet.
In suburban Connecticut in the late 70s/early 80s, it was a guy thing, usually with a bandanna. The metalheads did it.
posted by scratch at 6:41 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
In suburban Connecticut in the late 70s/early 80s, it was a guy thing, usually with a bandanna. The metalheads did it.
posted by scratch at 6:41 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
We kinda liked Milos Forman's film of Hair, but the hippies looked a bit too clean.
These photos of nice young people actually reminds me of this Janis Ian song.
posted by ovvl at 6:44 PM on September 17, 2015
These photos of nice young people actually reminds me of this Janis Ian song.
posted by ovvl at 6:44 PM on September 17, 2015
It didn't take very long for hippie fashion to get co-opted by the mainstream fashion industry.
posted by octothorpe at 6:49 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:49 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Great photos. Looks pretty much like my high school in 1969, and that was in the South. We did have TV back then, you know. Plus Seventeen magazine. And Penneys and Sears (and Rich's and Davison's in Atlanta) were full of these kinds of clothes. My mom sewed me a lot of miniskirts and bell bottoms, too. Most of us probably wouldn't have called ourselves hippies until we got to college -- those of us who did leave town to go to college, of course.
I still think guys look better with long hair, and women look better without makeup.
Most of these folks are around 60 now. Hope they're still smiling.
posted by merrill at 7:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
I still think guys look better with long hair, and women look better without makeup.
Most of these folks are around 60 now. Hope they're still smiling.
posted by merrill at 7:01 PM on September 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
These aren't the hippies- by '69, these are the squares.
Those patterned tights, tho
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:05 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Those patterned tights, tho
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:05 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Actual hippy kids did not dress this way. I was in San Francisco for a LOT of this. Actual hippy kids had to deal with parents buying their clothes, and school dress codes. So necklaces, funny buttons, granny glasses, were little signals at school. So were mini - skirts. Stamped brass, beads, patchouli, India Crafts oils, incense these marked the hippy kids.
Out of school levies and tie - dye.
The outfits in these pictures would have been regarded as phoney.
Those tight look like what a Mod kid would wear.
Almost the most hippy thing you could have was Army patches, even a field jacket or a 'Nam jacket, which one decorated with trims, patches, embroidery...
Not one of these kids has a head - band or bandana...
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:05 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
Out of school levies and tie - dye.
The outfits in these pictures would have been regarded as phoney.
Those tight look like what a Mod kid would wear.
Almost the most hippy thing you could have was Army patches, even a field jacket or a 'Nam jacket, which one decorated with trims, patches, embroidery...
Not one of these kids has a head - band or bandana...
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:05 PM on September 17, 2015 [8 favorites]
Some of those students look like college age catalog models posing in staged photographs.
posted by Beholder at 7:08 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Beholder at 7:08 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
'Definitely not a random sample.... bright yellow/ochre was everywhere that year, also those odd polyester racing windbreakers.
posted by onesidys at 7:11 PM on September 17, 2015
posted by onesidys at 7:11 PM on September 17, 2015
Yeah, that's Mod, man, not hippy.
But it's all pretty groovy.
posted by allthinky at 7:13 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
But it's all pretty groovy.
posted by allthinky at 7:13 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
In suburban Connecticut in the late 70s/early 80s, it was a guy thing, usually with a bandanna. The metalheads did it.
On your boot, poseur!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:16 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
On your boot, poseur!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:16 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I can see Michelle Obama wearing that teacher's dress.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
That was pretty much my life.. Including that red MG-A...and, I married one of those long haired blonds... life was good...
posted by HuronBob at 7:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by HuronBob at 7:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
this guy looks dirty. he also looks like a 35 year old cast to play a teenager in a 90s TV show.
Dirty as in creepy, definitely. But I also had the reaction of noticing how clean and well-groomed everyone was. I wonder if it was just for the photo shoot, or if that was really the norm (at least in those kinds of schools).
I have never in my life seen that thing, which several women in the pictures are doing, of tying a scarf around your leg just above the knee. But I am now hoping it comes back. It's like a fun, colorful tourniquet.
I can remember people who were really into bands like Skid Row doing this with red bandannas. I don't recall if the bandannas were tied under or over the carefully-located rips in their jeans, though.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:26 PM on September 17, 2015
Dirty as in creepy, definitely. But I also had the reaction of noticing how clean and well-groomed everyone was. I wonder if it was just for the photo shoot, or if that was really the norm (at least in those kinds of schools).
I have never in my life seen that thing, which several women in the pictures are doing, of tying a scarf around your leg just above the knee. But I am now hoping it comes back. It's like a fun, colorful tourniquet.
I can remember people who were really into bands like Skid Row doing this with red bandannas. I don't recall if the bandannas were tied under or over the carefully-located rips in their jeans, though.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:26 PM on September 17, 2015
Well I tried to see if Google would yield any more 60s chicks sporting leg tourniquets and I got nothing. I have to admit it's pretty cute, I'm surprised it didn't catch on. Or maybe I can't come up with the magic search term.
posted by HotToddy at 7:27 PM on September 17, 2015
posted by HotToddy at 7:27 PM on September 17, 2015
Would have loved for the author to have tracked down a few of them and taken pictures of them at ~63 in their stretch spandex pants with sensible grandma top.
I am a few years younger than these folks, but this is somewhat representative of what I remember friend's older siblings wearing.
posted by AugustWest at 7:34 PM on September 17, 2015
I am a few years younger than these folks, but this is somewhat representative of what I remember friend's older siblings wearing.
posted by AugustWest at 7:34 PM on September 17, 2015
Bandannas tied just about anywhere on your body was a thing with the heavy metal crowd in the Midwest in the 80s.
I too wonder if maybe this wasn't a bit staged. Did teenagers not have acne in 1969? Everybody in these pictures looks like they came from their commercial shoot as the "after" model in a Sea Breeze ad.
posted by COD at 7:36 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
I too wonder if maybe this wasn't a bit staged. Did teenagers not have acne in 1969? Everybody in these pictures looks like they came from their commercial shoot as the "after" model in a Sea Breeze ad.
posted by COD at 7:36 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
My parents the hippies took one look at these photos, said "Fuck this noise", and then gave me the longest lecture on why all these rich kids are posers in a staged ad for teen fashion.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [19 favorites]
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [19 favorites]
The bandanna on the thigh thing was done by guys into heavy metal in my high school in New Mexico in the early 80s. A few tough chicks wore them also. (At least we thought of ourselves as such. :-)
I was struck by how modest so much of the clothing is (by comparison to current clothing). Some of those outfits look so comfortable. Seriously hating the skinny jean fad. Ugh.
posted by Beti at 7:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was struck by how modest so much of the clothing is (by comparison to current clothing). Some of those outfits look so comfortable. Seriously hating the skinny jean fad. Ugh.
posted by Beti at 7:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
That is way more visible knees than I had been lead to expect.
posted by ckape at 7:42 PM on September 17, 2015
posted by ckape at 7:42 PM on September 17, 2015
I mean, LIFE magazine didn't have a reputation for staging photos. I don't know why people assume this isn't "real," because these are attractive young people? They tend to be.
posted by girlmightlive at 7:44 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by girlmightlive at 7:44 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
yeah, these are mainstream '60s peoples. I was in early grade school in Florida in the early '70s and by then my TEACHERS were dressing like this...
(edit) the last picture IS a teacher, or more likely a model acting like one, so yeah...
(one more edit) My extremely conservative parents had no issue with my brother and I wearing army surplus type stuff with a lot of random patches, so that had also become co-opted and mainstream. I also think none of us know what it really symbolized.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:48 PM on September 17, 2015
(edit) the last picture IS a teacher, or more likely a model acting like one, so yeah...
(one more edit) My extremely conservative parents had no issue with my brother and I wearing army surplus type stuff with a lot of random patches, so that had also become co-opted and mainstream. I also think none of us know what it really symbolized.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:48 PM on September 17, 2015
•In suburban Connecticut in the late 70s/early 80s, it was a guy thing, usually with a bandanna. The metalheads did it.
•The bandanna on the thigh thing was done by guys into heavy metal in my high school
•Bandannas tied just about anywhere on your body was a thing with the heavy metal crowd in the Midwest in the 80s.
•I can remember people who were really into bands like Skid Row doing this with red bandannas.
Has everyone forgotten about Chachi?
posted by chococat at 7:56 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
•The bandanna on the thigh thing was done by guys into heavy metal in my high school
•Bandannas tied just about anywhere on your body was a thing with the heavy metal crowd in the Midwest in the 80s.
•I can remember people who were really into bands like Skid Row doing this with red bandannas.
Has everyone forgotten about Chachi?
posted by chococat at 7:56 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Here's the original Life magazine article, which includes photo credits. Yes, many of the photos were taken at affluent high schools (starting with Beverly Hills High).
posted by 1367 at 8:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by 1367 at 8:17 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
These kids are hippies the way AMA riders are Hell's Angels. Neat clothes, though. These guys don't have the look of kids with emerging intelligence crashing smack dab into the hypocritical dogma of Pax Americana, nor whiffed the cesspool in the basement of their lovely homes, where their parents have shoveled all the shit created in bringing their modest American Fortunes into being. None of them have the appearance of one who has seen the elephant. They are fashion horses, riding a naïve paradigm into the delusion that we'll all get jobs and watch bluebirds fuck in the apple trees. They will teach the World To Sing. Those other hippies, the ones that read and scream and look for the exit, they are, you know, dirty. Some of these kids will turn on tune in and drop out, and that's when Hell will begin to rise, but for now they are lovely children, myopic, relentlessly charming, who have not yet become complicated, enjoying the brief harvest of their season.
They are the past that never was what it used to be. Jesus weeps.
posted by mule98J at 8:20 PM on September 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
They are the past that never was what it used to be. Jesus weeps.
posted by mule98J at 8:20 PM on September 17, 2015 [15 favorites]
Mr.Encyclopedia: I've always thought the buckskin vest was always an especially tone-deaf "I love nature just like those injuns" statement that I'd hope a real hippie would avoid.
You're fantasizing about a post-2000 "Cultural appropriation is wrong!!!" attitude that simply didn't exist back then.
Wearing bucksin, turquoise jewelry, and feathers were a hip way to show your solidarity with the (then-nascent) Native American rights movement, man.
And frankly, it could even be quite sincere. "Sincere" - the most abominable sin in today's culture - was actually a virtue back then.
posted by IAmBroom at 8:22 PM on September 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
You're fantasizing about a post-2000 "Cultural appropriation is wrong!!!" attitude that simply didn't exist back then.
Wearing bucksin, turquoise jewelry, and feathers were a hip way to show your solidarity with the (then-nascent) Native American rights movement, man.
And frankly, it could even be quite sincere. "Sincere" - the most abominable sin in today's culture - was actually a virtue back then.
posted by IAmBroom at 8:22 PM on September 17, 2015 [16 favorites]
I'm sure somebody's said this already, but I didn't see a single hippie until halfway down the page, where I gave up when I saw a couple dressed in immaculate hippie-derived fashions and decided that was as close as it was going to get.
Also the quote
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:24 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Also the quote
The latest rule in girls’ high school fashion is that there isn’t any.appears immediately above a shot of three girls dressed in identical fashion, right down to a distinctive diamond pattern concept in tights I have never seen before.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:24 PM on September 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Has everyone forgotten about Chachi?
Lord knows I've tried.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:37 PM on September 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
Lord knows I've tried.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:37 PM on September 17, 2015 [7 favorites]
You want hippies, here you go...
(ironically, as I was about to hit the button to post this, spotify offered up Alice's Restaurant...)
posted by HuronBob at 8:39 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
(ironically, as I was about to hit the button to post this, spotify offered up Alice's Restaurant...)
posted by HuronBob at 8:39 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
the (NSFW) internet k-hole is having a kind of 80's punk/metal/goth period if you want more 'authentic' counter culture ephemera
I hadn't seen a DRI shirt in what, 24 years? And I am seeing both ironic and non-ironic swastikas, neither of which I see these days.
Best prom ever.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:05 PM on September 17, 2015
I hadn't seen a DRI shirt in what, 24 years? And I am seeing both ironic and non-ironic swastikas, neither of which I see these days.
Best prom ever.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:05 PM on September 17, 2015
And now I'm getting a kick browsing old Sears catalogs, since I never looked at anything besides the toys and electronics sections.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:38 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
THOSE TIGHTS THO
posted by augustimagination at 10:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by augustimagination at 10:50 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I would like to have them.
posted by augustimagination at 10:51 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by augustimagination at 10:51 PM on September 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
And now I'm getting a kick browsing old Sears catalogs
Oh, man, those are fantastic. “Wear Sears Prema-Prest for great no-iron, wrinkle-resistant performance…that what the Neatniks wear”. No Beatniks here with their wrinkly clothing....
posted by Beti at 11:10 PM on September 17, 2015
Oh, man, those are fantastic. “Wear Sears Prema-Prest for great no-iron, wrinkle-resistant performance…that what the Neatniks wear”. No Beatniks here with their wrinkly clothing....
posted by Beti at 11:10 PM on September 17, 2015
No brands and no backpacks.
posted by unliteral at 11:37 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by unliteral at 11:37 PM on September 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
Thanks for posting this. This was great.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:46 PM on September 17, 2015
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:46 PM on September 17, 2015
Mailer described them during the 1967 March on Washington as follows:
"They came walking up in all sizes, a citizens' army not ranked yet by height, an army of both sexes in numbers almost equal and of all ages, although most were young. Some were well-dressed, some were poor, many were conventional in appearance as often were not. The hippies were there in great number, perambulating down the hill, many dressed like legions of Sgt. Pepper's Band, some were gotten up like Arab sheiks, or in Park Avenue doormen's greatcoats, others like Rogers and Clark, of the West, Wyatt Earp, Kit Carson, Daniel Boone in buckskin, som had grown mustaches to look like Have Gun, Will Travel - Paladin's surrogate was here - and wild Indians with feathers, a hippie gotten up like Batman, another like Claude Rains in The Invisible Man - his face wrapped ub a turban of bandages and he wore a black satin top hat. A host of these tropes wore capes, beat-up khaki capes, slept on used as blankets, towels, improvised duffel bags; or fine capes, orange linings, or luminous rose linings, the edges ragged, near a tatter, the threads ready to feather, but a musketeer's hat on their head. One hippie may have been dressed like Charlie Chalpln, Buster Keton and W.C. Fields could have come to the ball. There were to be seen a hundred soldiers in Confederate grey, and maybe there were two or three hundred hippies in officer's coats of Union blue. They had picked up their costumes where they could, in surplus stores, the Blow-your-mind shops, Digger free emporiums, and psychedelic caches of Hindu junk. There were soldiers in Foreign Legion uniforms, and tropical bush jackets, San Quentin and Chino, California striped shirt and pants, British copies of Eisenhower jackets, hippies dressed like Turkish shepards and Roman senators... " (Armies of the Night, p. 106)
I was only child, but as I recall my friend's older brothers and sisters this was not an entirely inaccurate picture. People used to wear some far-out stuff in the late 1960s.
posted by three blind mice at 12:10 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
"They came walking up in all sizes, a citizens' army not ranked yet by height, an army of both sexes in numbers almost equal and of all ages, although most were young. Some were well-dressed, some were poor, many were conventional in appearance as often were not. The hippies were there in great number, perambulating down the hill, many dressed like legions of Sgt. Pepper's Band, some were gotten up like Arab sheiks, or in Park Avenue doormen's greatcoats, others like Rogers and Clark, of the West, Wyatt Earp, Kit Carson, Daniel Boone in buckskin, som had grown mustaches to look like Have Gun, Will Travel - Paladin's surrogate was here - and wild Indians with feathers, a hippie gotten up like Batman, another like Claude Rains in The Invisible Man - his face wrapped ub a turban of bandages and he wore a black satin top hat. A host of these tropes wore capes, beat-up khaki capes, slept on used as blankets, towels, improvised duffel bags; or fine capes, orange linings, or luminous rose linings, the edges ragged, near a tatter, the threads ready to feather, but a musketeer's hat on their head. One hippie may have been dressed like Charlie Chalpln, Buster Keton and W.C. Fields could have come to the ball. There were to be seen a hundred soldiers in Confederate grey, and maybe there were two or three hundred hippies in officer's coats of Union blue. They had picked up their costumes where they could, in surplus stores, the Blow-your-mind shops, Digger free emporiums, and psychedelic caches of Hindu junk. There were soldiers in Foreign Legion uniforms, and tropical bush jackets, San Quentin and Chino, California striped shirt and pants, British copies of Eisenhower jackets, hippies dressed like Turkish shepards and Roman senators... " (Armies of the Night, p. 106)
I was only child, but as I recall my friend's older brothers and sisters this was not an entirely inaccurate picture. People used to wear some far-out stuff in the late 1960s.
posted by three blind mice at 12:10 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Surplus stores! I was only thinking recently how they've disappeared. There were two I used to haunt in the Melbourne CBD, early 70s . You could get camping equipment, tools and most of all cheap, durable clothing. That duffle bag I HAD TO HAVE still hasn't died. The white sailor's bell-bottoms that I went back for time and again until they finally had my size in stock, they were real sweet.
posted by valetta at 12:45 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by valetta at 12:45 AM on September 18, 2015
They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworth's, man
posted by flabdablet at 1:17 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 1:17 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
The hippie wardrobe was a compilation of appropriations from all over - from India, the Military, Native American culture and Medieval Europe, plus general old-timey garb like long skirts and collarless granpa shirts. The love generation added the craft revival, with spinning, knitting, crochet, embroidery, weaving, beading and particularly dyeing. Cheesecloth, denim, cotton, silk and velvet ruled, stuff that felt nice near your skin. Significantly, distinctions between male and female clothing blurred. Finery was for everyone, jeans were unisex.
I can't say the exact year, but I remember being shocked the first time I saw a T-shirt with a commercial logo on it. Was either Camels or Marlboro. I was incensed. Now the capitalists want free advertising space on our clothes! I ain't nobody's billboard, man.
posted by valetta at 2:46 AM on September 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
I can't say the exact year, but I remember being shocked the first time I saw a T-shirt with a commercial logo on it. Was either Camels or Marlboro. I was incensed. Now the capitalists want free advertising space on our clothes! I ain't nobody's billboard, man.
posted by valetta at 2:46 AM on September 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
contrast all that funkiness with this sad display.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:25 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:25 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
My aunt was a real hippie. When she wore clothes, they were amazing, colorful, hand-made or altered. But mostly during summer she didn't wear anything, and just rocked a lot of hair everywhere.
For my 12 birthday (-75), my greatest wish was a hippie coat (an afghan coat), and my granddad went to Bloomingdales and bought me a hand embroidered vintage denim jacket. Something which would have cost near a thousand dollars today, but probably wasn't cheap then, either. I was disappointed, but I kept it and later learnt what a treasure it was. I almost killed my sis when she somehow lost it while borrowing. (My aunt was really irritated by the fact that her style had been commercialized, but had to admit that the thing was real).
Both my aunt and my jacket were squeaky clean.
Closer to -69, I was at the American School in Düsseldorf in -71, and all dress-codes had been abandoned. The cool kids were wearing second-hand stuff which they had altered or painted on. And chunky knitwear. However, my mother didn't really understand how "hippie-clothes" worked (we had been living in a tiny village and Mum and aunt weren't really communicating). So even though she really tried to help me, I was the squarest square child ever.
I don't remember people being "dirty" till much later (except when they came back from festivals) - in the beginning, the hippie ladies were not very feminist and they cooked and cleaned and did laundry all the time. I distinctly remember fighting with my aunt about this, and her fighting with her boyfriends and eventually husband over the housework. There is also a documentary somewhere, were one of my aunt's friends invites a totally square person in to live in her home for a while, and he is surprised that she is a much "better" housewife than his suburban wife, in terms of cooking and cleaning.
Similarly, I loved being at my aunts', because she always made a point of washing and conditioning my hair so it became shiny and smooth.
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on September 18, 2015 [10 favorites]
For my 12 birthday (-75), my greatest wish was a hippie coat (an afghan coat), and my granddad went to Bloomingdales and bought me a hand embroidered vintage denim jacket. Something which would have cost near a thousand dollars today, but probably wasn't cheap then, either. I was disappointed, but I kept it and later learnt what a treasure it was. I almost killed my sis when she somehow lost it while borrowing. (My aunt was really irritated by the fact that her style had been commercialized, but had to admit that the thing was real).
Both my aunt and my jacket were squeaky clean.
Closer to -69, I was at the American School in Düsseldorf in -71, and all dress-codes had been abandoned. The cool kids were wearing second-hand stuff which they had altered or painted on. And chunky knitwear. However, my mother didn't really understand how "hippie-clothes" worked (we had been living in a tiny village and Mum and aunt weren't really communicating). So even though she really tried to help me, I was the squarest square child ever.
I don't remember people being "dirty" till much later (except when they came back from festivals) - in the beginning, the hippie ladies were not very feminist and they cooked and cleaned and did laundry all the time. I distinctly remember fighting with my aunt about this, and her fighting with her boyfriends and eventually husband over the housework. There is also a documentary somewhere, were one of my aunt's friends invites a totally square person in to live in her home for a while, and he is surprised that she is a much "better" housewife than his suburban wife, in terms of cooking and cleaning.
Similarly, I loved being at my aunts', because she always made a point of washing and conditioning my hair so it became shiny and smooth.
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on September 18, 2015 [10 favorites]
The girl with her blouse knotted up to expose her midriff reminds me of girls who, a few years earlier, were rolling up the waistbands of their skirts to make mini-skirts out of dress-code mandatory knee-length skirts. Needs a shot of the Assistant Principal standing by the entrance door making sure everyone is dressed properly.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:56 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:56 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
My mom graduated from an Atlanta high school in 1970 and the candids in her yearbook look a lot like these photos. One big difference, though - even at her urban, public school, girls were not yet allowed to wear pants.
posted by candyland at 6:17 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by candyland at 6:17 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
This kind of explains why my mom made me so many ponchos as a kid, and why it was so hard to get her to stop. Though I regret now being such a jerk about it as a little kid, but...fashion....middle school..
posted by blnkfrnk at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by blnkfrnk at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2015
Hot for Teacher.
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:38 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:38 AM on September 18, 2015
Of course they weren't real -- that's the rule of scenes; if it's existed long enough to get heard of, everybody who wasn't there beforehand is a poser. I accept that. These were still lovely and fresh to me, though, just as a snapshot of happiness that was no doubt shortly crushed. Rosemary Shoong looked like a live wire; I wonder how she made out?
I also hope that Erica didn't go far with that guy. The pair of them looked like models for the oval painting on the front of a '70s romance novel, the kind where the guy's always a jerk and the girl is always dewy and petulant.
The teacher at the end of the article is just stunning. I hope she didn't get her soul burnt out of her by teaching, as so many can do, and end up 20 years later in a cardigan, a hair-helmet and Far-Side-lady glasses, always scowling.
In 1992 or so, always being enormously out of it, I decided I was a big hippie. I was obsessed by the Beatles, and I wore bellbottom jeans, an off-the-shoulder peasant shirt, lime-green Mary Janes and little red granny glasses. So innocuous, such a target for mockery, such an honor to bear it. Today, my junior high school has uniforms, which are probably best for everyone concerned -- but where are kids going to learn about the insanity inherent in teenage fashion? My school days would have been lesser without the scent of Exclamation! everywhere and the relentless teasing of hair and each other.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:43 AM on September 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
I also hope that Erica didn't go far with that guy. The pair of them looked like models for the oval painting on the front of a '70s romance novel, the kind where the guy's always a jerk and the girl is always dewy and petulant.
The teacher at the end of the article is just stunning. I hope she didn't get her soul burnt out of her by teaching, as so many can do, and end up 20 years later in a cardigan, a hair-helmet and Far-Side-lady glasses, always scowling.
In 1992 or so, always being enormously out of it, I decided I was a big hippie. I was obsessed by the Beatles, and I wore bellbottom jeans, an off-the-shoulder peasant shirt, lime-green Mary Janes and little red granny glasses. So innocuous, such a target for mockery, such an honor to bear it. Today, my junior high school has uniforms, which are probably best for everyone concerned -- but where are kids going to learn about the insanity inherent in teenage fashion? My school days would have been lesser without the scent of Exclamation! everywhere and the relentless teasing of hair and each other.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:43 AM on September 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
Kinbote: ""Is that a real poncho, or a Sears poncho?""
No foolin'?
posted by Splunge at 8:03 AM on September 18, 2015
No foolin'?
posted by Splunge at 8:03 AM on September 18, 2015
These pictures just made me really, really happy. Thanks for this link.
posted by Ziggy500 at 8:24 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by Ziggy500 at 8:24 AM on September 18, 2015
This is actually a pretty revelatory photo essay, as it shows how this sort of esthetic filters down into the middle class. The first photo is a good example; there are two girls wearing yellow blouses and plaid skirts (not that different from a classic school uniform, except the skirts are above-the-knee), only one has the shirt tails out. That's the sort of minor variation that high school kids can obsess over, like the decision of whether to pop the collar on your polo shirt or leave it down. It's still a fairly narrow range of options, notwithstanding the occasional thigh-band or mutton-leg-sleeve blouse. It corresponds to my hazy memories of the late sixties, growing up just outside of a medium-sized midwestern city. (There was a large state university in town, probably with more than a few authentic hippies, but we rarely went to that part of town; it's probably not a coincidence that my parents moved to the country just as the sixties were starting to heat up. We went to a Catholic school in a more working-class part of town which did have the uniforms.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:25 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:25 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
About Lap Pillows, and other needful accessories.
For what it's worth, the Lap Pillow had been organic to the living room since about 1969, and was still around in 1985. A Lap Pillow is what women would put across their lap when they sat down. Lots of these folks sat tailor fashion on the floor, too. The reason they put it across their knees has to do with what a person wearing a micro-skirt does when she wishes to not disclose whether she's wearing underwear. When she is outside, sitting under the apple tree, she uses her book bag for this purpose. Hippie women all had book bags, so their younger sister had them, too. We were young, and we men pretended we were looking elsewhere when she sat or rose to her feet. The Women's Movement was young, then, but I already had learned not to scoff. It was just that my eyeballs had not yet been sufficiently trained.
By the way, in those days we all could rise from the ground by levering off our crossed ankles--this with our hands full. Both the Lap Pillow and the Book-Bag were accessories to the uniform of the times, which itself was designed very carefully to accentuate your individuality, and inform your brothers and sisters which of the emerging tribes you called home.
Book bags held your light jacket, your stash can and rolling papers, a pipe, a couple of lighters, and books. Maybe a banana or mango. Women had that plus other woman things. liked bell-bottoms, and I once had a pair that sported a paisley trim down the outside seam, which I sewed on myself. Headband and drive on rag, either of which wore to suit my mood--this was before the Motorcycle guys marketed the tailored handkerchief they nowadays wear under their helmets. I was pretty cool that way.
It was expected that anyone over 30 years old would be blind to the signals, that to them all hippies looked alike. They thought all of us were swamped with free love and anti-war sloganisms. The straights who loved us were balanced by the straights who hated us.
I'm not sure about one other important item of the times, though. Auras. I can sort of remember being able to see a person's aura, but I disremember what good it did for me to have that skill. The sun set on all that by the end of the 70's, when I returned to equine company, glad to be rid of the turmoil.
Power to the People. The dream of revolution died slowly. I believed we were "that" close to formally turning the US into the fiction we all had been taught that it was. A miss is as good as a mile, eh? Very little depresses me nowadays more than the specter of we who tried turning into New Age mumblers or members of the bar. But, hey, they finally legalized weed. Too bad I can't smoke any more.
posted by mule98J at 8:37 AM on September 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
For what it's worth, the Lap Pillow had been organic to the living room since about 1969, and was still around in 1985. A Lap Pillow is what women would put across their lap when they sat down. Lots of these folks sat tailor fashion on the floor, too. The reason they put it across their knees has to do with what a person wearing a micro-skirt does when she wishes to not disclose whether she's wearing underwear. When she is outside, sitting under the apple tree, she uses her book bag for this purpose. Hippie women all had book bags, so their younger sister had them, too. We were young, and we men pretended we were looking elsewhere when she sat or rose to her feet. The Women's Movement was young, then, but I already had learned not to scoff. It was just that my eyeballs had not yet been sufficiently trained.
By the way, in those days we all could rise from the ground by levering off our crossed ankles--this with our hands full. Both the Lap Pillow and the Book-Bag were accessories to the uniform of the times, which itself was designed very carefully to accentuate your individuality, and inform your brothers and sisters which of the emerging tribes you called home.
Book bags held your light jacket, your stash can and rolling papers, a pipe, a couple of lighters, and books. Maybe a banana or mango. Women had that plus other woman things. liked bell-bottoms, and I once had a pair that sported a paisley trim down the outside seam, which I sewed on myself. Headband and drive on rag, either of which wore to suit my mood--this was before the Motorcycle guys marketed the tailored handkerchief they nowadays wear under their helmets. I was pretty cool that way.
It was expected that anyone over 30 years old would be blind to the signals, that to them all hippies looked alike. They thought all of us were swamped with free love and anti-war sloganisms. The straights who loved us were balanced by the straights who hated us.
I'm not sure about one other important item of the times, though. Auras. I can sort of remember being able to see a person's aura, but I disremember what good it did for me to have that skill. The sun set on all that by the end of the 70's, when I returned to equine company, glad to be rid of the turmoil.
Power to the People. The dream of revolution died slowly. I believed we were "that" close to formally turning the US into the fiction we all had been taught that it was. A miss is as good as a mile, eh? Very little depresses me nowadays more than the specter of we who tried turning into New Age mumblers or members of the bar. But, hey, they finally legalized weed. Too bad I can't smoke any more.
posted by mule98J at 8:37 AM on September 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
Charles Manson is responsible for the "dirty hippie" meme.
So was Elvis, who asked in a letter to meet Nixon (and was granted an obligatory photo op) in an effort to fight "The Drug Culture, the Hippie Elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc." Dude was probably high off his ass on prescription pills when he wrote the letter AND when he met Nixon; just look at the photo -- but whatever.
posted by blucevalo at 9:15 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
So was Elvis, who asked in a letter to meet Nixon (and was granted an obligatory photo op) in an effort to fight "The Drug Culture, the Hippie Elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc." Dude was probably high off his ass on prescription pills when he wrote the letter AND when he met Nixon; just look at the photo -- but whatever.
posted by blucevalo at 9:15 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, I'm reminded why I tend not to visit the internet k-hole tumblr more often: whoever it is tends to throw in a frame of commercially-produced porn randomly in with the faded Polaroids, which undercuts the candid photo esthetic not only in content but in style.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 AM on September 18, 2015
i would pay good money for these shortalls. the whole outfit (minus that awful hat) is something i would 100% wear every single day if i could
posted by burgerrr at 9:33 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by burgerrr at 9:33 AM on September 18, 2015
Looking deeper into that issue of LIFE... Forget these teenage fashionistas, there's actual yippies a few pages back in a far-too-brief article about the Chicago 8.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:37 AM on September 18, 2015
posted by Sys Rq at 9:37 AM on September 18, 2015
Yah, these are high school kids, sez-so on the label. By definition, they're not actual hippies. Also, Hippie was declared dead on 06 October 1967, in San Franscisco:
Hippies rejected all that. Funk was funky, and all that stuff was 'plastic'. But to straight society, it added up to proper personal hygiene. If you didn't buy all those products, if you didn't do all those things, you were 'not taking care of yourself' -- you were dirty. I mean, "would you like to swing on a star -- or would you rather be a pig?"
All that said, here's some things to notice in these pics. School administrations had to be fought again and again on every one of these points:
Girls wearing trousers to school was new. Maybe doing chores at home or at the cabin-up-north, but at school? Never.
Girls wearing their hair 'down' -- long and straight with no 'do (cf rollers) was new. Strange as it may seem, long straght unprocessed hair on girls was radical. See 'dirty hippies', above.
I definitely remember the colorful / print tights. I think of Twiggy, Judy Carne on Laugh-in, and the movie Blow-Up. Very much a late 1960s thing. The Life article cites the designer, Pucci. You can google more info from there.
Bushy on top was still considered long hair for boys. I was as total freak in 1970 when I stopped brushing my hair behind my ears and let it cover them. Male athletes and band members -- anyone seen as 'representing' the school -- would be sent home if their hair touched their collar in back or ears on the side.
No one would wear a tee-shirt to school.
No one would wear a logo shirt cuz there weren't any. I guess there were shirts with Mickey Mouse on 'em in the 1960s, but just the picture. There was pep-wear -- psuedo uniform sweats and jackets with a school, team, or gymnasium's name on it.
The first 'message' shirts I ever saw bore catch-phrases from Laugh-In: "Here Come Da Judge", "Sock It To Me", "You Bet Your Bibby" . . . As far as I know, Laugh-In, Schlatter, and NBC didn't see a dime from these.
Too, real hippies were starting to wear pieces of military surplus uniforms purchased in thrift shops. That may have helped open the door to clothes with writing on it.
Speaking of military surplus clothing, one source of bell-bottomed trousers was military surplus naval uniforms. By 1975 it was hard to find not-bell-bottomed trousers, but in 1969 -- if you weren't a high school soc from LA -- you couldn't always get 'em.
One popular strategy for a while was taking regular straight cut pants, slitting the outside seam, and sewing in a triangle of something else. Blue jeans with red or blue paisley bandana inserts were pretty popular with boys in this time period, though you couldn't wear 'em too school, because blue jeans were totally prohibited.
Some girls would make their inserts with neckties and I don't know what else -- pjs, maybe. I once saw a girl in long denim skirt made out of a pair of worn jeans (pants), with various inserts to fill out the shape, and like bandana material peeking through the inevitable holes.
One more crazy 1969-ish fashion thing I recall: high school boys couldn't wear really long hair. The authorities were against 'long hair', but apparently defined 'long' only in terms of coverage -- usually ears and collar. They didn't seem to care how long it was on top, though. So some guys'd grow their hair out really long on top only. With a perm, you could really get it up there. I also think of this as a 'surfer' cut.
So for a while, the thing to do was to peroxide just the top. So you had these guys with long yellow/blond hair on top surrounded by shorter hair in their natural color. Yah, it looked stupid.
PS: I caught a lot of hassles from some older relatives about how I dressed then, but my father never criticized. In the 1940s, before he got drafted -- he sported a zoot suit. Reet.
posted by Herodios at 9:47 AM on September 18, 2015 [16 favorites]
"It's over, stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live."Also:
By 1968, hippie-influenced fashions were beginning to take off in the mainstream -- many of whom may have aspired to emulate the hardcore movements now living in tribalistic communes, but had no overt connections to them.What the "dirty hippie" epithet was really about -- before it became simple approbation: Straight society required regular haircuts, daily bathing, daily shaving, de-odorants, re-odorants, burma shave, brillcream, dippity-do, hairspray, rollers, eyebrow plucking, a narrowly specified level of cosmetics and scents, foundation garments, underwear . . . a whole menu of things you had to do and things you had to buy -- just to be. You also washed all your clothes after each wearing.
[. . . ]
By the early 1970s, much of hippie style had been integrated into mainstream American society . . . beards and longer hair became commonplace and colorful, multi-ethnic clothing dominated the fashion world.
-- Wiccuhpeedia
Hippies rejected all that. Funk was funky, and all that stuff was 'plastic'. But to straight society, it added up to proper personal hygiene. If you didn't buy all those products, if you didn't do all those things, you were 'not taking care of yourself' -- you were dirty. I mean, "would you like to swing on a star -- or would you rather be a pig?"
All that said, here's some things to notice in these pics. School administrations had to be fought again and again on every one of these points:
Girls wearing trousers to school was new. Maybe doing chores at home or at the cabin-up-north, but at school? Never.
Girls wearing their hair 'down' -- long and straight with no 'do (cf rollers) was new. Strange as it may seem, long straght unprocessed hair on girls was radical. See 'dirty hippies', above.
I definitely remember the colorful / print tights. I think of Twiggy, Judy Carne on Laugh-in, and the movie Blow-Up. Very much a late 1960s thing. The Life article cites the designer, Pucci. You can google more info from there.
Bushy on top was still considered long hair for boys. I was as total freak in 1970 when I stopped brushing my hair behind my ears and let it cover them. Male athletes and band members -- anyone seen as 'representing' the school -- would be sent home if their hair touched their collar in back or ears on the side.
No one would wear a tee-shirt to school.
No one would wear a logo shirt cuz there weren't any. I guess there were shirts with Mickey Mouse on 'em in the 1960s, but just the picture. There was pep-wear -- psuedo uniform sweats and jackets with a school, team, or gymnasium's name on it.
The first 'message' shirts I ever saw bore catch-phrases from Laugh-In: "Here Come Da Judge", "Sock It To Me", "You Bet Your Bibby" . . . As far as I know, Laugh-In, Schlatter, and NBC didn't see a dime from these.
Too, real hippies were starting to wear pieces of military surplus uniforms purchased in thrift shops. That may have helped open the door to clothes with writing on it.
Speaking of military surplus clothing, one source of bell-bottomed trousers was military surplus naval uniforms. By 1975 it was hard to find not-bell-bottomed trousers, but in 1969 -- if you weren't a high school soc from LA -- you couldn't always get 'em.
One popular strategy for a while was taking regular straight cut pants, slitting the outside seam, and sewing in a triangle of something else. Blue jeans with red or blue paisley bandana inserts were pretty popular with boys in this time period, though you couldn't wear 'em too school, because blue jeans were totally prohibited.
Some girls would make their inserts with neckties and I don't know what else -- pjs, maybe. I once saw a girl in long denim skirt made out of a pair of worn jeans (pants), with various inserts to fill out the shape, and like bandana material peeking through the inevitable holes.
One more crazy 1969-ish fashion thing I recall: high school boys couldn't wear really long hair. The authorities were against 'long hair', but apparently defined 'long' only in terms of coverage -- usually ears and collar. They didn't seem to care how long it was on top, though. So some guys'd grow their hair out really long on top only. With a perm, you could really get it up there. I also think of this as a 'surfer' cut.
So for a while, the thing to do was to peroxide just the top. So you had these guys with long yellow/blond hair on top surrounded by shorter hair in their natural color. Yah, it looked stupid.
PS: I caught a lot of hassles from some older relatives about how I dressed then, but my father never criticized. In the 1940s, before he got drafted -- he sported a zoot suit. Reet.
posted by Herodios at 9:47 AM on September 18, 2015 [16 favorites]
I would just like to second Herodios's comment in its entirety; he knows whereof he speaks. And the linked article itself says "But in 1969, the year of these photographs, hippie fashion was evolving from counter culture to, well, culture. And young people were informing the change. Most of the students you see here are wearing off-the-shelf fashions — still recognizably hippie, but more homogenized," so I'm not sure where people are getting the idea these kids are supposed to be actual hippies. (Not that there were ever many "actual hippies"; it was something the media picked up and ran with, like "beatniks" a decade earlier.)
/was a college freshman/sophomore in '69
posted by languagehat at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
/was a college freshman/sophomore in '69
posted by languagehat at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
> Would have loved for the author to have tracked down a few of them and taken pictures of them at ~63 in their stretch spandex pants with sensible grandma top.
That's really quite ageist. My parents are this age - 1969 and 1970 being the years they graduated. And they are professionals. Nearing retirement age, but dress well for the most part. My mother, especially, is always well put together with her outfits and I am ever conscious with how muddled my own outfits are compared to hers. And my mother played the bass in a band called Velvet Incense, while wearing homemade velvet bell bottoms and a fringe vest with long straight hair.
Not that there's anything wrong with stretchy pants (yoga pants anyone?) or a sensible top (what exactly is an unsensible top? A coconut bra? No one likes chafe!).
I love how Herodios comments on the revolutions of the time regarding hair, makeup, clothing requirements that people of later generations (like mine!) take for granted. I have long straight hair and feeble attempts at curling it have been, well, feeble. To think that my not bothering with all that would be considered revolutionary just 50 years ago is pretty mind blowing.
posted by jillithd at 10:42 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
That's really quite ageist. My parents are this age - 1969 and 1970 being the years they graduated. And they are professionals. Nearing retirement age, but dress well for the most part. My mother, especially, is always well put together with her outfits and I am ever conscious with how muddled my own outfits are compared to hers. And my mother played the bass in a band called Velvet Incense, while wearing homemade velvet bell bottoms and a fringe vest with long straight hair.
Not that there's anything wrong with stretchy pants (yoga pants anyone?) or a sensible top (what exactly is an unsensible top? A coconut bra? No one likes chafe!).
I love how Herodios comments on the revolutions of the time regarding hair, makeup, clothing requirements that people of later generations (like mine!) take for granted. I have long straight hair and feeble attempts at curling it have been, well, feeble. To think that my not bothering with all that would be considered revolutionary just 50 years ago is pretty mind blowing.
posted by jillithd at 10:42 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
not a single hippie in any of those photos. just so all you youngsters know.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:11 AM on September 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:11 AM on September 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
Herodios is so accurate.
I forgot to mention that my father was in the army and conservative and not a hippie, but by the end of the -70's, he wore his hair semi-long. Long enough to show off his curls. Which would have been radical in the -60's and became radical in the -80's again. Just to say that while the people in these pictures are not at all hippies, there was a significant cultural change which was felt at every level of society and among conservatives as well as liberals; and there was a backlash to that change, almost right away.
Come to think of it; while my mother and stepmother both embraced some of the feminist aspects of the 70's cultural change but remained ultra-conservative and religious, my extremely conservative dad was far more appreciative of the cultural changes, and in some ways, he resented the 80's backlash. As stated above, my grandparents wholly embraced the change, which probably reminded them of their own youth (30's and 40's youth were WILD)
posted by mumimor at 11:23 AM on September 18, 2015
I forgot to mention that my father was in the army and conservative and not a hippie, but by the end of the -70's, he wore his hair semi-long. Long enough to show off his curls. Which would have been radical in the -60's and became radical in the -80's again. Just to say that while the people in these pictures are not at all hippies, there was a significant cultural change which was felt at every level of society and among conservatives as well as liberals; and there was a backlash to that change, almost right away.
Come to think of it; while my mother and stepmother both embraced some of the feminist aspects of the 70's cultural change but remained ultra-conservative and religious, my extremely conservative dad was far more appreciative of the cultural changes, and in some ways, he resented the 80's backlash. As stated above, my grandparents wholly embraced the change, which probably reminded them of their own youth (30's and 40's youth were WILD)
posted by mumimor at 11:23 AM on September 18, 2015
Yes- 'long' hair. We had 1 guy probably, in the whole school in 1969, and his hair was about as long as in the Chachi? photo, and he was always getting dragged down to the principal's office or getting beat up by the shoppies because of it.
The dress code opened up in 1970, when girls were allowed to wear pants. (Although the girls in business classes were not...) One guy protested the girls being allowed to wear pants by coming to school wearing a kilt. Man was he brave.
posted by MtDewd at 11:50 AM on September 18, 2015
The dress code opened up in 1970, when girls were allowed to wear pants. (Although the girls in business classes were not...) One guy protested the girls being allowed to wear pants by coming to school wearing a kilt. Man was he brave.
posted by MtDewd at 11:50 AM on September 18, 2015
Minor nitpick:
"You Bet YourBibby sweet bippy"
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:16 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
"You Bet Your
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:16 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
It was a look of the period. Confusion in comments is conflating the look with hippies. What do you mean by hippie for that time? Not everyone smoked weed in Haight or lived as Deadheads or were at Woodstock! But many did dress for what was hip, i.e., fashionable at the time much as we do now, without bein this or that
posted by Postroad at 2:36 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Postroad at 2:36 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
ambulatory billboards are surreal.
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:21 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:21 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm not saying the current fashion is better; just that I'm having a hard time placing myself in a space where 90% of the people aren't festooned with logos.
posted by Mitheral at 9:10 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 9:10 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, you kids. You are so-o-o cute when you try to show Grampa how to suck bong.
But, seriously, if you set Emphyrio's magic tablet to Google Image and type in 'Gene Anthony photography San Francisco,' the scales will drop from your eyes. For there revealed will be the real thang.
Which Grampa would do right now, had he better than Fred Flintstone's smartphone....
posted by y2karl at 10:34 AM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
But, seriously, if you set Emphyrio's magic tablet to Google Image and type in 'Gene Anthony photography San Francisco,' the scales will drop from your eyes. For there revealed will be the real thang.
Which Grampa would do right now, had he better than Fred Flintstone's smartphone....
posted by y2karl at 10:34 AM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
As in Gene Anthony photography San Francisco...
posted by y2karl at 10:53 AM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by y2karl at 10:53 AM on September 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by jonmc at 5:42 PM on September 17, 2015 [5 favorites]