Fashion can carry significant meanings about culture, tradition and the outlook of people around the world. Fashion not only encompasses many social issues but also individual backgrounds of people, and it can be a very useful tool in expressing one’s personal identity. According to Barber, "Fashion has also been used in reference to language usages, literature, food, dance music, recreation, indeed the whole range of social and culture elements" (Barber, 1993). Throughout history it has been evident that, fashion has revealed itself during the evolution and revolution of many aspects of issues, including but not limited to class warfare, social issues, rebellion, adventurism, politics and war. Amid such ongoing transformation, new trends and styles often emerge as a result of people resisting the prevailing social and cultural norms. Besides, there are big developments in fashion around America and The United Kingdom which have a huge influence in both the fashion industry and the collective conscious of fashion savvy people around the world. The multitude of social, cultural, economic and political issues in these two influential countries becomes a significant focus of the economic and cultural space across the globe. The difference of opinion amongst people with respect to the aforementioned issues births a faction of resistance which inevitably inspires new trends in many avenues including that of style, vogue and fashion. The Hippie movement originated as a youth movement in America and the UK and emerged as a counterculture that resisted the existing social norms and came together under the same principle of living an alternative lifestyle that was extremely liberal. According to Bennett, “Fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statements about their identities” (Bennett, 2005). It is possible to see that the fashion is one of the most significant elements that enables one to swiftly recognize and understand the personality of an individual or group that is sporting it. This essay will discuss as to how fashion is a key element in revealing one’s identity, what elements affect fashion, the origins of the hippie movement and what hippies usually wear.
Young people use fashion and style as accessories to assert elements of their individuality including their class, ethnicity and sexual orientation. "The youth appeared as an emergent category in post-war Britain, one of the most striking and visible manifestations of social change in the period" (Hall and Jefferson, 1976). As this generation grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they came to represent a new socio-cultural category termed as the "teenager". Since the end of World War II, Western culture has seen a dramatic decline in the significance of traditional socio-cultural divisions such as class, race, religion, ethnicity, regionalism, nationalism, and so on in defining and limiting personal identity (Polhemus, 2016). The main contribution towards this was from the youth, as their style and fashion have a significant amount of influence in the transformation of culture. The view proposed by Barker, is that the first wave of postgraduates were themselves part of the ‘baby-boomer' rock generation (Barker, 2012). New materials for clothing, that were never used before, were tried such as plastic, paper and metal in this period by the youth of that generation. Young adults can sometimes hesitate to express their thoughts and emotions which deviate from popular opinion of adults and use fashion as an alternative means to project them.
On the other hand, as the novelist Alison Lurie has claimed, though hardly demonstrated, clothing is not a visual language with its own distinctive grammar, syntax and vocabulary (Lurie, 1981). Some scholars and people have argued that fashion is just fashion and nothing more than a visible entity at first (Davis, 1992). It is their reckoning that it can often be unwise to attempt to assume and stereotype a person’s identification based solely on his appearance and fashion. "Meanings are more ambiguous in fashion as it is hard to get people in general to interpret the same clothing symbols in the same way" (Davis, 1992). For example, the masculine and military styles which are fashionable among women: exaggerated shoulder width tapering cone like to hems slightly above the knee (Davis, 1992). To a broad mass of fashion consumers however, it is difficult even now to infer quite what this look was supposed to mean.
However, most people do assert that fashion is the most significant means by which people express visual statements about their identities. In the period where there was enormous struggle for equality for women and the birth of the women's rights movement, the new 'unisex' style emerged. It displayed women’s desire to have the same status as men. It affected their personality and made them more confident and comfortable in the public sphere. On the other hand, social identity of the American people was out of order and the people had much resistance towards the governments of many countries in the world in the late 1960s with regards to policies of war and peace, attitude towards the environment and social justice. Their resistance was heightened during America's entry into the Vietnam War. The youth of America who voiced their expressions of resistance, invented and created new styles to symbolize their defiance. Hippie youth from the upper middle class in America had developed a kind of subculture by rejecting the ideas of Modernism and Materialism and instead vigorously insisted upon the recovery of Humanity. The people who embraced Hippie culture supported peace in the world in times of conflict and war. They also advocated ideas of being closer to nature and being one with it in all ways that were considered possible. It was freedom of fashion for them – Hippies wore clothes with natural fiber, dyeing, embroidery that had a central theme focused on nature. They used oriental embroidery, clothes from the Gypsies, frayed denim, long length capes and blouses from farmers. Also, in rebellion against Apartheid they also used to wear folk costumes of traditional Indian and African people. Flowers and flower like designs were used on clothes, accessories and print as a typical symbol. Flowers are a significant symbol for Hippies and are often used to express their love for nature along with their benign thoughts that align with naturalism and environment friendliness. The subculture with these traits has been developed because of significant contribution from the Hippie way of life. "The social and political meaning of youth culture is not easy to understand: though their visibility has been consistently high" (Hall and Jefferson, 1976). The youth had a lot of focus and emphasis towards social issues. They articulated their thoughts and opinions on these social issues with fashion and style as their tools. The fact that they created a subculture and greatly influenced a shift in what was thought and considered to be societal norms, is a significant achievement for youth or the people at a lower position in the ladder of social structure. Hippie culture is one among such similar subcultures and it was started from Zooties which originated via jazz culture in Harlem, New York in the late 1930s. It meant that the group which was on a relatively low position in the social construct with respect to class, race , age and ethnicity, tried to be different in accordance with the change of the times from the what was considered to be acceptable in society. However, their rejection of mainstream values, notions and consequently fashion was because of reasons that were important to them. This group maintained a kind of kinship and consensus amongst each other and enjoyed their own style. "The culture influence on this sector of youth was immense, and many counter-culture values must still be traced back to their Hippie roots" (Hall and Jefferson, 1976). Hippie helped affect the development of a whole quasi- bohemian subculture and contributed greatly towards Punk coming into existence. Also, the style known as "Psychedelic", which is one of the hippie looks, was spread to the public by the youth. This large “Hippie" or "Psychedelic" group originally congregated in order to share creative, emotional and transcendental experiences with others of like mind (Smith and Rose, 1968). It can therefore be seen that new styles and fashion can be created by people who have similar opinions and values, making up their own style and providing the visual statements about their personalities. According to Ivan Reid's study (Reid, 1977) of social class differences in the United Kingdom, it was found that most of the women interviewed rated dress and behaviour as the clearest indication of class position (De La Haye and Appleford, 2013). People continually identify the relationship between fashion as a measure of a person’s class, wealth, identity and status in society. Indeed, fashion is a product of identity distinction.
Figure 1 (Haim, 2011)
The preceding picture (Figure 1) is good example that people can recognize fashion and its subtle expressions about identity, class, ethnicity and its ability to go as far as to express social issues. Firstly, the print of the fabric that is wrapped around the model's body has a green colour which is close to nature and may be used to represent the leaves of a tree and secondly it also has a dash of some purple hue which looks like that of a flower. It could be that the photographer tried to pictorially express an Africa tribe. The model looks like a black woman and it could be intention of the photographer to make her be perceived that way. She also has curly hair which is also a characteristic of most black women. Interestingly though, she is a white woman by ethnicity made to look like she is of black descent. However, it is enough to convince the viewer that she is a black woman and that the photograph intends to illustrate an African tribe. Also, she puts on high heels with a red sole of a specific brand that is Christian Louboutin while wearing red lipstick. The brand of shoes is in the expensive range and red is a strong colour. Both of them are meant to exemplify a black woman's renewed social position. It could be argued that the photograph, with the model sporting the fashion that she is, tried to explain the social background as the rise of the black power after the Second World War.
Figure 2 (Elashiry, 2016)
This picture is another example about hippie fashion. As it can be observed from Figure 2, the model looks very young and has long hair with dreadlocks. She wears a fancy dress with oriental pattern and sports a necklace made of gemstones. The image seeks to consider that Hippies are the way they are from a youthful age and used patterns from Indian, African and Oriental traditions while also being close to nature. They stand for peace and oppose war. Based on this example, it can be observed that their style can show what they want to explain, what they are thinking and what they intend to say. Even though the expression used is pictorial, it has its own meaning. "Little attention has been given to the wider implications of what might be termed 'the birth of modern fashion' for structures of class and gender within society, or the broader cultural and economic implications of such a ' naissance' " (Breward, 1995). A multitude of social issues have been connected to many aspects of fashion, ranging from the small scale and local to those with a widespread and a truly global nature.
This essay has not only discussed how the culture of Hippies emerged and what shaped their identities, but also how fashion provides one of the most ready means through which individuals can make expressive visual statements about their identities and how society and individual identities are showed through fashion. In this case, Hippie is the way to show what the people, who are separate and usually opposite from mainstream society in terms of their views on culture, music, society, environment and lifestyles, pursue as fashion and style. Additionally, it has to be mentioned that their inclinations and personalities cannot always be predicted and prejudged only by observing their fashion. Although the essay articulated their identity and tendencies, it also explained that new styles depend on social and culture circumstances as well. Hippie, which is just one of many fashion styles, shaped its own style to assert the innate values of the Hippie youth and this transformation could be called a revolution in fashion. After the Second World War, they formed their specific identities and carved themselves a niche in the fashion world. It was their chosen method to express their thoughts, feelings, ideas and values. The field of arts had a great influence in shaping these new themes of fashion. Fashion is one significant element that helps to grasp an individual’s personality and the socio-cultural issues surrounding that individual’s thoughts and perceptions. To a great extent, fashion and style often help to serve as tools in predetermining a lot of information such as people's social class, background, ethnicity, race and status in the social strata. Fashion, when studied closely, can help one guess what has happened in the past, what the people in the past thought about certain issues, which culture they pursued and what identities they had in the past through the different eras of fashion. As a result, Fashion helps provide one of the most ready means to understand individuals, with respect to the social atmosphere surrounding them.
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