ImageBy the mid-1960s, focus shifted from the elite to youth image. Psychedelic clothing featuring bold and bright colors, geometric shapes or art on shirts, and the idea of “flower power” came about; however, in 1969, the hippie look caught on. Long hair, frayed bell-bottom jeans beads, beads, headbands, tie-dyed shirts, headbands and sandals all became mainstream. A care-free attitude tied in with their image, so it was regular to see someone walking in bare feet.
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This style of dress became popular in the mid-1960s.
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This hippie image became popular in the late 1960s, but its existence proved ephemeral.
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"I'm a former hippie, so clothes are important to me - your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still defines people. But, it changed a lot."
- John Hughes
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BEHAVIOrAs British bands went from clean cut to being more “hippie”, the American youth started to emulate this change. Hippies perceived dominant culture as morally corrupt that exercised too much control over the people’s lives and believed in a more peaceful society. They became anti-establishment and referred to culture as “The Man.” Their opposition to the Establishment spread around the world through a fusion of early rock, folk, blues and psychedelic rock, with the dramatic arts and the visual arts.
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“When we heard about the hippies, the barely more than boys and girls who decided to try something different ... we laughed at them. We condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. We hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money-bitten, frightened, adult lives”
― June Jordan (1977)