Clothing is a form of self-expression and represents the wearer’s values and ideas. Cultures are largely defined by the clothing and fashion of the period, which are influenced by political, social, economic and cultural factors. When the hippie movement of the 1960s and the punk culture of the mid-late 1970s come to mind, the similarities between these two sub-cultures may not be glaringly obvious. While the two movements largely appear to be each other’s antithesis, below the surface of the bright tie dye fabrics and the studded black leather are many common themes and attitudes. “Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines counterculture as ‘a culture with values and mores that run counter to those of established society’”(Issitt, M. 2009), and both the hippies and the punks were counter-cultural movements against societal norms and relied heavily on clothing and their dress style as part of their identities. A crucial element which also had a major influence on the fashion and self-expression found within both the hippie and the punk movements is music. Music is at the core of both the hippie movement of the 1960s, which arose from Folk Rock music, while Punk-Rock music is what spawned the punks. Both groups were also highly political in their movements but took two completely different approaches to getting these ideas across, hippies preached “make love not war”, punks rioted and rebelled. This essay will aim to explore both counter-cultures and their similarities and differences with a focus on fashion and dress style.
When comparing the similarities and differences between hippies and punks, it is imperative to define and be familiar with the contexts of these two movements. A ‘hippie’ is simply defined as someone who rebels against current culture and promotes and adheres to a lifestyle that aligns with more liberal values (Issitt, M. 2009), but the hippies are far more complex than this brief definition. The birth of the hippie began with the youth of the United States of America during the mid 1960s (Wikipedia, 2018), but the phenomenon also spread to other countries including the U.K., Canada, France and Brazil (Issitt, M. 2009). In U.S. neighbourhoods such as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco (Fig.1) and Greenwich Village in New York City (Fig. 2), the hippies flourished and by 1966 there were hundreds and thousands of hippies all across America (Rorabaugh, W. 2015). The hippies dismissed mainstream society and culture (Rorabaugh, W. 2015) and represented a breakaway from the previous generation’s middle-class, traditionalist values, which were viewed by many an anarchistic (Issitt, M. 2009). The hippies used clothing as a freedom of self-expression which displayed their disobedience of the conventional standards of society regarding work, hair, drugs, sex and how they dressed (Rorabaugh, W. 2015).
This use of clothing as a statement for what a movement stood for is common among subcultures, and the punk movement of the mid-1970s shares this important aspect with the hippie movement. The punk movement was prevalent in the U.S., Australia and U.K. during the 1970s and even into the ‘80s, and was based on punk rock music (Wikipedia 2018). Punk’s connection with music is another element in common with the hippies, who had strong ties to folk rock music. The punks were aggressively anti-establishment and thrived on being controversial and shocking (Wikipedia 2018). The punks of the 1970s were youthful non-conformists (Fig.3), just as the hippies were, only with different attitudes and methods of rebellion. The birth of punk stems from the attitude and politics displayed in punk rock music and punk rock musicians (Fig. 4) but is not limited to only punk rock music. Other forms of punk expression included dance, literature, visual art, film and most essentially fashion (Wikipedia 2018).
Hippies VS punks is the subject of this essay because of both the stark differences and the significant similarities that these two sub-cultures share. These factors make for a complex but highly interesting relationship between the two movements when compared and contrasted.
The political, social, economic and cultural environment of a certain period of time has a direct correlation and effect on the cultures, subcultures and countercultures that will inevitably be born out of that era. There is no exception to this when analysing both the hippies and the punks, whose movements have a direct relationship to the social, political, economic and cultural landscapes of the time. The main factors which influenced the hippies of the 1960s were the end of World War II, America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement (Rorabaugh, W. 2015). After World War II the ‘hippie’ look was promoted and femininity was encouraged after the war through the popularising of skirts being worn low on the hips which accentuated womanly shapes and features (Rorabaugh, W. 2015). This style is something that stuck with women of the hippie movement who usually wore long, flowing skirts low on the hips and even the men wore their jeans low on their hips as well – a style which is distinguishable throughout the hippie movement and the dress style that coincided with the movement (Rorabaugh, W. 2015). The flowy and freeing qualities of hippie clothing (Fig. 5) is something that aligned directly the the hippie movements promotion of peace and freedom for all (Neuwirth, A. 2018), especially protesting against America’s violent and “enthusiastic militaristic” (Rorabaugh, W. 2015) involvement in the of the Vietnam War, where the well known slogan ‘Make Love Not War’ was coined and is still widely associated with the hippie movements activism (Fig. 6). Along with wartime protests, the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s went hand in hand with the hippies who fought for gay rights, gender equality, freedom to express sexuality, and environmentalism (Rorabaugh, W. 2015). This fight for freedom of expression correlated directly to the type of dress that the hippies wore, “Their clothing included brightly coloured, ragged clothes, tie dyed t-shirts, beads, sandals (or barefoot), and jewelry.Because they rejected commercialism, most of their clothing was bought from flea markets and was worn in order to dress against the mainstream style” (Neuwirth, A. 2018). This element of ‘D.I.Y’ which features in the way hippies dressed is something that is an integral part of the punk movement and the uniform of the punks.
While the landscape of cultural, social, political and economic factors which contributed to the punk movement differ greatly to those involved in the birth of the hippies, these factors are still also the driving force behind the punk culture of the 1970s. Punk ideologies and philosophies stemmed from the frustrations felt by the youth and the angst of the working class and their struggles (Wikipedia (2018). In terms of social issues, punk philosophy followed ideas such as “pro working-class, egalitarianism, humanitarianism, anti-nationalism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, anti-war, anti-racism, anti-sexism, gender equality, racial equality, civil rights, animal rights, disability rights, free-thought and non-conformity” (Wikipedia, 2018). These social issues align almost exactly with the issues that the hippie youth of the decade before were advocating for. Pro-working class ideologues were the main motivation for the anti-authority attitude that the punks showcased in their behaviour and in their sense of identity through dress. Punk dress style (Fig 7.) “combined taboo symbols, crudely customised black leather jackets, bondage trousers, safety pins, dog collars, day-glo coloured ‘tribal’ hair styles and extravagant makeup” (Childs, P. and Storry, M.2002). Because punks were mainly a working class movement, the aspect of D.I.Y and thrifting appealed not only economically but also made a statement. This D.I.Y in terms of clothing and fashion was also essential to the hippie movement of the 1960s and is another major similarity between the two sub cultures and their respective dress styles.
There are another two major factors at play when it comes to both the hippies and the punks, and that is the effect of music and the effect of drugs, which greatly influenced the styles and behaviours of followers within these movements. During the hippie movement of the 1960s, drugs and music went hand in hand when it came to influencing the style and fashion choices of hippie subculture. Although first synthesized in 1938, the use of LSD was popularised in the 1960s (D.F.W., 2018) and often has strong associations and connections with hippies. Colour, texture and line used within fashion was affected and enhanced while on LSD which then in turn had a major influence on 1960s fashion, in particular, hippie fashion (Bellatory, 2018). This new “psychedelia” encouraged a burst of short-lived “trippy” imagery (Fig 8, Fig 9) which is linked to hippies.
Another major part of the hippie subculture is music, and is also a key similarity when it comes to comparing punks and hippies. The music that hippies listened to, was an important element within the hippie movement as a means to spread the message and hippies used music to relate to each other and garner a connection to nature and find their inner peace, peace being a key element within the hippie subculture (Hippie24, 2010). Woodstock, was a music festival held in 1969, which is renowned for being a largely hippie event, where musicians such as Santana, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix performed to a crowd of over 400,000 people (Woodstock. 2018). This legendary gathering (Fig. 10) is an example of the importance of music and how music related to the key messages and the spirit of the hippie movement, which therefore had a correlation the carefree dress style of the hippie.
As important as music was to the hippie movement, punk rock music was just as vital to the punk subculture of the 1970s and had a great influence, along with punk musicians, over how the punks presented themselves. Punk rock bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, New York Dolls and Dead Kennedys were some of the most well known punk rock band during the 1970s (Rolling Stone, 2011) and had a major influence on the youth punk culture and what punks wore and what they stood for (Wikipedia 2018). Punk rock music was recognisable for controversial lyrics (mostly anti-establishment and political in nature), short and fast paced song, lo fi production or sound and shouting (Wikipedia 2018). Punk bands often produced their own music (Wikipedia, 2018) which relates directly the D.I.Y method of clothing which is a significant aspect of punk fashion and what punks wore.
When it comes to both the hippies of the 1960s and the punks of the 1970s, the way punks and hippies dressed and presented themselves was arguably the most critical part of identity and personal statement. Both movements relied heavily on D.I.Y and recycled or thrifted clothing. Hippies wore a lot of self made clothing as they were against concepts such as commercialism and capitalism (Neuwirth, A. 2018). Colour is an aspect which is prevalent in hippie fashion of the 1960s as hippies typically wore bright-coloured pants and tie-dyed T-shirts (Issitt, M. 2009). Hippie girls wore floaty antique second hand dresses and often went braless, another social statement involving sexual liberation – a message that was critical to the hippie movement at the time (Issitt, M. 2009). Both genders wore items such as tight fitting pants, bandanas, beaded jewelry and sandals (Issitt, M. 2009) Again, most clothing was second hand or self made and therefore allows for a range of possible origins of the clothing that hippies wore (Fig. 11).
Not dissimilar to the hippies of the 1960s, the punks of the 1970s also used mainly D.I.Y methods to create their own clothing style and to weave their social messages and political views into their everyday attire. In collaboration with the punk movement in London, Malcolm Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood (Fig. 12) were two iconic designers which had a lot of influence on what became punk fashion (Childs, P. and Storry, M. 2002). They ran a boutique which became “SEX” in 1975 and catered to punks and referenced punk ideologies such as sexual liberation, fetishism, anti-establishment or provocative slogans and social change (Childs, P. and Storry, M. 2002). Common characteristics of punk fashion include
Both the fashion and dress styles which were characteristic of both the hippie movement of the 1960s and and the punk movement of the 1970s have influenced contemporary fashion and will continue to do so. Designers have referenced back to the hippie movements style of clothing through the use of colour,
Ultimately, both the peaceful hippies of the 1960s and the shocking punks of the 1970s, though on first glance seem to be polar opposites, have many similarities in the messages behind their movement. Although there are stark differences between the methods and attitudes these countercultures employed to express their ideologies, fashion and the way they presented themselves was one of the most important aspects within the