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[March 22, 1969] Flowers Are Better Than Bullets

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by Gwyn Conaway

In December of 1965, Mary Beth Tinker, her brother John Tinker, and three other students were suspended from their high school for wearing black armbands on school grounds as a form of memorial for the lives lost in the Vietnam War and a call for a Christmas truce. Though they returned to school wearing all black shortly thereafter, they were only permitted to return once they agreed not to wear their black armbands.


The Tinker siblings in 1968, showing off the black armbands that started their five year journey to the Supreme Court.

On the 24th of February of this year, Tinker won a case against Des Moines in the hallowed halls of the United States Supreme Court. In a super majority decision, the Justices ruled that the students were wrongfully suspended and that they had a right to the freedom of speech in educational settings so long as the protest was not a disruption to the public peace. Though the use of black armbands has not been widespread, I suspect that this and other creative uses of clothing will be a hallmark of speaking one’s mind in public spaces moving forward and as an expression of the power of courageous youth.


"Work For Peace" reads on this man's armband at the Congregational Church protest, 1969, following the Tinker decision.

It’s not the first time that the underdog has employed this sort of tactic in the face of institutional power–the zoot suit of Mexico and Black America in the thirties or the Phygian cap and cockade of the French Revolution, for example–but it very well might be the first time in American history that the sons and daughters of the hegemony have taken up a cause in defiance of their predecessors. While these previous examples of fashion in protest were employed by oppressed groups, the majority group of these movements are white Americans from the suburbs.

In other words, an entire generation has signed on to the opinion that America is not as grand as it’s chalked up to be.

In truth, this should be no surprise. Tensions between those who experienced the Herculean efforts of World War II and those that are growing up amidst the morally black devastation of the Vietnam region and the draft simply continue to rise. While the newspapers take a pro-war or neutral stance, young people feel they aren’t being heard. So why not focus on being seen instead?


The Olive Drab uniform (or "OD" uniform), a version of which has been worn since the beginning of the twentieth century, now inspires protest rather than the patriotism it instilled in Americans following WWI and WWII.


Young men wearing OD uniform shirts along with their other protest regalia at an anti-war protest, 1968.

Young men have been defying the shackles of masculine European tradition for several years now, and it’s becoming more and more mainstream to do so. By growing their hair long, they renounce the military draft and clean-cut regulations for soldiers, but it goes much deeper than Vietnam. Growing one’s hair signifies a departure from the expectation that they will uphold the stability of the middle class. Most importantly, though, it signals that young men no longer see themselves as natural aggressors.


Michele Breton, Anita Pallenberg, and Mick Jagger on the set of "Performance", 1968. Notice Mick Jagger's long hair, Turkish tunic, and bell-bottoms.

Men are adopting long natural locks indistinguishable from women and an unisex dress code that includes elements such as tunics, t-shirts, bell-bottoms, sandals, and necklaces. The bell-bottom trend is particularly exciting in this new age, considering that in all of Western history, men’s trousers have always been slim to the shoe, or even tapered to fit the ankle. When our foremothers pioneered paperbag trousers and pyjama suits, the cut hid the line of the leg with a trapeze shape from hip to ankle that swung with one’s walk. Now, bell-bottoms combine both, with a slim thigh and a flared calf for both men and women that is named specifically for that feminine legacy of the swinging gait.

The Tinker v. Des Moines decision confirms the path of an exhilarating but violent future. This young generation of teens and collegiates is now defined by not only its opposition to the war, but by the power of its symbols of protest. Mainly, they understand that one’s identity is inherently political speech. The convergence of the Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Anti-War, and Hippie movements has led to a volatile cocktail that visibly threatens the status quo of Western tradition by adopting more equal and worldly fashions.

I can’t help but worry that we will reach a boiling point soon. What will be the next symbol?

Flowers, perhaps.




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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[June 18, 1967] Sgt. Pepper's Anti-War Military Rock Uniform

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by Gwyn Conaway


Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on May 27th, 1967 and has kicked off the album art era as well as bolstering the influence of psychedelic and progressive rock. This album is the flag ship of the Summer of Love.

The Beatles’ eighth album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released two and a half weeks ago, and it continues to top the North American and European charts with no end in sight! The album is a fascinating journey from beginning to end, with a story woven into every aspect of the experience. This includes, of course, the costumes.

The album’s cover will live on in notoriety for decades, I’m sure. It’s colorful, optimistic, and draws from a rich history of live performance and influential figures. More than that, though, it’s a call to arms. Paul McCartney was inspired by Edwardian military bands for the title track, a concept which bled into the rest of the production, and when a theme such as this permeates an entire collection organically, it often suggests that the creators hit on a message of timely significance. With the Summer of Love upon us, The Beatles are setting themselves up as battlefield drummers leading an era of peace and optimism against modern warfare and exploitative economics.

A bold assumption on my part, I know. Let me convince you of my point of view.


The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper uniforms, designed by May Routh.

On the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the four band members are wearing neon color officers’ uniforms inspired by the military bands of WWI and standing behind an upright marching drum. These imaginative costumes were designed by May Routh as a celebration and a challenge. The celebration is the color palette, a symbol of mind-altering psychedelic drugs, and the materials, all shine and showmanship. The challenge, by comparison, is the blatant lack of attention to ranks and insignias. All four band members wear symbols of rank and power, but not in any way that pays homage to actual militaristic order. This is a conscious choice meant to commandeer the power and authority of wartime for a counter-culture defined by its vehement opposition to war.

At first, I thought this could be a direct mockery of the military, but then I considered that drum again, standing upright with the band turned in towards it. For over four thousand years, from China to the Americas, drums have been used on the battlefield as a way to keep in step, to make advances on the field, and to work in sync regardless of visibility. As recently as WWI, soldiers would time the reloading of their weapons to the beat of a drum. These brave drummers were often the first target of the opposing army. In the modern media, this analogy holds true: the monoliths of youth culture simultaneously lead the charge with the beat of their music and are subject to intense media scrutiny.

It's not a huge leap to see that The Beatles are calling on the world to embrace this new age, to fight back against injustice, war, and prejudice. Whether they’d planned to from the beginning, their message has become: Reload your hearts to the beat of our drum. The irony of using a militant image to convey an anti-war message has made their point of view far sharper, and is inspiring others to wield their visibility and influence – their drums, if you will – to the same end.


On the left, see a hussar in uniform astride his horse. The garment pictured center is a hussar's pelisse of the late 19th century, customarily worn over one shoulder as a mantle rather than a jacket. Note that Hendrix wears his pelisse as an open jacket and bare-chested.

Jimi Hendrix has also adorned himself in militaristic garments after his own experiences as a soldier. Hendrix has chosen the image of a royal hussar. These cavalry officers were prized for their unparalleled effectiveness on the battlefield for much of the past millennium, but disbanded after WWI in which they faced insurmountable odds. Regardless of being obsolete in the face of weapons of mass destruction, the hussars continue to be a symbol of militaristic supremacy and sophistication. By wearing an officer’s pelisse open over a bare chest, Hendrix supplants the power of the hussar and assumes their authority in defining himself as a sex symbol, an effortless master on the guitar, and icon of the Summer of Love. He challenges the role of The Beatles as the generals of the New Age while leading his own troops onto the battlefield of cultural change.


Left, a drummer boy of the 1st Scots Guard. Flaunting the same rules of rigmarole as The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger is wearing the uniform as if it's a casual garment.

The boldest (or perhaps the most blunt) symbol of the anti-war, peace-loving army, is Mick Jagger, who is also this year wearing the uniform coat of a drummer boy of the 1st Scots Guard. Let’s remember the call to arms in the drum of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Their choices of fashion and costume aren’t coincidental. These rock stars are gathering their army to affect change in society.

They also reach beyond the military, looking to symbols of wealth and sex, redefining upperclass fantasies as symbols of equality and empathy. They dress in frock coats and cravats rather than suits and ties. The Hippie Movement even denies the use of modern notions, such as snaps and zippers, in favor of simple cords or buttons.


Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Shepherdess, ca. 1750/52. This is a pastorale genre painting of the French court which glorifies the countryside life without acknowledging their struggles. The genre of painting is now a symbol of how tone-deaf the French courts had become to their people's strife.


Marie Antoinette's le Petit Hameau on the grounds of Versailles.

As a historian, I see a direct correlation between these choices and the pastorals of Rococo France in the 18th century (back when buttons were fairly modern technology). Before the French Revolution, the nobility romanticized a countryside, working class life, glorifying shepherdesses and minstrels, farmers and hunters. Marie Antoinette’s le Petit Hameau is the perfect example: an extremely expensive designer cottage based on rural French homes, in which she held exclusive soirees and fed impeccably groomed farm animals as an escape from the pressures of the royal court. Fashion and portraits played a big role in this blind fantasy of the nobility as well.


Jimi Hendrix often wears stripes, frothy necklines, cravats, and even a carmagnole jacket. The carmagnole was a symbol of the French Revolution. Striped pantaloons and a loose cravat were also symbols of the Sans Culottes (or anti-nobility) movement of the late 18th century. Interestingly, this type of cravat was popular in France because of the Battle of Steenkerque, in which French troops were taken by surprise and had no time to tie their cravats properly. The French won the battle, making a disheveled cravat immensely popular thereafter.


Left, Jimi Hendrix in a carmagnole, stripes, and frothy neckline. Right, Mick Jagger and John Lennon bedecked in frock coats inspired by the habit à la française, menswear of the French courts in the 18th century.

How does that relate to the music scene of the Summer of Love? It’s no different than using militaristic imagery to disseminate an anti-war message and ridicule the institution. These musicians that speak directly to the youth movement are pulling down images of traditional wealth, power, and escapism to the level of working class people. The intent is to break down the barriers of social propriety and offer an alternative to the machine of tradition. They fully believe that their message of equality and empathy is more powerful than money or gender or race or religion. They are anti-wealth, and so equalize the symbols of wealth. They are anti-corporate, and so dishevel men's suits and grow their hair long. They are anti-division, and so adopt softer fabrics, lace, and makeup to challenge the definition of masculinity and femininity.

Mark my words, a cultural revolution is underway, and the generals at the forefront of the war know how to use the establishment’s symbols against them. Extremely narrow and rigid views on issues such as gender, race, and national identity are going to be challenged in the years to come. What an exciting and volatile time! Now excuse me while I flip my album over.




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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[April 29, 1966] Young and Bold: Photographer David Bailey

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by Gwyn Conaway


David Bailey's Box of Pin-Ups was released in 1964 in the United Kingdom but never made its way (officially) across the pond.

Today has gifted me with a much-desired treat: a suite of photographs by the infamous David Bailey titled Box of Pin-Ups. This is a defining collection of photography, and I’m saddened by its lack of accessibility here in the United States. It has taken all year to find such a treasure! Let’s delve, dear readers, into the work of the defining fashion photographer of our time.


From left to right: Reggie, Charlie, and Ronnie Kray. Why is Box of Pin-Ups not available in the United States, you ask? Why, none other than Lord Snowden, of course. He bemoaned the fact that the Kray brothers (above) are subjects of Bailey’s lens. True, the twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are crime lords in the East End, but history proves time and time again that one’s virtue is not necessarily the trait that defines an era, nor one’s importance in capturing it. History finds both the hero and the villain equally fascinating.

David Bailey is an intriguing example of the working class artist rocketing to fame in the Swinging London scene. Suffering from both dyslexia and dyspraxia, a young Bailey had to seek out creative outlets as he completely and utterly abandoned his schooling. In fact, he left school when he was only fifteen years old, bounced around from job to job, and served in Singapore in the Royal Air Force. It was during this time that he bought his first camera, a Rolleiflex.


The Rolleiflex 2.8E is what I suspect his first camera to have been, released in 1956.

In 1960, a mere year into his career as a photographer, he began working with British Vogue, but it wasn’t until 1962 that he caught my eye. Vogue was beginning to promote younger fashions with a more modern feel, you see, and that work was to be done with a Rolleiflex. The camera is known for capturing movement and spontaneity, a must-have when photographing guerilla-style on the busy, gritty streets of Manhattan. So David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton, the Face of the 60’s herself, were tasked with a bare bones production. No hair or makeup artists. No lighted sets. Just the two of them, the photographer and the model, capturing what Bailey coined “Young Idea Goes West.”


Note the spontaneity of the images and how the fashions from Jaeger and Susan Small are caught in the flurry of New York life. British Vogue’s Lady Clare Rendlesham was reticent to feature this sort of realism in her magazine, which up until this point had focused on the aristocratic high polish of the 1950s.

I was so impressed with the journey of the series, seeing a young woman explore the wiles and wonders of the Big Apple. Truly, New York City is a chaotic and bustling town that is difficult to capture without having been there, walking down the streets at a clip. Bailey’s attention to this chaos is evident in the series, showcasing his mastery of the lens and celebrating his youth and boldness.


Bailey uses reflections in glass display windows and street poles to frame Shrimpton in the chaos of the city, while also capturing the candid reactions of local pedestrians as a way of framing Shrimpton’s role in this journey: a young woman full of wonder and wanderlust that can’t help but gain the attention of those around her.

Box of Pin-Ups is similarly youthful and bold. In fact, I’d venture to say that this is a seminal collection of photographs for more than one reason.

Firstly, a collection of photographs has never been sold in this manner before. It proves to me without a doubt that photographers of our times are cultural flames just like the models, fashion designers, and musicians they capture. I suspect we will see other photographers follow suit in the years and decades to come.

Secondly, the figures captured are not just the stars and starlets of our youth revolution. The collection includes such artists as Cecil Beaton, the famed war photographer, Rudolph Nureyev, the exceptional ballet danseur, and David Puttnam, an advertising executive. Bailey’s Box of Pin Ups captures the provocateurs of our times, the Swinging 60s, regardless of whether they’re already in the spotlight. His collection of movers and shakers is a look inward at the people inspiring our changing times.


From left to right: Cecil Beaton, David Puttnam, and Rudolph Nureyev.

However, the most interesting thing about the collection is actually distilled in the commentary of Francis Wyndham, who has included notes in the collection for each photograph. Wyndham astutely claims that “in the age of Mick Jagger, it is the boys who are the pin-ups.” This statement couldn’t hit the mark any more clearly than in Bailey’s collection. Only four of the subjects, out of thirty-six, are women.

This prompted me to look at the collection with even more sophistication. Bailey states it baldly in the title Box of Pin-Ups and in looking at his figures from that point of view, it’s clear that the male subjects are displaying their fashion choices – ergo their identities – with pride and vigor. This attention to vanity, as it’s often coined, is usually reserved for women’s modeling, fashion, and advertisement.


From left to right: The Beatles member John Lennon and record producer Andrew Oldham. Notice the unapologetic celebration of men's beauty here, in the delicate fanning on John Lennon's eyelashes and the bishop sleeve of Oldham's blouse.

Which invites the question: Has the arrival of sensations such as The Beatles, The Kinks, and Mick Jagger broken open a new era of male complexity? Since the early nineteenth century, men have been relegated to a very narrow range of roles. In fact, there was a concerted effort after the French Revolution to separate our material and social culture by gender: textiles, foods, furniture, colors, patterns, occupations, hobbies, education… And while women have been fighting these conventions for time immemorial, men have been conditioned to endure. Great minds, from Paul Gaugin to Oscar Wilde, have challenged these limitations, no doubt, but they have never been seen as the mainstream. Now, however, I see the potential for these defiant men to change our future. This fever our youth is currently experiencing… I hope it becomes much more than just a passing flu.

Thank you, David Bailey, for framing his answer to my question in the outlines of a beautiful box!




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