Culture

Why Do We Still Dress For Music Festivals As If We’re Heading To Woodstock?

Summer's coming! Time to dress up like your grandparents.

by Sam Sidney  4 September 2015
Brought to you by Miss Shop

Brought to you by Miss Shop Myer

Miss Shop girls are running the show this season, and we teamed up with them to explore the history behind five iconic looks. Run With Us here.

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Bell-bottom denim, a field of flower crowns, lace-fringed kaftans and heavy, heavy whimsy; through the right Instagram filter it’s hard to tell if you’re cruising a hashtag from last month’s Splendour, or flipping through archives from 1969 Woodstock.

As dependent on constant change and cultural cannibalism as fashion may be, things haven’t evolved much on the music festival circuit since that summer. When you look over the sea of people at every festival, from Glastonbury to Coachella, it’s uncanny how in-step we’ve stayed with the (bare) footprints walked 46 years ago.

Is it the way music inspires crowd solidarity that has us trying to re-create the flower power, free-loving people’s revolution? Or was the fashion itself so ahead of its time that every high street chain in the world today has a free ride every month leading up to festival season to sling out their #festivalfashion style edits?

Let’s take a look.

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Where It All Began

You all know the words to this song. Held on a dairy farm during a rainy weekend in August 1969, Woodstock was a defining moment in the history of music, art, and political counterculture. With an expected turnout of 50,000, you can imagine the absolute Armageddon that befell the venue when closer to 400,000 free-wheelin’, crystal-carrying festival-goers descended upon its unprepared paddocks.

The lineup is now rock ‘n’ roll legend: Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Janis Joplin, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It played out like the mixed tape of your dad’s dreams.

Despite the lack of organisation and minor comforts like toilets, showers, and food, the collective fashion athenaeum advises there was no shortage of style.

just strummin’ #woodstock #hippies #woodstockfestival #1969 #peaceandlove #summeroflove

A photo posted by Woodstock (@woodstock) on

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What They Wore

In a crowd of half a million, one would have had to put some serious sartorial consideration into their outfit to stand out, but many chose to simply go nude instead. Trying too hard was totally against the free-spirited, non-materialistic vibe anyway, man. With the Vietnam War being the ostensible reason for the gathering, wrapping oneself in the American flag or donning a khaki military jacket was handy, being both a political and fashion statement.

It’s kind of bizarre to now think of things like frayed denim, tie-dye rainbows and long layers of beads being genuinely seen as a protest uniform for those going against the mainstream. But these kids really were rebelling against an America in turmoil, with super-high unemployment, a long and pointless war that no one seemed to want, and a general lack of faith in the government.

Boy, how times have changed!

✌️#1969 #hippies #woodstock #woodstockfestival #goodvibes #further #throwback #humpday A photo posted by Woodstock (@woodstock) on

The explosion of flower-power spilling into the streets of San Francisco with its bohemian paisley prints, psychedelic colours and crochet knits defined the West Coast Look, the wearers of which piled into Kombis and slouched towards Bethel. This faction brought the bare midriffs and flowing silhouettes. Women wore minimal make-up; face paint or mud was highly favoured, which perfectly complemented their “woke up like this” centre-parted hair.

The East Coasters intersected this colour explosion with their iteration of the French new wave look: the iconic floppy ’60s felt hats, lambswool ponchos, vintage lace, beatnik skivvies and cats-eye eyeliner. It was also during this half of the ‘60s that t-shirts moved into circulation, Plastisol ink became widely available for screen printing, and the band t-shirt was born.

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Iconic Festival Fashion

Fast-forward to the present day, and retailers everywhere are still cashing in on these looks, year after year. Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Kate Bosworth have built entire careers around their well-executed “I’m with the band” ensembles.

A photo posted by Alexa (@chungalexa) on

Even fashion-conservative civilians seem to lose their minds when it comes to festival wear, donning flower crowns none would ever consider wearing back at home — or, as perennial festival fashion pin-up Penny Lane would call it, in “the real world”.

Festival accessories have remained the same in sentiment, but evolved with the times a little chemically with things like metallic temporary tattoos and coloured hair chalk. The boom of mass-production has now filled the world with fringed satchels, plastic prayer beads and faux boho bangles.

I can still feel the wristband on my wrist sometimes… #sitg2015

A photo posted by Peter Pascoe (@thepascoe) on

The clothes are beautiful, but you can’t help but feel like it’s a game of dress up; the parade is not for those who partake in it, but for the roving cameras and Instagram followers.

While we stomp synthetic lace through muddy showgrounds, drink over-priced beer from plastic cups and watch bands play through our iPhone screens, it’s cringingly obvious that since Woodstock, the times have changed. We look back at a history we were never a part of with (literally) rose-coloured glasses, and recreate the OG bohemia of Woodstock with the help of a digital filter. A borrowed nostalgia for the feeling of freedom and unity that we all wish to experience for ourselves.

I think this might be the very thing we still have in common with the original trailblazers. While today’s festivals aren’t exactly groundbreaking in any political, social or fashionable way, it’s the core ideology — peace, love and music — that still brings people together to optimistically share in something they hope will be genuine and memorable.

We carefully put on these festival uniforms and hold hands with our friends and maybe, just kind of, hope that some of the conviction of the past will visit us through the night.

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Join the movement at #werunthis.

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Sam Sidney is a fashion writer and the blogger brains and fingers behind Style Paws you can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook or outside patting your cat.

Feature image by Col Fink.