The Flower Power Decade

Jazzy1

Jazzy1

Got A Cracker?
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Adirondack Region NY
world-peace-love.gif


Some remember the 70s with a sweet nostalgia, in favor of its trending floral prints, flared bell-bottom jeans, and oversized floppy hats. Others look back and cringe, embarrassed by their once overpopulated closet of shoulder pads, tie-dyed T-shirts and paisley-print blouses. Regardless of one’s fondness or lack thereof, the decade was undoubtedly influential. And, of course, groovy. Known primarily for the hippie movement and the birth of glam rock (i.e. David Bowie), the 70s were a time of self-expression, empowerment and peace.
What groovy Flower Power trends did you have?
 

Jazzy1 said:
world-peace-love.gif


Some remember the 70s with a sweet nostalgia, in favor of its trending floral prints, flared bell-bottom jeans, and oversized floppy hats. Others look back and cringe, embarrassed by their once overpopulated closet of shoulder pads, tie-dyed T-shirts and paisley-print blouses. Regardless of one’s fondness or lack thereof, the decade was undoubtedly influential. And, of course, groovy. Known primarily for the hippie movement and the birth of glam rock (i.e. David Bowie), the 70s were a time of self-expression, empowerment and peace.
What groovy Flower Power trends did you have?
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the hippy movement was actually the 60's in the UK..by the time we got to the 70's we'd moved on f
 
Started in the 60's where I was, in the USA. I never really got into it other than I loved the music and I still do... If I had started wearing clothes, of that time, I would have been expelled from high school and beat up by the guys I hung around with. It was NOT popular in our town...only weirdoes wore the clothes and hair of that time...
 
I have always been most at home in jeans and comfortable tops, 'peasant' blouse type of things. I wore mini-skirts to go dancing. Had a purple halter dress that i wore a bathing suit bottom under so when dancing it wasn't as obvious when skirt swished high enough for them to visible.

I had to work, unlike some people my age at the time. Not only to support myself but often sent money home to Mom & little brother. So i had to have basic office attire most of the time, more conservative type outfits. Peace symbol and Yin/Yang jewelry my little assertion of my real nature.

But for parties in my home or those of friends i preferred midi skirts and dresses: i liked the way felt when i moved and not having to be careful how i sat or reached for things to preserve some modesty.
 
Timewise 60+ said:
Started in the 60's where I was, in the USA. I never really got into it other than I loved the music and I still do... If I had started wearing clothes, of that time, I would have been expelled from high school and beat up by the guys I hung around with. It was NOT popular in our town...only weirdoes wore the clothes and hair of that time...
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They still had us girls wearing skirts or dresses by the time I left school too, and not mini skirts. If they thought your skirt was too short we had to go to our knees and hem had to touch the floor, any shorter and you had to go home. So I know you would have gotten expelled from our school too :ROFLMAO:
 
IrishEyes said:
I think it hit pretty much the whole country and Woodstock was in 69 and it began weaning after that, people needed to work for a living and caved in to the "establishment" ways to feed all those love child babies :ROFLMAO:
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My best friend got us a ride to Woodstock (we lived on Lower East side of Manhattan at the time) the day before, but i declined, unwilling to ditch work and at the time both my hyperacusia and issues with crowds were much worse. I would go to outdoor concerts but needed to able to stand at edges and needed to be able to leave when it got 'too much'.

Same with going to clubs, i loved to dance but preferred neighborhood places that weren't as crowded to the 'in' places. Tho had a fun night at a popular Harlem club once.
 
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We went to Haight Ashbury back in the mid 60's and it was quite sad to see the young people, some so high on drugs that their eyes were glassed over. They begged for money and said peace and love to us. They did wear the clothes with flowers and the typical wear of the time.

I wore the bell bottom pants and short skirts back then. That was as close as I got to flower power decade.
 
I got a little "hippy-ish" in college, bell-bottoms, ponchos, bangs down to my eyes, long straight hair.

I had a much-beloved pair of "elephant bells", wiiide legs, lots of embroidery and little bells around the bottom. I turned them into a pair of maternity jeans and made the mistake of wearing them and a big gauzy hippie top onto the base one day.

My late husband was called into the C.O.'s office and ordered to "tell your *&S%* wife to stop wearing that ^%@C*$ hippie sh!t onto my base and get into some proper clothes!!!" I refrained from wearing that *&$@* hippie sh!t anywhere near the base after that.
 
All that hippy clothing style was more an LA/NYC/college thing than here in the SFBA. By the late 1960s that flower power dressing phase had long gone. Early 1970s were already different, more into rock music, and drugs. The whole Grateful Dead and Berkeley world dominated here and though some dressed in some of those ways, it was more diverse and Counterculture. There were so many young Counterculture people in the SFBA region, many having recently arrived from elsewhere, that also had ordinary jobs and careers, that there wasn't a given style people were wearing 24/7 unless they were in the musician world or in the core drug or biker culture.

When blue jean bell bottoms became the only jean commodity items available, I did buy some, didn't like them, and still don't, so was quick to go back to straight leg Levis as soon as they rose again even though others wore that d@#$ style for years.
 
Jazzy1 said:
world-peace-love.gif


Some remember the 70s with a sweet nostalgia, in favor of its trending floral prints, flared bell-bottom jeans, and oversized floppy hats. Others look back and cringe, embarrassed by their once overpopulated closet of shoulder pads, tie-dyed T-shirts and paisley-print blouses. Regardless of one’s fondness or lack thereof, the decade was undoubtedly influential. And, of course, groovy. Known primarily for the hippie movement and the birth of glam rock (i.e. David Bowie), the 70s were a time of self-expression, empowerment and peace.
What groovy Flower Power trends did you have?
Click to expand...
I wore all of that in the late 1960's and early 70's except for the shoulder pads. I associate those with the power suits of the 80's, which I wore later for work.

StarSong said:
Definitely in full swing in the 60s in the US. Throughout the 70s it morphed to other styles, as trends and fashions do. In the US, the Hippie/Flower Power / Peace movement was deeply tied to young people's resistance to the Vietnam War, which didn't end until April 1975.
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Yes, you could tell where we were politically just by looking at us.

My (then) husband had shoulder length hair by 1967 and because of that, and that alone, he was listed as suspicious by the local FBI. It didn't worry us then, but now he's 80 years old and sporting a bumper sticker on his car that has my son and I worried for him. Times have changed.
 
I became involved in something that was going on west of the Rockies. Mainly from midway up the Pacific coast of California, up through Oregon and Washington state, and up into British Columbia (BC). It was the so-called back-to-the-land trend. In BC, where I live, it occurred along the Pacific coast, over in the Gulf Islands (off the mainland), and in the southeast corner of the province. In the U.S. it also occurred in New England states.

Clothing was appropriate to practicality. Our activities involved raising gardens and chickens (and maybe goats), raising children, cutting down trees and bucking lengths for firewood, carpentry, food preservation, home-system maintenance, sewing & mending, fishing as recreation and for protein. For enjoyment, hiking and camping, canoeing or kayaking, cross-country skiing, and reading. Potluck get-togethers among friends, and occasional softball or badminton games. We also spent time learning about the ecology of the immediate area.

Yes, most people did let their hair grow to lengths unpopular in the early 1960s. The young women involved often wore some form of the style mentioned above, on special occasions. But mostly everyone wore work clothing day to day. Both men and women wore work shirts and denim or khaki pants (or overalls) during the day. Long underwear and woolen shirts (and maybe woolen pants too) during winter. Down-filled coats and knitted woolen caps at that time of year.
 
I didn't mention it above, but it's often pointed out that the "decade" in question started to decline due to the "stagflation" that snowballed from 1973 on. I'm sure the ripples of that contributed to low rural property values that continued through the rest of the decade. It would have been just one of the factors that made it feasible for some young people to rent, lease, or acquire land during the 1970s.
 
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