Hippie Dress Design

The outfit for this subject included 2 garments of a burnt umber, shantung shift dress featuring an empire line and a deep purple, embellished velour waistcoat using a mens' pattern which were accompanied by a dream catcher necklace and some John Lennon-inspired sixties glasses with a blue tint.

This is a picture of the model at the fashion show wearing my designs. I was made up with how the outfit looked when together.

I had bought packets of plain feathers to dye pink and turquoise for both the necklace and the waistcoat embellishment. 

This is the beaded paisley pattern in process for the yoke on the waistcoat. I think the paisley pattern is great from it's history of being sourced from India and popularised in the hippie community from a visit taken to the country by The Beatles in the sixties. I used small black beads with a multicoloured tint to create the pattern on the yoke, however it can also be seen on the front of the waistcoat through the method of appliqué using the burnt umber shantung fabric. 

This is the empire line on the shift dress being tacked into place. (I don't know why I took a picture but oh well). 

Thank you for reading ☺️

Hippie Fashion Inspiration

Inspiration✌️

Jimi Hendrix was one of the hippie favourites in terms of musical geniuses. With his amazing electrical chords and distinguished vocals, his most famous songs included 'Purple Haze', 'Hey Joe' and 'All Along the Watchtower' (my favourite!). Lyrical embeddings of the promotion of peace was what made him popular within the hippie circles and led him to play at Woodstock. 

Hendrix's style inspired hippies to wear fringed arms and tie dyed head bands. I particularly love the bright colour clashing a in the picture shown above. The satin purple and dyed orange work really well to create a stand out outfit. 

Jimi Hendrix is cool. 

              Flower Power!🌸🌺🌼

 The hippie peace promotion protests in the late '60s produced some amazing photographs such as the one above. I love this photograph as it captures the message perfectly because this lady is not fighting back or provoking violence with the soldier who is pointing a gun at her, instead she is defending herself with a flower.

Wes Wilson was an artist who created the famous psychedelic posters for the musical performances at the Filmore in San Fransisco. Many of the posters promoted bands such as the Grateful Dead and the 13th Floor Elevators. Wilson took inspiration from the Art Nouveau posters designed by the likes of Alphonse Mucha by playing with composition. 

The inspiration that I have taken from the posters are the contrasting and clashing colours embedded in each poster. Wilson has taken two main colours for each piece of artwork to help make them stand out. 

I have chose orange and purple as my main colours, however they are much darker than the colours found in the posters to achieve a Biba effect, therefore I used a burnt umber and a deep purple combination. 

Instead of designing a Swinging London kind of dress for this unit (I have already created a pink PVC Twiggy inspired shift in a previous project) I have decided to take inspiration from Biba. This was a label created by Barbara Hulanicki which portrayed a chic, floppy hat, model with cigarette-in-hand, catty eyed and pale skin appearance. The clothes used much darker colours such as mulberry and blueberry and played with loosely fitted garment.

Bobby Hillson - Fashion Illustrator

Bobby Hillson is a London based fashion illustrator who was partly famed for her illustrations which featured in many high end fashion magazines in the 1960s. She's not only studied at Central Saint Martins but additionally founded the Fashion MA course at the university which she started running in 1978. This is where she recognised the potential of Lee Alexander McQueen.

In the 1960s, working as a fashion illustrator at Vogue, Hillson  created many well known fashion illustrations.  I love the simplicity of her work and her original interpretations of catwalk fashion in the form of line drawings.

1910s Fashion

A transformation of the woman's silhouette occurred in this decade. No longer was it necessary for a woman's waist to be pulled in tightly to enhance the hips, but instead the garments were made to look more fluid-like. High waists were popular and hats with feathers were too.

 

Here is one of my illustrations of typical upper class women of the era.