Haldern Pop

Haldern Pop festival may not take place in this country, but it really speaks for the subculture that I've been looking into, and it would be the best place to talk about. What I love about this festival is that it seems to be about to music and the setting, and less about making money and the material aspect of a festival, this really speaks for my subculture as that’s what I feel it’s all about, not caring about money or material things and more about what we have already. It seems to have taken festivals back to what they used to be about, apposed to the normal money making festivals we get in the UK. Haldern Pop is set in Germany, the type of people that attend really care about music, the music is folky rock, stuff you can chill. Nothing to heavy nothing with too much beat, just the music you can listen to and drown yourself in.

Here is one of the videos they posted up on the website of the festival, it gives us a feel of what the festival is about...

Interview with the one.

This girl is my best friend and my soul mate, so I'll always look up to her... Miss Louise King seemed to be the best person to interview to work out whats behind this mixed up sub-culture.

It's not that I don't already know enough about you is it?
No... in fact I think you probably know everything about me...
Why am I interviewing you again? I could just do it myself... no wait that's not the point...
(Laughs) Go ahead then..
Right I'll start of easy... Favourite animal and why?
Well that'll have to be a bear, a panda bear. They look loveable but are at the same time tough, they seem pretty chilled not really a care in the world. I think I'ld like that.
I know I would... Okay what do you do in your spare time?
Spare time, I only get weekends off and then you are back from uni so you are always here! Actually to be fair I love going for long walks...
...I know this you always ask for me to come with you!
Yeah well it's good, clears the head, get to have a chat, better than being stuck inside doing sweet fuck all but watching 4od.
True that! Okay dream place to live?
Well either back home in Jersey or somewhere by the beach. Somewhere where I don't have to worry about how busy it is...
I kinda like places that are busy, where loads of things are going on.  I wouldn't mind a quiet weekend right now though. Dream job?
The one I have right now... Not. I wish I didn't have to work. Just go with the flow.
I bloody miss having a job, grass is always greener Louise! I have no job so all I do is eat... Would you mind having a fat best friend?
I guess I could live with it, clothes shopping would be annoying.
Yeah I need a job. Anyway favourite music? 
I love stuff that brings back memories, and I love the old motown classics can't go wrong there. Nothing too heavy just something enjoyable I guess.
Back to clothes, do the clothes you wear reflect who you are? 
I guess so, but I guess it does for everyone... I wear long skirts and small tops, what does that say?
We look the same?
Standard, I guess I like to give off a feeling that I'm carefree and pretty happy, because I am.
Well thank you Louise it has been a pleasure, as always... See you tomorrow?
It was my pleasure... and yeah probs.

Gisele Bundchen - Vogue Paris April 2011

Here is a recent spread from Paris Vouge showing up to date fashion of my subculture...

Upset The Rhythm - Spaghetti Tree

On the first weekend of April I attended Upset The Rhythm - Spaghetti Tree. April Fools' Day is often at this time, well in fact it's always on the 1st April, so Upset The Rhythm cleverly entitled this 48 hour spectacular Spaghetti Tree in homage to the 1957 Panorama broadcast which fooled the nation.  Spaghetti Tree took place in Peckham Rye's old cricket bat factory, The Bussey Building, Which may I say was a great location, it was over several floors and it really fitted well with the jams that were being held here, it was kinda creepy but with a homely feel to it. 

On Friday 1 April they had artists such as Dan Deacon, John Maus, PLUG, Munch Munch and Design A Wave. On the Saturday things really got down and dirty with... No Age, Japanther, Ducktails, Ignatz, Please, Peepholes, Hygiene, Woolf, Smack Wizards and Eternal Fags all performing across the space's several rooms. 

Here is a track from one of the favourite acts I saw (Ducktails)...

How To Dress Well - Love Remains

Some albums change your view on how albums should be made, How To Dress Well did this for me 100%, the slow jams and the harsh but mellow distortion blend into one, I don't think there is an album that is like this out at the moment. What really gives this album something is the gospel like voice of the lead singer, it moves with the music so well, the voice is distorted and mumbled to fit with the tripped out psych beats of each song, it gives a sense that he doesn't really need to know the words of the song, he can mumble them and the song will be just as powerful and meaningful. As one YouTube comment says "It's like My Bloody Valentine & Sigur Ros had some secret, bastard love child with some R&B artist". This music really comes from inside. 


If you want to here more of their music check out the How To Dress Well blog at http://howtodresswell.blogspot.com

Baths - Cerulean

I go on about this album enough, and I've pretty much brought it in every format possible, so I think it's time I wrote about it.

Sit back and make this album rinse through your skin, it's something unreal. You can't really put you're finger one what this album does, maybe it's the atmospheric sounds, it sort of cuts you off from the world around you. It has a huge escapism feel to it, listening to the song 'Animals' alone brings back childhood memories, something that I think is truly intoxicating in an album. This type of genre which I'm going to call chill-step (or chill-wave) has opened my eyes to music.

Kenzo

Kenzo Takada is a Japanese fashion designer, or should I say businessman, he is the founder of Kenzo, which has a worldwide brand of perfumes, skincare products and clothes. He got a love for the fashion industry at a really young age from going through his sisters magazines, he attended the University of Kobe which wasn’t his thing at all and against the will of his family he left and joined a fashion school, Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College, which had only just opened it’s doors the male designers. After earning his diploma, he moved to Paris in 1964. This was a way from him to make contacts by going to fashion events and selling sketches. I’m guessing luck went his way, because look at his designs now, the designer designing for Kenzo now is Antonio Marras. Photos are taken from his Fall 2011 RTW collection.

Kenzo's first designs started because he could only afford to buy his fabrics from flea sales. As a result, Kenzo had to mix many bold fabrics together to make one garment. This really shows in the designs today, which I think is refreshing what I also think has made the company use bold colours and prints together is because of the time that Kenzo himself started out designing was the 70’s this would be the era that they wanted to show the most of in the designs as he would like it this way, it’s his style. 

Rather than the designs being in your face hippie Kenzo is definitely not, it is a lot more subtle in my eyes especially with this collection, I mean it still has the print and retro colours, but there is a massive fashion edge to it, some things are very different maybe it being a jacket that a dress is put with, it brings a more clean cut type of style, something that maybe a less loud hippie would wear someone that believes in the hippie way of life but maybe doesn’t want to scream it to the rest of the world.  

I don’t see Antonio letting Kenzo down one bit especially with this collection it has really shown how he can use Kenzo’s love for pattern from his background and up bringing and make it into high-end fashion and make it something wearable for loads of different people. It may not all be happy-go-lucky type of hippie fashion with bright colours following you everywhere but was that really what it was all about? 

Anna Sui

It’s not often you find your self so happy and energetic after looking at someone’s collection, but Anna Sui’s runway collections never fail to amaze me. Famous for her amazingly bold style and her retro references, Sui has a lot of different inspirations over her design career: the New York Dolls, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Uzbekistan, the American West, etc. Despite all the noise, Sui manages to get the style right season after season. Sui was born in Detroit to French-educated Chinese emigrants in 1964. She had youthful dreams and was always at the flea markets this opened her eyes to colour and pattern. She landed herself a scholarship and Parsons, after 2 years of studying she threw herself straight into the industry, learning things that she wouldn’t have learnt studying. She was designing sportswear and styling for different photographers. In 1980 she took one of her 6-piece collection to a New York trade fair, and got spotted by a Macy’s buyer, a window and an advert in The New York Times soon followed. For the next 10 years she ran her business out of her apartment, until she was persuaded to step up to the real runway in 1991. After a year she opened her boutique in Soho, and these days she has 30 boutiques worldwide. These photos are taken from her Fall 2011 RTW collection.

Looking at Anna Sui’s designs I can see that she is very inspired by the hippie style, it’s different and inspirational. Her designs look more like what the hippie would wear and are also cut to the style of a hippie outfit, but there is something new and different about her designs. I think it’s the way she used the print and colour in her design, she keeps the colour all together yet at the same time mixes it up a bit, but adding some colours that wouldn’t normally look right together but they do. She also put her designs with accessories that make her garments into a finish outfit, using hats and big chunky necklaces this brings the outfit together and makes her spectacularly different. Something that I see in her designs is her upbringing, she was brought up to be free, she would make clothes for her friends and people she was closest too, but never really made herself known to the industry until she was made too. I think she this love for making clothes as more of a hobby than a career shows in her designs as she has fun with it. 

What I feel about Anna Sui is that her designs will never fail to make me smile or bring a bit of brightness to my life, she has it in her blood the way she is brings happiness and love to her designs and I don’t think anyone can change this, so hopefully there will be plenty more collections full of the same colour and boldness, that when people watch them at fashion week they’ll come out more happy than they did going in. 

Etro

Etro is a Milan designer founded by Gimmo Etro in 1968 and now Gimmo's daughter, Veronica, is the current womenswear designer, and her brother, Kean, handles the menswear line. Colourful prints are Etro's thing, patterns splashed everywhere it's an amazing current hippie style. These are some outfits from the Fall 2011 RTW collection.

What I love most about Etro, is that the designs have amazing prints and bold colours that of the hippie style, but they have such a modern twist to them, with using fur, and the cuts and styles of the clothes which are very modern. What is also amazing is Etro is a Milan designer, and Milan is know as the “grey city” well not in the case of Etro I don't think they have ever designed something dull. There is colour everywhere, and it's exciting. You can see the love and happiness that has gone into these clothes and designs, which makes it a lot more fantastic to look at with the brightness and blooming colour each pattern and design brings a new ethnic and abstract feel.

I could easily see a hippie of these days pulling off some of these outfits. They are so refreshing to look at with the mixed up patterns that shouldn’t go together but yet it still works perfectly fine, it doesn’t seem to matter that her designs are so bold, because the way these outfits are put together is so smart, the cut is so slick that having this much bold print and colour together doesn't matter. What also makes her designs look so hippie like is that the prints are all taken from the 60’s, using the retro colours and the big bold floral pattern. Although the patterns can be said to be 60’s inspired, I’m not too sure if it is intentional, I think it’s more to follow in her fathers footsteps than anything, her father set up the business in 1968, and these styles would have been very in, and I think for her, these designs are more to keep her fathers spirits alive in the design than the love for the hippie style itself.

   I think it’s the family love and happiness that has made this business work for 43 years, that makes the clothes and designs so special, each one looks like it’s designed with the same desire as the first design would have been. I also think this is why the clothes are so big and bold, and give me the feel of hippie. A hippie was all about love and happiness, and whether it was intentional or not the hippie vibe comes through. I really hope that Etro stays a strong family company for many years to come because their designs definitely bring me happiness. 

Hippie Muse & Designer

Muse- Juliette Lewis

Juliette Lewis is an American actress and musician, and I see her now as a modern day hippie. Attending and playing festivals around the world.

Designer - Veronica Etro

Etro is a Milan designer founded by Gimmo Etro in 1968 and now Gimmo's daughter, Veronica, is the current womenswear designer, and her brother, Kean, handles the menswear line. Colourful prints are Etro's thing, patterns splashed everywhere it's an amazing current hippie style. These are some outfits from the Fall 2011 RTW collection.

My design for Juliette Lewis in the style of Etro...

Neo-hippie

 Neo-hippies are like traditional hippies of the 21^st Century, neo-hippies are political and motivated, but some people say that they are more interested in the fashion statement than the counter-culture movement.

 

A Neo-hippie can be defined as someone who meets all, if not most of the following standards: Liberal in political views, certain fashion attire distinct to the "hippie" family and plays hackie sack. Neo-hippies may also be vegetarian and have an avid, if not obsessive, desire to re-cycle. Neo-hippies my not necessarily be all of the above as it is not essential to be a vegetarian, a pothead, a tie-dye wearer, a person who shower irregularly, a rights activist, a person interested in spirituality or a person concerned with nature. A neo-hippie cannot be defined or categorised by certain criteria, but rather as someone who stands up for what they believe in. 

When it comes to music element of their subculture, they listen to a wide range of down beat and psychedelic music in order to drown themselves in and be at peace. A neo-hippie is a human being that cares passionately about themselves, nature and others around them. They are someone who embraces all life and the concept of love, they do not see borders, boundaries, colour or faith. They see themselves, their life and their existence as non-materialistic and are content with the bear minimal. These individuals come from all different colours, sizes, subcultures and habits, but all agree on one thing: free is best and everyone’s invited! These environmentally and socially conscious people are inclusive, in tune with the earth and themselves seeing the good and bad within everyone and everything.

Compared to the original counter culture many people may think that neo-hippies are just following a culture they are inspired by, and don’t really act on the beliefs that the hippies of the time did. The sad fact is that the world situation really hasn't changed much. The same power structure exists. The need to respond to the world situation is as great as ever. In fact this is what has evolved over the last three decades. The media has shown us that the problems of our planet are far more serious and long term than those of our neighborhood. Our consciousness has expanded to where we now worry about people we've never met in countries we've never been to.