During the mid-1960s, artists, activists, writers, and musicians converged on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district with hopes of creating a new social paradigm. It was a time of international upheaval. By 1967, the neighborhood attracted 100,000 young people from all over the United States (and overseas). The neighborhood would be ground zero for their activities and nearby Golden Gate Park their playground.
Groundbreaking developments were made in art, fashion, music, and politics. Bay Area bands such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were the progenitors of what would become known as the “San Francisco Sound,” music that found its visual counterpart in creative industries that sprang up throughout the region.
Distinctive codes of dress set members of the Bay Area counterculture apart from mainstream America. Bay Area designers created fantastic looks using a range of techniques and materials, including leatherwork, hand-painting, knitting and crotchet, embroidery, repurposed denim and tie-dye. These innovators included Birgitta Bjerke, aka 100% Birgitta; Mickey McGowan, aka the Apple Cobbler; Burray Olson; and Jeanne Rose.
The de Young Museum in San Francisco's The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll is an exhilarating exhibition of iconic rock posters, photographs, interactive music and light shows, costumes and textiles, ephemera and avant-garde films.
A 50th anniversary celebration of the adventurous and colorful counterculture that blossomed in the years surrounding the legendary San Francisco summer of 1967, the exhibition presents over 300 significant cultural artifacts of the time, including almost 150 objects from the Fine Arts Museums’ extensive permanent holdings, supplemented by key, iconic loans.
I was thoroughly enthralled by this expertly curated exhibit, which takes around 45 minutes to an hour to fully explore. Although my heart aches for the mess that we find ourselves in politically, during this summer of 2017, a visit back to the Summer of Love brings new hope that the youth of today will rise above the mire and make more sorts of massive changes as witnessed 50 years ago.
Wedding Dress fashion
Beautiful Handcrafted Green Leather Boots, Rainbow Cobblers, San Francisco
Janis Joplin's Handbag 1967 — made by Linda Gravenites
(Goatskin with silk embroidery and glass beads)
Jerry Garcia's Victorian "Captain Trips" Hat (1883) with Later Alterations, originally made by Dunlap & C0
(Hand-painted silk with ribbon and flag)
Meticulously Embroidered Hospital Scrub Top (1968)
Although San Francisco was considered by many to be a haven from the conservatism that still lingered elsewhere in the country, the social and political climate of America at large weighed heavily on the city’s inhabitants who came together to speak out against the war in Vietnam, social injustice, and other issues of concern.
The social developments in San Francisco and the Bay Area in the 1960s as epitomized by the Summer of Love catalyzed a set of ideas that would eventually lead to new norms: the birth of the natural food industry, concern for the environment, sexual liberation, and challenges to the nuclear family. The era’s political and social activism had a significant impact on the course of American history. The counterculture touched every facet of American culture, offering alternatives to the mainstream that still flourish today.
If you can't make it to the museum to see this important exhibit, take some time out of whatever you're doing and click here to explore the excellent Summer of Love Experience Digital Stories.
I'd like to find out who the guys are in the photo above. The young man in the middle of these three looks exactly like the youngest of my three sons, so much so I did a triple take walking past this huge poster at the start of the exhibit.
Rock-poster artists such as Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, and Wes Wilson generated an exciting array of distinctive works featuring distorted hand-lettering and vibrating colors, while wildly creative light shows, such as those by Bill Ham and Ben Van Meter, served as expressions of the new psychedelic impulse.
"We would all like to be able to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life, and think about moving the whole human race ahead a step."
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