Peace, Love, and Shopping

This Christmas season, '60s counterculture makes a comeback in an unexpected place—Barneys' window displays.

There is nothing more alluring at the moment than painting materialistic hedonism with a countercultural stripe.

Last week, a group of reporters gathered at Fred’s at Barneys for breakfast to hear Simon Doonan’s spiel on the theme of the store’s holiday windows this season: “Peace and Love: Have a Hippie Holiday.” The windows took shape as a mix of old-meets-new boho chic in the form of peace signs (celebrating its 50th anniversary), singers Joan Baez and Janis Joplin, embroidered jeans and Afro-centric chic, juxtaposed with more than 30 (not for sale) dresses emblazoned with the peace sign and made using sustainable materials.

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Designed by everyone from Michael Kors to Moschino, they were commissioned by Barneys and Earth Pledge FutureFashion, an initiative whose aim is to help designers go green. You can even buy a $100 ticket to win a VW New Beetle that is painted with doves, peace signs, and other pretty, feel-good imagery—and rest assured, all proceeds go toward planting trees in VW’s Mississippi forest to offset the carbon footprint of that car.

Acknowledging that there’s no stopping shopping, Barneys has instead made it its mission to at least give it a socially conscious bent. By highlighting the creativity (but not the assassinations) spawned from the tumultuousness of ’68, it’s hoping to a draw a parallel to the current fashion for all things eco-conscious, and maybe inspire shoppers to trade in a Balenciaga bag for one made from eco-friendly leather and emblazoned with a peace sign.

To this confused reporter trying to grapple with how a department store—even a smart, tongue-in-cheek one like Barneys—reconciles a celebration of the anti-establishment movement of the ’60s with a shopping call to arms, Doonan readily acknowledges there is no such reconciliation. “It’s very hard for girls to be counterculture now, because they’re all so materialistic,” he told us that morning as we dodged foot traffic on Madison Avenue in front of the flagship’s store windows. “I don’t [reconcile it]! Shopping is the only thing that matters! Buy handbags!” He’s kidding! Oh, wait, no, he’s not.

There are such trials and tribulations for those trying to do good and look stylish in the 21st century—it feels impossible to identify oneself as countercultural through one’s style. But even so, what exactly does one wear to a protest these days to distinguish oneself? How do you say no to Prop 8 with the right sartorial choice?