Peace, Love, and Shopping

There was a time, in the ’60s, when all it took was long hair, a pair of jeans, and a work shirt, and one was immediately identified as a part of the counterculture. As the popularity of hippie fashion spread post-Vietnam War, it lost its ability to shock and was reduced to a set of meaningless signs. So meaningless, in fact, that to dress like a hippie might, instead of indicating one’s anti-establishment ways, have the reverse effect.

Now it’s not enough to dress a certain way. In our jaded culture, we’ve maxed out every possible sign of rebellion. There’s little you can tell about someone’s politics based on their outward appearance, except maybe—and this is a big one right now—their sexual politics. Flamboyant dress—serious, over-the-top fashion, whether worn by someone straight or gay—might be the last vestige of “bohemian” style.

In our jaded culture, we’ve maxed out every possible sign of rebellion. There’s little you can tell about someone’s politics based on their outward appearance.

At a 2008 protest, what you see are people expressing themselves through language: placards, T-shirt slogans, chants. It’s their actions that set them apart, not their clothing. Earnestness no longer has a collective symbol or uniform; the message is the medium. Times have changed.

Back at Barneys, before Simon Doonan gushed about peace and love and having a hippie holiday, he sat in the corner of the restaurant lamenting the null-and-void fate of his recent marriage in California to longtime partner Jonathan Adler, thanks to the passage of Prop 8. “They’ve taken away our civil liberties!” he said. “I hope you’re all going to go out tonight and protest on 65th Street in front of the Mormon temple.” Action, not fashion.

Though the world’s problems won’t be solved with a dress, it can help take the edge off, and that ultimately is the underlying theme on display at Barneys. If we’re feeling happy, we’ll probably be more inclined to take action so that others will feel the same way. Here, a gallery of a few of the peace-sign inspired looks from the Barneys windows, attempting to turn sneers to cheers.

Renata Espinosa is the New York Editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."