I watched Glastonbury from the comfort of my sofa, with a
glass of wine and a Magnum ice cream. It’s quite a few years since I decided I was too
old for the hustle and bustle of a festival but maybe I’m wrong. While I was
singing along, I observed that in recent years, Glastonbury's audience has been getting older.
It got me thinking about festival fashion. Many of the older
members of the audience would have been around for hippie chic the first time.
It occurred to me that hippie chic is perfect for festivals and I wondered if the style that originated at Woodstock in 1969, has found an
enduring home on the UK festival circuit.
Here’s a few reasons why I think hippie chic fits perfectly
into festival fashion.
Festival clothing needs to look good crumpled as irons and
tents don’t go together well. It needs to be easy to store as space at a festival
is at a premium. It needs to be made for layering as the British weather is so
changeable, and it needs to encourage creativity because it’s hard to be unique
in a crowd of 175,000.
Hippie styled clothing is ideal for festivals. Items can be
picked up for a few pounds at charity shops so it doesn’t matter if they get covered
in tomato ketchup, clogged with mud or ripped by an enthusiastic rocker.
An emphasis on multiple colours and textures and a tendency towards DIY encourages creativity and makes it easier to be unique.
Hippie chic lends itself brilliantly to layering which makes
it ideal for unpredictable weather. A good boho hat will keep most weather at
bay and even if it doesn't, hippie hair involves lots of plaits and
curls which are perfect for damp and dirty festival hair.
I decided to trawl Pinterest for great images of hippie chic at UK festivals over summer 2013 and this is what I found.
The original image can be found at http://www.pinterest.com/duneshoes/style-notes-festival-style/
The original image can be found here http://www.elleuk.com/style/street-style/glastonbury-street-style-2013#image=35
The original image can be found here http://www.oxfam.org.uk/fashion-blog/2013/07/womad-street-style-part-one
The original image can be found here http://www.elleuk.com/style/street-style/glastonbury-street-style-2013#image=24
Want me to add your hippie chic festival photos to this blog? Comment below and send your image to angela.synclair@gmail.com.
