Sponsored by
Jayne Dawson: Hippie hippie shake
THERE are, you will have noticed, an awful lot of girls wearing nighties in the street currently. These are actually called maxi dresses and they are bang on trend ahead of what is now called the festival season.
The two are not unrelated. Basically you should be wearing one if you are attending the other. I'm talking girl clothes now.
The dresses are meant to dip onto the floor, which is messy but an Essential Part of the Look. And they should be worn with feet that look as bare as possible, so flat sandals or actual bare feet. Never, ever, ever with heels. If you can manage pregnant as well as barefoot, that's a bonus.
As well as all that, these are dresses that call for long hair that is, ideally, dirty. If shampoo has been poured over your head that morning, you have diluted the look. And put a hair straightener within ten feet of a maxi dress and you've totally lost it. You might as well put a pinstripe jacket on top. Ditto a false nail. The true maxi dress look calls for nails that look like they've just dug up an organic carrot.
If you're wearing one with a perfect blow-dry, a manicure, a fake tan and a stiletto, then you are actually dressed for an all-inclusive holiday in Spain, and not for a festival. Basically, it boils down to this: you're aiming for Summer of Love, not Summer of Sangria.
Anyway, that's the theory. And theory is all I can tell you about because I have never been to a festival wearing a maxi dress, or any other kind of outfit, on account of I am Seventies Girl, and Seventies Girl didn't do festivals.
Some did, I suppose. This is, after all, the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury, meaning that somehow, somewhere there were girls climbing into their best Laura Ashley, painting flowers on their faces and making for a muddy field in Somerset – but not Leeds Seventies Girl.
Leeds Seventies Girl had trouble raising the bus fare into town, never mind to remote parts of the country. And she hankered after short, sharp stuff, and despised anything that was long and flowery. Plus, she had never actually heard of festivals.
If pressed about her festival attendance, Leeds Seventies Girl would have told you that, yes, she was planning to attend Bramley carnival that year, and also looking forward to plenty of halves of lager and lime at that annual highlight of her social calendar. And then left you quick with your weird talk about "festivals".
Allegiance
It was a class thing. Working class girls didn't do hippie, it involved too many travelling expenses. They did skinhead and punk – it was cheaper and you didn't have to travel to Somerset to show your allegiance, you could do it on any street corner.
But life is never completely black and white, is it? There are always nuances. So in the interests of illustrating the multi-layered complexity of human existence, I have to record that, during this period, I did once take part in a mass purple tie-dyeing of grandad vests at my friend Lorraine's house.
In the event though, and at the very last minute, I balked at the idea of walking around tie-dyed and insisted my vest was made all-over purple instead because, truth be told, I've always hated hippieness as a lifestyle choice.
Still, that doesn't signify any more because now we're all middle class and we can all be hippies just for the weekend if we want to be.
Increasing affluence actually means we can make more of every season – I've no idea where the proper wealthy people go while we're all aping their former ways, turning up at stuff involving horses in the summer and skis in the winter. Perhaps they're in their bedrooms, playing punk and looking sulky.
Right now, being a free spirit is a huge industry with all kinds of unlikely participants. Model Kate Moss, no less, has joined in, designing a range of maxi dresses for Top Shop this summer in honour of our all-encompassing floatiness at this time of year.
Partly, the popularity is because the whole festival thing is easier to do these days. There are more of them at various locations around the country, including Leeds. Plus, disposable fashion has liberated us from the need to buy clothes that will last beyond the first wash.
So I'm contemplating my first festival, with my daughter, since I need a youth ticket to get in these days. And only for the day since Leeds Seventies Girls have never learned to love nature, being as they only ever had one going out outfit, and getting close to nature definitely ran the risk of ruining it.
As for what to wear while sitting in a field and shivering, it's a tricky one, isn't it? Unkempt hair and vegetable patch nails are no problemo, but I can only do a maxi dress if I'm allowed to team it with some Doc Martens – Seventies Girl has to stay true to her working class roots somehow.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds United: Whites ponder next move in hunt for new manager LATEST
- Web poll: Who is to blame for Leeds United’s league position? VOTE HERE
- Leeds United: Time for Ken Bates and Co to listen up
- Leeds man remanded on sister murder charge UPDATED
- Leeds United: Aston Villa boss drops hint on Fabian Delph
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
