Peace, Love & Tie-Dye : The Women of Woodstock

A while ago, I came across this photograph while researching the hippie era and its immense influence on fashion today. It was one of those images that just resided in my mind, consequently awakening a curiosity in me towards who I like to call, the child of Woodstock. Was it her look, her gestures, her movement or her grace? It was certainly something far beyond what my eyes could see. It just seemed like all she represented and all she stood for was captured in this single moment.

Who is she? And what is her message? In my words, this is what she would have had to say:

I am a rebel

A rebel with a cause

In fact, the greatest cause of my time 

I am free

My mind has no boundaries

From the highest peaks of insanity to the grounds of reason

Thoughts run like my blood of yellow sunshine and purple haze

Wild, like the tangles of my undisciplined waves

I am exposed

My heart is on my sleeve and my soul keeps me clothed

I have nothing to hide

I have nothing to lose

My world might seem disordered but I am not the one confused

I am change

I am the rise of a new age 

I am a peculiar flower on branches breaking away from their roots

Blooming solo, in rainbow colors and cowboy boots

I am unconventional

I do not play by the rules

For in my world we stand indifferent towards your ideologies, systems and schools

I am fearless in the land of conformity

I swim against your raging tides

I live to make waves of diversity in the waters you have standardized

I am an individual by thought

A movement in my presence

Young in my years

Yet mature in my acceptance

I am a lover

I am the revolution

I am the explorer of all that is beautiful 

One who refuses to be blinded by your constitution

I am the streets

I am your raving summers

I am the offspring of the beats

In the words of Ginsberg “I wake to see the world go wild”

I am peace 

I am love 

I am forever the flower child

Today...

I am depicted in history

After all, fashion is a display of change 

But to you I will remain a beautiful mystery

A queen on the Woodstock plain

From here on out, 

You are free to embrace your style as a form of expression

As flowers grew out of the thorns of depression

They said we had to take our heads out of the clouds 

But we changed the trends of an era without asking to be crowned

So dream on… dream on…

Rewrite your stories 

Let your hair down

Dance to the beat of your own drum 

Free your mind

Free your heart

Soon after, a new age will start