Intro: Why diversity in (vintage) fashion matters
I’ve been part of the online vintage and classic rock community since I was 16, that’s almost half my lifetime ago. Within the community I’ve met so many people from so many different walks of life and I have to say the classic rock fans are as diverse or even more diverse than the musicians themselves and I want to take the time to honour our diverse vintage and classic rock community. Here’s to the people of all different ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, sexualities, gender identities, abilities, and religious backgrounds. You all make the vintage community so vibrant and it’s time for the vintage community to show love and appreciation for all of the amazing people in it.
That’s why I’m writing this call out post. I was inspired by an Instagram mutual named Trish (@the.cosmic.hippie on Instagram), who has a radio show called The Hippie Hour and a companion blog of the same name. She has created a petition on Change.org to get vintage inspired “show fashion” brands to diversify their feeds. You can sign it here. Here’s hoping we get some real change and not just lip service. Businesses aren’t our friends and I think it’s important to remind ourselves of that, but if we’re going to live in a capitalist system, can it at least be better than it is now?
What I’ve found interesting in all of this is that despite the 60s and 70s being the decades of various liberation and social justice movements from decolonisation and independence movements across Africa and the Caribbean, Civil Rights in the United States, women’s liberation, and gay liberation, the 60s and 70s vintage community seems to be more elitist and exclusionary of minorities than historical costuming and vintage communities focused on eras before that.
Maybe it’s because the 50s was a time before second wave feminism and racial integration and the 19th century and early 20th century were before women’s suffrage so that’s why people who are into those eras really make it a point to be inclusive. Pinup Girl Clothing is an example of a brand that does a great job with that – they have great size inclusivity and from my own personal experience they’re very reliable when it comes to finding well fitting clothes for hourglass figures (let me know if you want to see a post on that!). While not quite a pinup shop, Dark Garden are popular among people in the pinup and Victwardian costuming communities, and looking at their feed I see a lot of diversity and it’s an LGBT/woman owned brand. Both of these brands manufacture their clothing in the USA and have inclusive sizing and I’m so happy to see that! It’s an important reminder that people of all backgrounds have always existed throughout history and we need to know our LGBT, feminist, and non-white and mixed historical figures. I see a lot more diversity in pinup clothing brands with plenty of plus size models and models of all ethnicities and a variety of them in general. I see a lot of LGBT and non-white and mixed creators who have an interest in 1920s, Edwardian, Victorian, 18th century, and medieval fashion. There definitely is in the 60s and 70s community, but I’d like to see more of it represented in the fashion brands that sell to us.
I remember back in 2020 right after George Floyd was murdered there was a movement in the vintage community to have more inclusivity of black people, but it was short lived and all really just window dressing, box ticking, and platitudes before returning to the status quo. Usually they just sent PR to one black creator and they pat themselves on the back and that’s it. I saw some black creators in the vintage community expressing feelings of being tokenised and used. Very much a slacktivist “I support current thing” movement, not authentic at all.
I’m glad that in recent years we have acknowledged black history more, but we need to do more work not just to advocate for the black community, but also Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino/a, Native American, and Indigenous communities. There was no similar movement during the Stop Asian Hate movement or Missing/Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls movement. We also need to do more work to keep increasing LGBT representation and educating people on LGBT history. I am tired of LGBT rights being trivialised and seen as a “privileged” or “luxury belief”. The reality is that LGBT rights and civil rights happened on the same timeline. Take one significant event that happened on one side and you’ll find another significant event that happened on the other side. Take these three landmark Supreme Court decisions: Plessy v. Ferguson was decided in 1896 (one year earlier, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labour for being gay), Brown v. Board of Education (the court case that overturned Plessy v Ferguson) was decided in 1954 (that same year, Alan Turing took his life after being sentenced to chemical castration for being gay), and Loving v. Virginia was decided in 1967 (that same year, homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales for those 21 and older). I think that helps put it in perspective. So I don’t want to see anyone saying “gay people need to get over it” or “it’s all in the past”.
In all of these situations, increasing representation is complicated and it’s hard to measure representation when appearance doesn’t always tell the entire story. It’s important to be careful of erasing people’s identities or to not pigeonhole them. There are mixed people who look white. Some people look racially ambiguous. Some trans people pass really well. Being gay or bisexual isn’t really visible, unless you really play into stereotypes. Gender non-conformity isn’t inherently LGBT, as there are straight women who are tomboys, straight men who are feminine, lesbians who are hyperfeminine, and gay men who are very masculine. Body types are a more obvious visual thing, but height and body shape are often forgotten about. Disabilities aren’t always visible. Disability isn’t limited to sensory or mobility or developmental disabilities (and even then, people with autism and deaf people aren’t always visibly disabled). People with conditions like endometriosis, scoliosis, diabetes, dyslexia, HIV/AIDS, and various mental illnesses are often invisibly disabled too.
One thing that bothers me about the body positivity movement is the hyperfocus on weight and the glorification of obesity. I believe in the golden rule and treating people with dignity and respect no matter what their body size is, but you can’t act like obesity is healthy. The crab in the bucket mentality when someone wants to lose weight and better their health is so toxic. Obesity really does affect quality of life and I’ve seen how obesity can ruin your health in family members. My weird conspiracy theory is that the big junk food industry and big pharma is behind the fat acceptance movement because they need customers and if people eat healthy and are a healthy weight, they won’t need whatever they’re peddling. Their interest is creating customers and making money, not serving the greater good. I think that body positivity/acceptance should not just be limited to weight, but also include disability and deformity. I had a body deformity myself and I never saw any positivity for it, not that it would have changed my mind, I still wanted corrective surgery and I eventually got it.
Thinking beyond representation
I also think that there’s way more issues that just representation here and there are definitely issues of greenwashing, hyperconsumerism and capitalism, and manufacturing ethics in a lot of reproduction brands. Back in the 60s and 70s because of the lack of internet and cheap flights, the world was not so globalised as it is now. Ergo, most clothes were manufactured domestically. Ideally I’d love to see a return to local manufacturing and supporting local industry like we had in the good old days. Union jobs and preserving the knowledge and craft of clothing design and manufacturing. There is a big carbon footprint associated with manufacturing product overseas and having it shipped to the warehouse and then the customer. Obviously, these companies are going to use PR speak to justify their decision to offshore and outsource manufacturing. The reality is it’s cheaper to manufacture in say China or India than it would be to manufacture in England. There are some cheaper options closer to home like manufacturing in Eastern Europe. There’s still good worker protections in these countries and they’re not as far afield as Asia. If you manufacture in a country like Poland or Lithuania, you can proudly say that your clothes are made in the European Union and you’re supporting European industry, while saving a bit of money on manufacturing costs. Makes sense for a business who have a lot of European customers.
Some brands are domestically made, but they’re few and far between. And usually they’re more expensive, but it’s not like clothes from these vintage reproduction brands made overseas are cheap either, they’re not! I don’t mind paying a bit extra if it means supporting local industry and being better to the planet by not shipping clothes halfway across the world.
I also am sick of these brands calling themselves “slow fashion” and “sustainable” but still being made with man-made fibres and ramping up their production to the point where there are frequent sales. Can’t really be small batch if there’s always a “we’ve made too much” situation. It’s an important reminder that the most sustainable clothing there is is what’s in your closet. The vintage community is sadly consumerist and a lot of the content is just the popular girls with their hauls and PR packages flexing on us plebs who don’t get free things because we’re not as pretty or popular. And it’s always the same old people over and over again, it’s boring! Of course it’s easy acting like something is the best thing since sliced bread if you didn’t have to pay for it. I’m sick of feeling like I’m constantly being sold to and that’s why I’ve been using social media less. Instead, we need more content that shows people shopping their closet. That’s what I tried to do years ago. I’d love to see more thrifting and DIY content. That’s what the real hippies, punks, and working class people did back in the day. It would be so cool to see 60s shops selling dress and shirt patterns so people who can’t afford to buy their clothes can make their own and they can still make money. This is something that a lot of historical fashion companies do.
Why is the vintage community like this?
Honestly, it’s like any other community that revolves around consumption. Influencing is a looks based business like acting or modelling. These people have a marketable look and often they have financial privilege, mummy and daddy buying them whatever they need for the aesthetic and giving them a head start on their influencing career. Nothing wrong with getting help from family, but show some gratitude and be honest!
I also know why these brands don’t get political, because it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Companies only care about their bottom line and making a profit, whether they’re Fortune 500 or a small family owned business. Yes, even if they’re a B-Corp. A hippie anti-capitalist utopian company wouldn’t last very long anyway. But it is sad to see very little acknowledgement of social justice movements, considering they co-opt a lot of the hippie aesthetic. Then again, a lot of the hippies were total fakes, like Frank Zappa pointed out many times. They were really just middle class kids who cosplayed as poor, went to a couple of protests, and then once they graduated from university and got their fancy job, they went “screw you, I got mine” and voted for Reagan or Thatcher. We’re definitely seeing this happening all over again.
Of course, I get why they use the same models over and over again. Many times the models are friends of the business owner and of course, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t look to hire my friends first provided they are qualified. People like working with people they trust and don’t like to take chances. Just like directors work with the same actors over and over again in Hollywood or you might go to the same hairdresser because you like how they do your hair. This is just how people are. However, I think it’s still worth diversifying models and that can help the brand expand to new horizons. Thrifting can be hard depending on where you live and not everyone can make their own clothes and there are barriers to entry involved with that. Maybe we can have clothes that look great on more people!
Representation of non-white and mixed people
Personally I was never a fan of the term “person of colour” because it sounds like a rehash of the outdated term “coloured person”. I also find it exclusionary to non-white or mixed people who are pale or light skinned (believe it or not we exist!). I also feel like it excludes mixed people who are part white, and that’s a lot of people. Now I’m thinking about all of those times when I filled out those forms as a child and I wasn’t sure which box to check and in those days you could only pick one, so I often picked “other” or rebelled and checked more than one anyway.
One thing that’s become a real trope in the vintage community is the Pattie Boyd lookalikes that are all over the place in advertising for these slow fashion vintage reproduction businesses. Most of them are slim white femmes with blonde hair, occasionally brown or maybe red hair, usually straight or wavy, but never curly. No one has jet black hair. Occasionally there’s a lighter skinned black woman in the advertisements, but I haven’t seen very much Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino/a, or Native American representation. Granted, in the UK there isn’t much of a Hispanic or Native American population (although if you need a Hispanic UK based person to do a vintage photoshoot with, I’m here!). I love Pattie Boyd and I think she’s beautiful (my secondary school graduation dress was something I picked out inspired by her), but there are so many other beautiful women of the era and I want to see more love and appreciation for them. But I’d also like to see a move away from trying to look like 60s and 70s celebrities and instead embracing our uniqueness and the everyday people. It’s a lot more creative too!
With the lack of ethnic diversity of models comes the lack of diversity in colourways. When browsing through a lot of these brands websites, most of the clothes look like they work best for certain colour seasons and aren’t the most flattering on everyone. For the most part I see clothes in the typical 60s/70s colours of mustard yellow, burnt orange, brown, cyan, and lime green. If we think in terms of colour seasons, most of these models seem to be Springs and Autumns. I don’t really see many fellow Winters and not a lot of Summers. As someone with pale skin and jet black hair, a lot of these colours don’t look great on me (but they did when I dyed my hair red)! I prefer cooler jewel tones and more gothic colour schemes, but that’s not the most authentically 60s look, but I still think you can still get some cool looks with this combination. Of course when your models mostly have one look, you’re only really going to design for that one look. But what about the customers?
LGBT Representation
I am very sad to report that no 60s/70s vintage reproduction brand made a Pride Month post, and this is especially damning and sad. I’m no fan of rainbow capitalism and pinkwashing, but is it really that much to ask for a crumb of acknowledgement? I mean, a lot of our classic rock era style icons are/were gay or bisexual! Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, John Lennon, Dave Davies, Brian Jones, Little Richard, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin? Any of those names ring a bell? Did you know that the popularisation of bell bottoms in the late 60s and early 70s has LGBT history? That’s right, Janis Joplin’s girlfriend Peggy Caserta helped popularise the bell bottom at her boutique in the San Francisco hippie neighbourhood of Haight-Ashbury. Dave Davies of The Kinks was also an early adopter of the bell bottom. Plus, a Pride Month post would be meaningful for a lot of young LGBT people. I came out as bisexual when I was 14 and in those days there was no acknowledgement really and you know how happy I would have been to see pride flags and pride themed advertisements?
My theories are that it’s possible that the owners of these brands are either socially conservative themselves, or have investors or business partners who are socially conservative (there are lots of those out there!) and they don’t want to piss them off and lose that capital investment, and in general they don’t want to alienate the more “straitlaced” people of the vintage community: the ones who believe in vintage values. There’s a large number of those and it’s even worse when they hide those views and pretend to be “uwu innocent”. If you’re going to have intolerant views, at least be overt about them so I know to avoid you and I don’t look crazy when I call you out.
Obviously with being gay or bisexual, there’s not really a “look” and I don’t want to assume people’s sexualities. Bi erasure is bad. Don’t do it. But I hardly see any trans or nonbinary representation. How many trans or nonbinary influencers can you think of? Wouldn’t it be cool to see some trans people rocking vintage looks or nonbinary or gender nonconforming people taking a genderbending approach to vintage? Definitely interesting compared to the same old pretty blonde girl in a dress. I want something fresh! Fashion is art and art isn’t supposed to be stagnant. Artists need to innovate and change with the times.
The Hippie Shake’s blog has a post about how rock and roll changed gender expression, but this year they didn’t post a single pride post and there’s barely any visible LGBT representation. Maybe one trans or non-binary person featured on their page (not going to out anyone, to respect people), but they’re certainly not as prominent as their skinny cisgender femme models and I don’t believe they are a model for the brand, just an influencer they work with. With The Hippie Shake expanding into menswear, it would be great if we could see some women dressing in men’s clothes and men dressing in women’s clothes. You could even have same gender couples doing photoshoots in your clothes.
Most importantly, if you’re going to do these pride posts or pride collections, don’t just hire LGBT models, also donate some proceeds to an LGBT rights charity like The Trevor Project, PFLAG, Lambda Legal, Mermaids, Stonewall, Switchboard, or Rainbow Railroad. Also consider doing to local LGBT charities. National charities get a lot of donations, but local charities don’t always get as much in donations. Or maybe collaborate with LGBT influencers and artists to create new collections. While not tax deductible, donating to LGBT people in need’s GoFundMes would make a real material impact on someone’s life, it’s a form of mutual aid.
Representation of body types and disabilities
This one is multilayered and most people hyperfocus on size. While yes, plus size representation is important, we cannot forget about representation of different body shapes, disabled people, and people of all ages. Models tend to be able bodied (or passing as able bodied), skinny, tall, and young. When you look at clothing advertisements, how often do you see people in their 30s and older modelling, short people, or someone with a mobility aid or an orthotic modelling? I really can’t think of that many examples. For the most part older people, plus sized people, short people, and disabled people are treated as a novelty and a box ticking exercise in modelling. Most plus sized models are hourglass or pear shaped and they’re quite tall so proportionally they don’t look as large as someone of the same size who is shorter. They’re not as prominent as the conventional tall skinny models. To be fair to a lot of these vintage reproduction brands, some of the models and influencers they hire are actually my height or shorter than me and I’m 5’6″ (I’ve met quite a few of them and I’m still taller even when they’re wearing heels and I’m not). So I’m happy to see representation for shorter people, but still a lot of the models are tall! And this kind of connects a bit with ethnic diversity. I’m from a short ethnic group myself, being half Hispanic and dwarfism running in my family on top of that, that’s really gonna limit having Hispanic models. Short people wear clothes too! I want to see what these bell bottoms would look like on a short person and maybe even have some shorter inseams as well.
For the most part, 60s clothing is really made for skinny people. If you’re well endowed in the chest or butt, you’re going to find it a bit tricky to find a flattering fit in much of the clothing. Buying trousers is really difficult because they’ll post the waist size, but where’s the hip measurement? Theoretically I should fit into this size of trousers except it won’t over my butt. This is why I often stick with skirts and dresses. I know that hourglass figures weren’t “in” (fashion wise, because men always liked that) during the 60s and 70s but I think it would be cool to have dresses and tops with a cut for larger busts or jeans and trousers with a fuller hip. In general, most women’s clothing is cut for a straight-ish figure, not too flat in the chest, not too wide hipped. My friends and family who are more straight shaped have a way easier time finding clothes that fit and look good, meanwhile I have a bunch of challenges to deal with, despite being thin. I don’t make clothes, but I do know that in general, the curvier the clothes need to be cut, the more challenging it is to make. And in these fashion brands, unless they make clothes to order and to measure, you’re not going to find stuff for those proportions.
As for disability, it would be great to see some models who use wheelchairs, crutches, canes, walking sticks, and walkers. For many people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, fashion is an outlet for creativity and a happy place. I know when I was suffering from adenomyosis and felt like a disgusting monster, the one thing that would brighten my day was wearing a cool outfit and taking pictures in it. It’s important to show disabled joy. Disabilities are no fun and yes ideally we’d have cures, but can’t we have a little bit of happiness?
Age. I think a cool advertisement would be to show a picture of an OG 60s mod or hippie wearing the reproduction clothes and then a Gen Z model wearing the same clothes standing next to them. To show how timeless style is. Older people buy clothes too and not everyone in their 30s, 40s, and older wants to wear plain boring clothing. I’m not that old, but I feel it because I’m turning 30 in a couple of weeks and I know for a fact I’ll never give up my love of old clothes. I don’t like modern styles. I don’t want to look generic. I don’t want to age and yes I would sell my soul to look forever young, but we know that’s not reality, and all I can do is make the best of ageing and take the best care of myself so I look my best, but I feel even better than when I was younger.
In Conclusion
I have my critiques of cultural capitalism and I’m no fan and I don’t expect anything to change, so this is just another rant on my soapbox. I know that corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion do not solve systemic problems and I don’t want DEI to be done in a shallow half-assed way. Most importantly, I want a 60s and 70s community that unites around what we love: music, movies, and fashion. I don’t want to just celebrate the aesthetics, but the revolutionary and rebellious spirit of rock and roll and the various subcultures. I want everyone to feel welcome and that’s always how I’ve done things here at The Diversity of Classic Rock. No matter who you are, there is a place for you in this 60s and 70s appreciation club. If the mainstream won’t accept you, well you know I’m here.
I don’t write this post out of hate or jealousy, but because I care about the community I consider a second home and I know that people and brands in this community can do better.
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