Mad Men, Woodstock, And The Death Of Fashion

"There’s a reason why no one has created a computer program that allows you to create a cartoon version of yourself as a hippie."

"It’s because that’s called a Halloween costume and at one point or another, we’ve all dressed as a hippie, knocked on a door, and said 'Trick or treat, man.'’’ Boston Globe

While I love Janis Joplin (above) and think she was the most powerful performer I've ever seen, the writer is right about Hippie fashion.

On the other hand, the fashions featured in such exquisite detail in "Mad Men," set in 1960-1964 (the final years of what we think of as the Fifties) have inspired a make-your-own-avatar site, which has been wildly popular. And they have influenced current fashion as well.




Time certainly has a way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Glastonbury 2009

So much has been written about how the original Woodstock Music Festival has never been equaled as a rock and roll spectacle, that it's possible to lose sight of the fact that these kinds of giant festivals continue to happen, forty years on.

Perhaps the modern festivals lack the world-class collection of talent that the original Woodstock had, and maybe they're not quite so large.

But based on the evidence provided by these photographs of Glastonbury 2009, which concluded last week in the United Kingdom, it looks like festival promoters have figured it out how to do it right.