Hippy Fashion 3 The Military Look

Part 1 Introduction

Part 2 Tie-Dye

Part 4 Hippie Accessories

Tie-dying, covered in last weeks post, was one way to create your own individual look but, in the late 60s, something much more military and unexpected appeared.

The Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill district was (and is) famous for it’s street market and, in the middle years of the 1960s, it hosted a stall selling all manner of ex-government military uniforms. The stall, owned by John Paul and Ian Fisk, later expanded to a shop nearby called ‘I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet’ managed by Robert Orbach. The name of the shop was chosen to conjure up images of Edwardian clothing.

Many of the uniforms were old British army uniforms, extremely colourful and stylish although interest in Victorian military uniforms as clothing was poor at that time.

Enter the stars
It’s hard to believe it now but, in those days, pop stars, like ordinary people, did much of their own clothes shopping, always on the look out for something unusual or a little different. Markets, trendy boutiques, small shops specialising in different areas of clothing were a Mecca in London in those days.

Now someone, and I’m not sure who, began the trend and came up with the idea of wearing a military style uniform on stage.

Suddenly, it seemed, stars like Jimi Hendricks, Mike Jagger, the Beatles, The Who and Eric Clapton were seen at gigs wearing colourful old uniforms and the market exploded. This allowed shops selling similar clothing to mushroom all over London and even out into the provinces. It was good news for ‘I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet’ which opened several more shops, including one in Carnaby Street, the centre of the trendy fashion industry.

It was also from passing this shop that Peter Blake had the idea, or so it is said, for the cover of the Beatles Sgt Pepper album or, at least, the uniforms on it.

But this trend did not find universal acceptance. Don’t forget the Victorian era and wars such as The Boar War were still (just) within living memory and the establishment took a dim view of pop stars dressed in uniforms and people were even prosecuted for wearing them. The effect of this, of course, rather than to outlaw them, was to make them even more popular.

The trend expands
As the sixties wore on so the trend extended outwards from London and soon a lot of people all over the British Isles wore military style jackets and hats and shops to sell military surplus enjoyed a boom. In addition to full clothing, fake ‘sergeants stripes’ and similar adornments could also be purchased to be carefully sewn onto ordinary coats. In a way this went hand in hand with other, more traditional hippy items of decoration then on sale like beads, buttons and small gems.

Even in the provinces, I can recall seeing market stalls selling small items like this for sewing on coats and, so far as I recall, they were very popular to the extend that enterprising girls even purchased coats for customisation and resale.

It was a colourful time and the image of the Beatles on the cover of the Sgt Pepper was repeated up and down the country but it was a trend destined not to last. Quite why I don’t know but, by the beginning of the 1970s uniforms disappeared almost completely and the more traditional hippy clothing took over as the new decade saw the launch of flower power.

The important thing about this trend is that it was, so far as I can see, entirely British. It is thus important that it is documented and written about.

Media
In about 1966, from ‘I was Lord Kitchener’s Valet’, Mick Jagger bought a red Grenadier guardsman’s drummer’s jacket which is probably the one he is wearing in this link.   (Unfortunately, of course, the clip is in black and white.)

The Military Look was very representative of the sudden perk in interest that categorises 60s fashions that rapidly escalate and then, just as suddenly, disappear. However, unlike similar 60s fashions, the Military Look has yet to reappear as a ‘modern’ fashion trend but, given time, I am sure that it will.