Hippies 

Hippies emerged in the mid 1960s in the United States, particularly on the West Coast. The Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco became the centre of hippy culture, culminating in the 'Summer of Love' in 1967. They introduced or popularised many lifestyle elements that we take for granted today, but which were once considered wildly alternative or counter-cultural, including alternative businesses, co-operatives, holistic medicine, health food, green issues, meditation and vegetarianism.

Closely related to the counter-cultural Beat or Beatnik movement of the 1950s, hippies were broadly opposed to capitalism and the values of the establishment. They preached love and peace in opposition to the Vietnam War, appeared to reject monogamous relationships in favour of 'free love', and explored the spiritual alternatives offered by American-Indian and Eastern belief systems with the aid of marijuana and hallucenogenic drugs.

Hippies in Britain looked both to the Far East and the West Coast for their guidance, marrying it with the psychedelic dandyism that had developed on London's King's Road. Their style could be characterised as eclectic, mixing and matching vintage clothing with handmade and 'ethnic' garments.

The more radical hippy elements experimented with alternative ways of living through communes and co-operatives. By the mid 1970s most cities and large towns could lay claim to a radical bookshop, a vegan cafe or an alternative arts centre, often all in one co-operatively owned building. Brighton was no exception, here the focus for hippy activity was an arts centre called The Combination on West Street, offering films, music, theatre, a cafe and occassional 'happenings'.

The hippy outfit in Brighton Museum's Renegade collection dates from the 1980s-early 1990s and reflects the continuation of the hippy aesthetic and lifestyle.

The Beats

In the USA the Beat movement was spearheaded by writers Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Key texts include Kerouac's On the Road and Ginsberg's epic poem Howl. Howl became an anthem not only for the Beats but for the increasingly vocal Anti-Vietnam War movement, and for the counter-cultural stance of politicised Hippies with whom Ginsberg readily identified in the later 1960s.