Hippie fashion and the “do-it-yourself” practice

the “cool” youth of Pop magazine (1970s)

Abstract

Pop was the first magazine specifically aimed at Brazilian youth, having circulated between 1972 and 1979 by Editora Abril in the midst of the civil-military dictatorship. The magazine dialogued with behavioral transformations driven by the counterculture and some social movements to shape a representation of “cool” youth in an attempt to attract boys and girls, especially from the white middle classes, acting as a reference for the construction of youth identities. On this account, as bodies do not have fixed or immutable borders, they are socially produced in interaction with the world, and therefore there are no bodies that do not appeal to technologies, including fashion. Therefore, we aim to analyze, from a gender perspective, how the “do it yourself” practice linked to hippie fashion in Pop magazine expanded and/or reiterated the limits for the construction of bodies. For this, we resort especially to Gender Studies, Cultural Studies and the History of Fashion. The analyzes indicate that the fashion has extended the limits for the construction of bodies, although Pop has triggered references associated with traditional models of femininity and masculinity.