Counter-Couture Panel Discussion

Often referred to as the hippie movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s swept away the conformism of the previous decades and professed an alternative lifestyle whose effects still resonate today. This cultural moment was epitomized by unique manifestations of handmade fashion and personal style.

For this panel discussion, fashion and textile expert Andrea Aranow will lead a conversation with Michael Cepress, fashion designer and guest curator of Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture, and exhibiting artists Alexandra Jacopetti Hart and Fayette Hauser. They will discuss the broader context of this milestone moment in American cultural and fashion history, including the influence of the American civil rights and social justice movements and non-Western textile traditions on the style of the Counterculture.

Panelists:

Andrea Aranow, moderator, fashion and textile expert, and founder of Andrea Aranow Textile Documents

Michael Cepress, fashion and costume designer, Instructor at the University of Washington’s School of Art, and guest curator of Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture

Alexandra Jacopetti Hart, textile and fashion artist, author of the influential 1974 style guide Native Funk & Flash: An Emerging Folk Art

Fayette Hauser, artist, photographer, costume designer, performer, and co-founder of San Francisco-based avant-garde experimental theatre troupe The Cockettes (1969-1972)