Peacock Revolution: American Masculine Identity and Dress in the Sixties and Seventies

(Hardback)

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The Peacock Revolution in menswear of the 1960s came as a profound shock to much of America. Mens long hair and vividly colored, sexualized clothes challenged long established traditions of masculine identity. Peacock Revolution is an in-depth study of how radical changes in mens clothing reflected, and contributed to, the changing ideas of American manhood initiated by a 'youthquake' of rebellious baby boomers coming of age in an era of social revolutions. Featuring a detailed examination of the diverse socio-cultural and socio-political movements of the era, the book examines how those dissents and advocacies influenced the youthquake generations choices in dress and ideas of masculinity. Daniel Delis Hill provides a thorough chronicle of the peacock fashions of the time, beginning with the mod looks of the British Invasion in the early 1960s, through the counterculture street styles and the mass-market trends they inspired, and concluding with the dress-for-success menswear revivals of the 1970s Me-Decade.

Reviews

Daniel Delis Hills book will prove of significant interest to scholars of popular American dress, researchers in mens fashion and to historians of the period. It represents a focused account with a strong basis in sound primary research and is engagingly and accessibly presented. * The Journal of Dress and Culture *
Delis Hill's book will prove of significant interest to scholars of popular American dress, researchers in men's fashion, and to historians of the period. It represents a focused account with a strong basis in sound primary research and is engagingly and accessibly presented. * The Journal of Dress History *
In 1966, motivation research pioneer Ernest Dichter surveyed the US menswear trade for the worlds largest fiber maker, the DuPont Company, and coined the term peacock revolution to describe the American males newfound concern for his appearance. A former seventies peacock, Daniel Delis Hill shines a fashion studies light on American culture to illuminate the trends that inspired men of his generation to dress in style. The result is an encyclopedic primer on the American postwar menswear market. -- Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society, University of Leeds, UK
An entertaining and informative study of the Peacock Revolution, which deftly handles an extraordinary amount of information. -- Andy Reilly, University of Hawai`i, USA, Editor of Critical Studies in Men's Fashion

Author Bio

Daniel Delis Hill is a fashion historian and author of several books, including Fashion from Victoria to the New Millennium (2012) and American Menswear from the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century (2011).