I guess there will be many SL users who remember the hippy era of the late 60s/early 70s and won’t think of it as ‘historical’ or ‘vintage’ but as part of their youth.

Emerging from the counter-culture in the mid-60s, the hippies epitomised an era of drugs and free love.

It was the era of ‘the beautiful people’. And looking back they were the beautiful people. Willowy girls, muscular guys, and hair in abundance, on their heads and ‘down there’. And what a soundtrack they had to their lives too!

The era didn’t last long; psychedelics were usurped by something more sinister, the free sex would come with a price in just a few years, the music took a dark edge and by the mid-70s they were gone, supplanted by disco, cocaine and the spectre of HIV/AIDS.

Yet the hippy era would eventually re-surface as environmentalism and the need to care for the planet and its resources became apparent.  While suddenly less popular than previously, the hippies morphed into eco-warriors, and events like The Rainbow Gatherings took shape.

Above, you’ll find a gallery of photos of the original Woodstock era hippies, and more recent Rainbow Gathering eco-warriors, who seem to attract beautiful people in either era, and who have a lot of common ancestry and traits. I’ll be picking the ‘hippy’ story up, in greater detail, in Part Two (next week), and also showing that the hippy ideal, the hippy lifestyle and the hippy clothing are very firmly in place, today, within SL, with an easy going and relaxed attitude to nudity very much apparent, even if few of the avatars who embrace the hippy lifestyle would call themselves ‘nudists’ or ‘naturists’ in or out of SL.

Ella.