This design explores the 1960’s psychedelic culture in relation to drugs and colour with a touch of military visuals. This tailored jacket was originally inspired from the Beatles Sergeant Peppers uniform in 1968. I was drawn to the military imagery that they had used in their costume and the bright Fluro colour palette. Paul McCartney recalls in his book Anthology “We went to Bermans, the theatrical costumers, and ordered up the wildest things, based on old military tunics.” He continues to explain the reasoning for the wild colour choices, “The bright psychedelic colours, a bit like florescent socks you got in the 50’s, were picked to be explicitly garish… go against the idea of ‘uniform’.” (McCartney, 2000). I began to look further into the word psychedelic and found myself looking at the ‘hippy’ movement of the 1960’s. I was really fascinated by all of the different drugs used and what their effects were on people. I began experimenting with tie-dye bleaching fabric, as tie-dyed clothing was popular in the hippy community, and found some interesting results. My design features a bright psychedelic colour scheme in the electric blue outer layer and tie-dyed pink lining fabric. The bleach destroying the colour of the lining is reflective of the effects of drugs on the brain. Both equally altering the composition of their identities. Gold fastenings and trims have been used around the cuffs relate back to the military imagery from the original inspiration of the Sargent Peppers uniform. The extended shoulder line is symbolic of a strong military silhouette. Asymmetry is also used throughout the jacket to further symbolise the visual warping of drugs.

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Modelled by Talani Newton.