Daniel 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 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 world’s largest fiber maker, the DuPont Company, and coined the term “peacock revolution” to describe the American male’s 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,
The Peacock Revolution in menswear of the 1960s came as a profound shock to much of America. Men’s 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 men’s 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 generation’s 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.
Introduction
I. American Masculinity, Identity, and Dress 1800-1960
1. American Masculinity and the Postrevolution New Man
2. American Masculinity during the Second Industrial Revolution
3. Undermining Forces on American Masculinity
4. Crisis of Masculinity
5. American Masculine Identity in Dress before the Peacock Revolution
6. Individuality in Dress
7. Conclusion
II. New Masculine Identities in the Postwar Counterculture
1. The Beat Generation
2. Other Nonconformists of the 1950s
3. The Teenager as a New Demographic
4. Conclusion
III. Youthquake
1. The Generation Gap
2. Counterculture Movements
3. The Love Movement
4. Inchoate Movements
5. Hair Wars
6. The Sexual Revolution
7. Conclusion
IV. The Peacock Revolution
1. The JFK Transition
2. The Teddy Boys
3. The Mods
4. The British Invasion
5. Carnaby Street
6. The Peacock Revolution in America
7. The Gay Panic of the Peacock Revolution
8. A New Notion of Fashion for Men
9. Suit Innovations and Revivals 1960–1975
10. Informality in Suiting 1960–1972
11. Peacock Splendor
12. Unisex
13. Sexual Exhibitionism
14. Fashion from the Street
15. Protest Tribal Dress and Identities
16. Multicultural Influences on the Peacock Revolution
17. Black Power and Black Identity in Dress
18. Peacock Revolution Accessories
19. Thermidor of the Peacock Revolution 1972–1975
20. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography