Native Funk and Flash by Alexandra Jacopetti Hart

This delightful 1974 classic is replete with new images, updates on favorite artists, and a thoughtful afterword by the author that reflects on what was at the heart of the '60s counterculture. Native Funk and Flash sits alongside treasured costume and fashion bibles on the shelves of the great designers of our times. Many artists, now in their prime, credit their early encounter with it for their own choice of career and inspiration. Within these pages hand-embroidered and hand-painted imagery enhance dear old shirts and jeans, serving the dual purpose of extending their usefulness and emblazoning the wearer with messages of love, psychedelic daydreams, and mysticism for all to see. The ethos of a generation is captured here: the scenes, sound, smell, look, politics, spirit, and most of all, the love is expressed in this moment in time when people cared so deeply for one another and the future that they wore it on their sleeves. Carved wooden doors, chairs, handmade fanciful shoes, beads, leather, incredible jewelry, a playground, patched upholstery-everything was fair game for inventive self-expression, whether one was a skilled adept or a beginner with a dream.