Do you love the photos, posters, and movies that showed off Bay Area fashion in the 1960s and 1970s? Dig in, re-live, and dress up for a program that is informative and stylish! Join Tracey Panek, Historian for Levi Strauss & Co. and Alexandra Jacopetti Hart, designer and author of Native Funk & Flash: An Emerging Folk Art for presentations that are lively, deeply visual, and connect to a rich professional, cultural, and personal experience of Bay Area fashion, in denim and beyond!

Tracey will discuss how Levi Strauss & Co. denim evolved from cowboy culture to the youth market in the 1960s through marketing (with music and more), rebel wear, and how Levi Strauss & Co. denim became a canvas for self-expression. She will show a few fantastic pieces including a pair of customized 505® jeans, White Levi’s® of the era, and Denim from Levi Strauss & Co. Denim Art Contest of 1973.

Alexandra will be mentioning denim and its role/importance to the 60’s-70’s fashion scene, but in addition to thrift store chic and Folkwear, she will present slides with embroidery on things other than denim, that are all part of that period of fashion. She will also focus on the underlying meaning of the counter-culture and its effect on the imagery, indeed what the imagery and the fashion tell us about the times.

Before the presentations, hang out for the pre-party and imbibe on local beer and wine while listening to the era's music. After the presentations, stay for the costume contest! Submit your costume and strut your stuff to a panel of esteemed judges and win some great prizes!

Schedule for the night:

5:45 Doors Open to the public

5:45-6:30 Pre-Party

6:30-7:30 Presentations by Alexandra Jacopetti Hart and Tracey Panek

7:30-7:45 Question and Answer from the audience

7:45-8:15 Costume Contest

A special pre-party exclusive:

Sip, mingle, and immerse youself in the time with a silent screening of THE SAGA OF MACRAMÉ PARK

Filmmaker Ben Van Meter had an NEA grant in the 1970’s to make short films of California craftspeople and started with members of the Baulines Craftsmans Guild, a group of master craftsfolk who used the organization to set up an apprenticeship program. This film is about the building of a 12 ft. square play structure in Bolinas, CA in 1973 and ’74 we named Macramé Park.

The artist/craftswoman featured in it is Alexandra Jacopetti Hart with her first apprentice, Selena Heron. She was the Guild’s first master weaver and the two knotted miles of rope into a macramé playground on public property for the children of Bolinas. For many years it was a destination for visitors and locals, until it was vandalized irreparably and taken down.

This film shows it with the local kindergarteners unloading from their schoolbus and playing, giving it a good test. After the filming the piece was completed by adding 4 x 12 beams as seats over the knotting at the front two sides.

Van Meter was known as an "underground filmmaker” in those days, and is shown in the slide show wearing his Chico-San rice sack vest, made by his wife Sandra. There will be a couple of copies of the film on DVD available for $25 from Alexandra.

Extended Bios:

Tracey Panek, Historian, Levi Strauss & Co.
Tracey Panek is the Historian for Levi Strauss & Co. Joining the company in June 2014, she manages the day-to-day workings of the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives as a key corporate asset, answering historical questions, assisting designers, brand managers, executives and other employees whose work requires historical materials in the Archives. She is a regular contributor to Unzipped, the company’s blog, writing about company history, vintage Levi’s® garments, and behind the scenes and Archives highlights. Tracey is the media spokesperson for Levi Strauss & Co. heritage.

Prior to joining LS&Co., Tracey spent 14 years as Historian and Archivist at AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah where she managed a corporate history program for the 100+ year old company. She began her corporate history career at AirTouch Communications—today Verizon and Vodafone—a San Francisco based company that launched cellular service at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

Alexandra Jacopetti Hart
Alexandra Jacopetti Hart has been part of the Bay Area counter-culture since her arrival in 1958. As one of the originators of the 1966 Trips Festival she made her public debut along with the counterculture itself. Her fiberarts career took off in 1971 with public installations of large-scale tapestries. She was a Baulinas Craftsman’s Guild master weaver, building Macramé Park in Bolinas in 1973-74.

Native Funk and Flash: An Emerging Folk Art, 1974, with photographer Jerry Wainwright on counter-culture fashion and folk art has remained popular with generations of needlefolk then yet unborn. It inspired the SF MOMA’s 1999 exhibition “Farout: Bay Area Design 1967-1973” and this year, Counter-Couture, a major exhibition at Bellevue Arts Musuem near Seattle, WA.

Seventies’ fashion was intrigued by handworked folk clothing, causing Alexandra and Wainwright’s clothing designer wife, Ann, to start a clothing pattern company named Folkwear. still supplying authentic sewing patterns to costumers, handwork enthusiasts, wearables artists and home sewers.