For you youngsters who do not know her, Grace Slick was a major rock star in the 1960s and 1970s, lead singer for the Jefferson Airplane. We can wonder what her upper middle class parents made of her career as one of major proponents of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. However, it looks like she was on good terms with her mother when she posed for a series of photos for Life magazine in 1971. (See the whole series of rock stars and their parents.)
Slick’s mother, Virginia Barrett Wing, was about 61 in this photo. She looks like she is heading out to lunch at the museum, adding pearls and an expensive looking bracelet to accent her Chanel-influenced boucle suit. Although it is hard to tell from the photo, perhaps the pocket flaps are cut on the bias. The fabric closures are also an interesting detail. Did the photographer, John Olsen, stage the stark visual contrast between Grace, in her dark fake police uniform, and her mother in her pink suit? Even if he did, it offers a wonderful illustration of the varied worlds of fashion that existed in the early 1970s.
