America, 1971: It was, as George Bush would say just 17 years later, Tension City. Vietnam was dragging on, the Manson Family was convicted, Juan Corona was arrested, Jim Morrison OD`d and somebody knocked off 500 bald eagles. There was Attica, and the Pentagon Papers, and Bangladesh and China in the UN. And if that weren`t bad enough, Led Zeppelin came out with ”Stairway to Heaven.”
It wasn`t surprising, then, that Americans started looking around for something to prove they were still a friendly bunch of folks. They found it in a yellow face with two dots for eyes and a curved line for a smile. It wasn`t a new symbol-Smiley Face buttons had been around for about two years-but in 1971, it was a symbol whose time had come.
Now, that Have-A-Nice-Day hobgoblin of the `70s is back. And he`s having the last laugh.
”I saw so many Smiley Faces in the past four days, I`m ARGH
. . .,” said Leslie Gersten, co-owner of the two Sugar Magnolia stores, after returning from a recent New York buying trip. Still, Smiley Face overload isn`t keeping Gersten from stocking up on T-shirts and other articles carrying the symbol, because anything she puts on the selling floor is being snapped up.
Meanwhile, further north at the dance club Medusa, the interior was recently decorated with Smiley Faces that are so mangled and bloody, they look like they got caught in the crossfire of a gang war.
What`s going on here? Is Smiley Face making a comeback as the emblem of a kinder, gentler nation? Or is its resurgence with bullet holes and knife wounds just another expression of `80s cynicism?
The answer is: There really isn`t one answer. Like any social phenomenon, the factors leading to the return of Smiley Face are complex and often contradictory, with roots as far-flung as the Costa del Sol and Chicago itself. Perhaps it`s best to go back to the beginning.
Sneering at Smileys
When his popularity waned along with the `70s, Smiley Face became an object of derision. We expunged from our homes all mugs and wall plaques and T-shirts bearing his likeness. We sneered at the idea of America desperately trying to be nice to itself.
But Smiley Face was not willing to go grinning gently into that good night. He went underground. And waited.
Then, 1986: The British underground comic ”Watchmen” features a recurring image of a blood-spattered Smiley Face button-first seen on a murder victim-as a symbol of hearts and minds betrayed. The comic attracts an enthusiastic cult audience in England and America, which adopts the altered Smiley Face as its mascot.
In 1987: Seeking to rejuvenate a London club scene that had been flagging ever since the demise of punk, a group of British disc jockeys on holiday in Ibiza hit on an idea. They will take the irresistible sound of ”Acid House”- the relentless beat of Chicago House music mixed with anything ranging from electronic beepers to Cyndi Lauper-and add to it a ”look.” Basically, that look consists of what they wear while making the rounds of the Ibiza discos:
Day-Glo colors, bandanna-wrapped foreheads, oversized tennis shoes and Smiley Face T-shirts picked up at tacky souvenir stands.
Endless vacation
1988: The idea of being perpetually dressed for vacation has immense appeal to London`s largely unemployed-albeit mostly middle-class-clubgoing youth. Because the look conveniently dovetails into the growing psychedelic revival, and because the atmosphere inside the throbbing, strobe-lit Acid House clubs is reminiscent of 1967, the Acid House scene at its height is dubbed ”the Summer of Love.” Nothing symbolizes the endless ”don`t worry be happy” mentality more succinctly than Smiley Face, who starts appearing everywhere.
At the same time, the non-stop grin (which had never completely disappeared from the paraphernalia of the drug culture), becomes explicitly linked to the use of the now-popular club drug Ecstasy. The effects of Ecstasy (a combination of synthetic mescaline and an amphetamine) are vividly portrayed in a number of Acid House-Ecstasy T-shirts, some of which show Smiley Face with the top of his head blown off.
The unabashed and pervasive use of Ecstasy in Acid House clubs and parties leads to a Smiley Face backlash. The British tabloid press runs Smiley Faces alongside articles detailing the perils of Ecstasy use, making the cheerful little fellow seem almost gleefully Satanic. ”Just Say No to Ecstasy” T-shirts start popping up, featuring frowning faces, or Smiley Faces with ”no” slashes through them. By winter, the Acid House scene is on its last legs, although how much is due to the ”Stop Ecstasy” movement or how much to fickleness of youth is unclear.
A social menace?
Chicago, 1989: As Smiley Face begins a full-fledged assault on the American mainstream, the question is invariably: Fashion Threat or Social Menace?
If it seems like we`ve been down this road before, we have. It isn`t the first time America has created an innovative sound that is embraced and altered by the British, who export it back to us complete with a drug-related wardrobe.
And just as it is true that not everyone sporting paisley in the late
`60s was on hallucinogens, it is also safe to assume that most American consumers buying Smiley gear this spring will have no desire to try Ecstasy, or listen to Acid House for that matter.
Says Mick Levine of the 99th Floor streetwear store, ”People will think it`s a `gee, have a nice day,` retro kind of thing, and they`ll have no idea of the origin of the symbol.”
Just `be happy`
Which is probably just fine with the fashion powers-that-be, who are touting Smiley Face in all its permutations not as Acid House wear, but as part of a benign reinterpretation of the `60s and early `70s. ”We`re also seeing a lot of peace symbols on things,” says Leslie Gersten. ”It`s just,
`be happy, have fun.` ”
Indeed, even Bloomingdale`s christened a ”Don`t Worry Be Happy” shop last week on the first floor of its Michigan Avenue store. Its contents include everything from T-shirts to shoes to bicycle shorts-all emblazoned with the familiar Smiley Face.
Meanwhile, at Medusa`s, owner Dave Shelton says his dead Smiley Face decor was actually a protest against Acid House (although he admits some of the music sneaks in during the club`s Sunday House Nights). The fact that the very same bloody symbol appeared on the record sleeve of one of the earliest British Acid House hits just goes to show that nowadays, a Smiley Face is whatever you want it to be.
Still confused? No one ever said fashion was easy.
Let`s just be grateful somebody didn`t decide to bring back big sideburns and Ultrasuede, too. –
