During Wednesday evening’s Republican debates, some of the hopefuls admitted to America that not only had they “tried weed,” but that their stances on drug policy was the least offensive of all their platforms. “I think if we left it open, we could see how many people smoked pot in high school,” said Rand Paul, unlikely proponent of drug policy reform. “Forty years ago I smoked marijuana, and I admit it,” declared Jeb Bush, the square of the family. Even the most conservative white men in America are speaking almost fondly of the relaxation herb. So at this cultural moment, it’s so fitting that fashion is feting some of America’s stoniest fellows by alluding to their styles or more directly creating homages to their lives.
Mara Hoffman, a stony gal herself, dedicated her Spring 2015 line to Willie Nelson, pot Jesus. With a fantastical backdrop of the blue sky opening up on a rolling golden wheatfield, like Nelson she seemed to advocate the idea that getting lifted is American as apple pie or, more specifically, as American as our national anthem—“spacious skies” and “amber waves of grain.”
The models wore Willie’s signature braids-and-bandanna, an easy as hell beauty note, and very minimal makeup; their easy wheat-patterned maxi-dresses and denim jackets were both a gestural and literal interpretation of Willie Nelson’s salt-of-the earth Texas estilo. And sometimes she swapped out wheat for star-spangled tops, alluding to ‘70s American idealism, a little hippie, a little hopeful, on the road again realness. (No one smoked a J on the runway, though, so I have to shave off half a point for that.)