Dwayne and Leanne Bell: Veronica - The hippie chick

There's something alluring about a hippie chick. Sun-kissed skin and hair, long bare legs, mini-skirt, bare feet, a dance as free as the wind and a smile as happy as a child's. For the past forty years, her image has remained in our aesthetic lexicon, representing freedom from oppression, a letting-go of staid propriety, and to many, the free-love mindset of the sixties.

But we think there's something more to it. In many ways, the hippie chick represents pure feminity. Her long, flowing hair, her ambivalence towards clothing, her ease with nudity, and her embrace of nature, which to many is a perfect backdrop for a pretty woman, one of nature's nicest creations. Veronica may be a modern woman but we think there's a little mother earth, a little star child, and a little hippie in all women, including Veronica. And we were right. Groovy.