Meet The Mukluks: A San Francisco Family

San Francisco, CA – Photographer Wendy Mukluk first exhibited her work at Harvey Milk's Castro Camera in San Francisco in the early 1970s. An admirer of the work of Brassaï, Mukluk set out to document The Secret San Francisco of the 70s as he had done in The Secret Paris of the 30s. Her vintage black and white photos and vintage color prints take us back to the gay hippie commune called The Mad Mystical Merry Mukluks. They are available exclusively at Homobilia.com.

Members of the Mukluk commune and their friends rarely missed an opportunity to dress up for parties, bars and shows or simply, on a whim, to entertain themselves at home. They lived out their fantasies through their drag. "Getting dressed in the morning," Mukluk declared, "should be performance art."

Many of the photos record the 1973 "Years Ahead" fashion show, with the extraordinary Art-Wear fashions of Mukluk and Cockette, Billy Bowers. Worn by the likes of Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Alice Cooper, Bowers' Art-Wear creations are included in the permanent costume collections of the Smithsonian.

Mukluk obsessively recorded the counter culture lifestyle in San Francisco. Her photographs celebrate the playfulness, gender confusion, theatricality and creativity that were the essence of hippie culture of the '70s. Art historian Lionel A. Biron notes: "They are the artistic creations of a highly skilled photographer as well as important historical artifacts of a lost time, but most of all they are a genuine expression of love."

"We formed bonds which still continue today; we created art, music, dance, and theater; we came up with new ideas in interior design, cooking, fashion, personal relationships, and attitudes about life in general; we had wonderful times; all of which couldn't have happened in a less free atmosphere" she recalls.

These vintage photos are a remembrance of happier times past and perhaps, offer some lessons for the present era of fear.

Wendy Mukluk is available for comments and interviews. Here vintage prints of the Mukluk family are available online, at Homobilia.com.