Necklace

Long necklace of very small glass beads in sections of white, pink, red, clear green, black, and white with blue stripes. The object was bought in a beading shop as a strand of beads for taking apart, then worn as a necklace instead, a common practice at the time. Worn by Mary Maddox, a London actress, in the 1960s. She described herself as a hippy during that time and performed in the first London staging of the musical 'Hair'. Hippies adopted ethnic and alternative clothing from other cultures as expressions of freedom, tolerance and global understanding.