Beard Liberation Front
Media Release
7th September
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
World Beard Day tribute to William Morris: wearer of the first socialist hipster beard
The Beard Liberation Front,the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to William Morris (1834-1896) on World Beard Day and noted that the impact of his beard on modern British society has been seriously underplayed.
The campaigners say that Morris is rightly celebrated for his influence in the worlds of art and design and for his socialist politics and writings but the legacy of his iconic beard has been largely ignored.
Morris was well known for having a fiery temper and huge appetite for work and activism. On his death in 1896 at the age of 62 his physician suggested that the main cause was ‘simply being William Morris’.
However the BLF says that William Morris’s beard was as finely crafted and sculpted as the rest of his work and that he may be seen as laying down the template for socialist hipsterism
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, there is no doubt that from the 1960s on William Morris has influenced the beard styles of the political left. More recently he has also been key to the design of the hipster beard. Hipster can be a dirty word, but Morris showed that the designer beard may be a thing of power and beauty.
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