"I'm a former hippie, so clothes are important to me - your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still defines people. But, I change a lot. I'm in my Brooks Brothers period now"
About this Quote
The subtext is less about fashion than about the endurance of coding. Even when you outgrow the politics or the hair, you don’t outgrow the social function of appearance. You just swap symbols. “I change a lot” reads like self-mythmaking - the artist as perpetual reinvention - but it’s also a hedge against hypocrisy. He anticipates the accusation: how does a hippie end up in corporate prep? By making change itself the identity.
Contextually, this lands like an offhand key to Hughes’s whole project. His films obsess over cliques, status, and the desperate semiotics of adolescence: who belongs, who’s performing, who can pass. “Brooks Brothers period” isn’t merely maturity; it’s another costume in the same system he spent his career dramatizing, where authenticity is always tangled up with presentation. Hughes isn’t mocking the game. He’s admitting he’s still playing.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reinvention |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hughes, John. (2026, January 17). I'm a former hippie, so clothes are important to me - your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still defines people. But, I change a lot. I'm in my Brooks Brothers period now. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-former-hippie-so-clothes-are-important-to-me-80329/
Chicago Style
Hughes, John. "I'm a former hippie, so clothes are important to me - your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still defines people. But, I change a lot. I'm in my Brooks Brothers period now." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-former-hippie-so-clothes-are-important-to-me-80329/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm a former hippie, so clothes are important to me - your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still defines people. But, I change a lot. I'm in my Brooks Brothers period now." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-former-hippie-so-clothes-are-important-to-me-80329/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.







