Seventies Fashion

My husband and I have lots of photographs of us from the 1970s. Our kids find these extremely entertaining. They laugh their heads off at our permed hair dos and platform boots. We tell them that their kids will laugh at their fashions, especially the all black, Goth phase! Seventies fashion, I must admit, does warrant mirth. Everything was so over the top, with the Afro hair, wide kipper ties and flared trousers. I seem to remember that earrings got bigger and bigger as the decade wore on.

There was nothing more off putting for me than the Mark Spitz look. I'm sure people of a certain age will remember the hairy chest and gold medallion look. It seemed to escape from the dance floor to every daywear. Some men even went out and bought chest hair wigs, to look more like Spitz. Seventies fashion was obsessed with bright colors. Even the men wore purple and pink.

The iconic image of this period came from the disco dancing movie, Saturday Night Fever. When John Travolta strutted his stuff in that immaculate white suit, everyone wanted one too. The men wanted to be him and the women wanted to be with him. Seventies fashion wasn't just about a look, it was an attitude. You walked tall and you acted smooth.

A certain amount of gender bending went on in this decade, encouraged by rock stars such as David Bowie and Marc Bolan. The lines between men's and women's seventies fashion became blurred. Men wore pink shirts, eyeliner and glitter. It was a time of experimentation.

Towards the end of the 1970s, a very different kind of fashion began to creep thru. Seventies fashion to punk music fans meant safety pins thru clothes and studded belts. Both men and women sported Mohican hairstyles and hair was often dyed purple, green or orange. Holes in the clothes were actively encouraged. Big boots, previously seen only on construction sites, were all the rage. The punk style started as an underground cult movement, but the fashion went mainstream eventually. It was an antidote to the seventies fashion of the disco, with its ruffled shirts and perfectly pressed suits. Punks wanted to dress down, and the punk bands and their fans dressed like each other.

The 20th century went thru many phases and cultural developments. Seventies fashion is the period that became quickly outdated. People in my generation love to go to those 70s nights to boogie. It's a chance to get the old disco gear out of mothballs and get down.