SPEAKING of FASHION: Trends of the Seventies

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Ultimate Fashion History Speaking of Fashion series. A series of short videos that throw a spotlight on some of the questions and some of the confusion that my own fashion students sometimes expressed. This time we're going back to the 70s. The 70s was a time that was driven by fashion trends, all of them running simultaneously from the point they started until the end of the decade. The problem is that because there were so many trends, many of my students often start attributing them to other decades and think oh this one must come from the 60s or this one must come from the 80s when in fact they all happen simultaneously. And I'm going to show you what these trends look like at the high fashion end of the spectrum and then how they looked in real-life retail. The 70s was a very bleak socio-political and economic landscape so people escaped into trends which is why there were so many of them. Here are the main fashion trends of the 70s. The Victorian and Edwardian revival trend. The peasant gypsy trend. The Deco revival which would then become the 1940s Hollywood revival. Very glamorous. The relaxed laid-back American look. The pantsuit. Glam rock. Dressed-down denim. Disco for a hot second. Global. At the same time from the mid-70s onwards we had punk rock. Towards the end of the decade we had new wave. And just to confuse things even further throughout the decade there were these tiny little fashion fads that would suddenly appear and disappear just as quickly like hot pants. Midriffs. Me party polyester. So I'm going to take the main trends one by one show you how they looked at the high end of the fashion register and then how they looked when they hit the mainstream. The Victorian and Edwardian revival trend. This was about whimsy. This was about looking to the past for inspiration. It was very pretty. Think an awful lot of lace. Laura Ashley was one of the designers who really drove this trend. Big straw hats with flowers and fruit. It was a very romantic. By the time it hit real-life retail because it was created in textiles such as polyester it perhaps didn't look quite as lovely. But the idea was the same. A return to the past to the Victorian and Edwardian era. The deco revival. This was a return to the 1920s. At the more trendy end of the spectrum it started in London with designers like Barbara Hulaniki at Bieber. Very flapper inspired but then it became rather 1930s in spirit. Lots of deco prints. It would eventually become the 40s revival. But by the time it hit real-life retail this is how it looked. One of the biggest trends of the 70s was the gypsy trend. Sometimes it was called the peasant trend. Peasant blouses with bishop sleeves, long flowing skirts, head scarves. Everybody had a version of this. This is Missoni's version of it. This is the actress Valerie Harper in her version of it. It was extremely popular. Very romantic and very whimsical. Yves Saint Laurent of course peaked this with his rich Russian peasant collection. And by the time it hit the mainstream it sort of looked like this. The 1970s was the era of the women's lib movement and the pantsuit. Every woman had a version of the pantsuit. Sometimes it was tied into the glamorous Hollywood revival style. Sometimes it was very mainstream and polyester. Women in pants was a big trend unto itself because it really was taboo prior to the 70s for women to wear trousers to work or out to dinner. Also the pantsuit and this kind of idea of appropriating men's clothing definitely fed into one of the little fads of the 70s, the Annie Hall look, which also fed in of course to the nostalgia look. Glamrock happened for a hot second. It originated in New York and in London and it was all about sparkles and spangles and glitter and lightning bolts and a lot of leather. Didn't really make the mainstream, although elements of it certainly did. Look at the stars and the lightning bolts on these awful denim outfits. Platform heels. Enormous clumpy platform heels were also a trademark of the glamrock movement and they certainly did make it into the mainstream but maybe to not this degree. The fashion show Versailles 73, which is legendary, introduced the world to a whole new wave of American designers. Clothing that was simple and free and moved and it was very sophisticated without being overdone. Think about things like the Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress she didn't exhibit at Versailles 73 but she was certainly one of this new wave of American designers along with Holsten and Bill Blass and then of course Calvin Klein who really did launch this whole new look of relaxed, casual, comfortable but very chic clothing. By the time this all hit the mainstream the textiles were all wrong as was the palette but it all came from the same idea. I don't know whether to count disco as a trend or a fad but it definitely happened although it was quite short-lived, really three years in the mid 70s. Think about 75 to 78. Lots of lycra, lots of spandex, textiles you could move to, that you could dance to but also lots of sequins, lots of metallics to catch the light of a disco ball. Lots of colors, lots of polyester but of course it was John Travolta who really gave the disco look its menswear signifier with that wide lapelled white suit. Every man had a version of this. This is Andy Gibb in his version of it. This is somebody going to their prom with their version of it and this is somebody obviously in the suburbs living out the real Saturday night fever story in his white three-piece suit. The 70s also had a huge trend in global influences. Textiles particularly inspired by India, Aztec prints, this kind of thing. Kenzo of course was at the vanguard of this ethnic interest but by the time it hit the mainstream it had really become confused with the peasant trend a little bit. But nearly everyone had an Aztec or Navajo sweater. Americana was another trend of the 70s. Denim, patchwork, red white and blue, this kind of home-spun American idea which of course would peak in 1976 with the American Bicentennial. But this Americana trend was really part of a 70s mega trend, denim. And there of course is Farrah Fawcett in her denim jeans. This idea of comfort in a time of conflict was very big in the 1970s and it also tied into this sporty look that would sort of continue into the 80s. It's hard to imagine that while some people were wearing the gypsy peasant look other people had embraced punk rock. Punk rock started in the mid-decade on the really the first punk label. Offensive t-shirts, fetish wear, lots of tartan. I am NOT going to say that everybody embraced the trend and started putting safety pins through their noses or their cheeks. However there was a genuine subculture that embraced the studs, the distressed fashion and the wild hair of punk rock with the mohawks and of course the extraordinary makeup. But the thing that really shocked people the most about punk rock I think was how skinny the silhouette was. All the other silhouettes of the decade were very wide weren't they? Think about white ties, wide lapels, flares, bell-bottoms, big gypsy skirts and punk rock was so skinny. But only about 300 people actually ever wore it in this era or so it seemed. But I still think because of its influence and legacy we really have to count punk rock as one of the key trends of the 70s. It was eventually replaced by New Wave. This came out of America but then it was embraced by the rest of the world and again only by young kids. It was sort of punk rock with more color that actually harked back though to the 1950s. Look at this blondie album cover with the band with all of these skinny little ties. And if all this wasn't enough the 70s was also a time of fads. Think about it. Pet rocks and trolls and things like that. So there were fads in fashion. Hot pants, midriffs, me party, polyester, boob tubes. All of these things came and went but when they were around they were hot news. Well I hope this episode of the Ultimate Fashion History Speaking of Fashion has helped clear up and identify why the 70s looked the way it did. For a more in-depth look at 1970s fashion the Ultimate Fashion History has far longer and more involved videos on the 1970s which was as you know now so involved. There's actually two videos that cover the 1970s part one and part two. Our spotlight series focuses on Bieber and the 70s Deco Revival as well as punk rock. You can contact me through my website amandahalley.com. 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