If I had to sing my version of Julie Andrews'These are a few of my favorite things,vying for the top spots would be Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, the Beats, Annie Hall, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the peace symbol, colors, cheap travel, and lava lamps. And if you are good at playing the missing link, then you probably have figured out the weird connection that all of these have to the '70s. I have always maintained that if I were given the option of choosing the decade I could live in, my answer without any doubt would be the '70s, despite the fact that flower power came to an untimely end in the early part this decade. But since that will remain what it is... a dream, from time to time I indulge myself by picking items from the inimitable '70s' fashion to take me back to the glorious era of revolution, declaration of world peace, political awareness, and well, bell bottoms.
Well, if you want to see a visual representation of seventies fashion, then think Farrah Fawcett, John Travolta and in more recent times, That '70s show. The 1970s' fashion trends are either loved or hated. This was the decade when women started making choices according to what they wanted and not according to what fashion commanded. While some people believe that the trends popular during the seventies was a disaster, I would like to disagree. It was about experimenting with clothes, fabrics, and styles. The era of the hippies continued its style influence with fabrics from their travels extending its touch into the clothes worn in the '70s. Many of the '70s' clothes that were extremely popular then and were synonymous with the decade are vintage fashion pieces even today. In this article, we will list out a few of these clothing pieces that shriek out '70s.
Fashion Trends of the 1970s
This was the one clothing item that threw open the most number of options in this decade. While in the sixities the length of the skirt was determined by what the fashion gurus had to say, in the '70s the length of skirts depended on the wearer's choice. So, along with the mini skirt, in came the mid calf length midis, and the ankle length maxis for those days when a mini skirt just wouldn't be right.
The '70s was the era of the flared pants. Bell bottoms, high-waisted flared jeans, loon pants, parallel jeans are all gifts of the seventies era to the world. The television show Charlie's Angels, especially one of the protagonists, Farrah Fawcett, was responsible for the widespread popularity that this style of trousers enjoyed in the '70s. While the start of the decade saw people swaying towards denim jeans with frayed edges and rips, towards the end of the decade, the flared trouser style which was in vogue gave way to straight, cigarette cut jeans.
Hot pants, spandex, Lycra, bling - these were the looks that defined disco fashion in the '70s. Shiny pants in Lycra, waistcoats, animal prints, metallic sheen to clothes; all these were the biggest disco fashion trends in this decade. Jumpsuits (an image of which has been included in the earlier section) and halter necks were other styles that were hugely popular with the disco crowd.
Platforms - those were the style statement for shoes in the '70s.Platform shoes for men and for women were sold and these high soled shoes of a thickness of 2 - 4 inches were extremely popular amongst both genders. Though very hip among the fashion conscious, these vertiginous shoes were responsible for many an injury, thanks to the instability that they caused. Clogs, flip flops, and shiny disco shoes were other styles of shoes that were also quite the trend in the seventies.
The mainstay for 1970s' hairstyles was long hair, for both men and women. Sideburns and long tousled blond surfer hair were styles that were hep for young men and boys. Afros were another style that became extremely popular with both women and men. One of the most popular seventies hairstyles for women was to wear one's hair long with a center parting. In the middle of the decade, this '70s' fashion among hairstyles gave way to wavy gypsy styles, layered shags and flicked hairstyles.
By the end of the decade, the fashion of the seventies took huge inspiration from the '20s, '30s and '40s but this trend died early with the '80s being all about bigger and bolder styles. If you like the style trends of the '70s, then you can go ahead and incorporate the style in your wardrobe, but a word of caution here, in case you do not want to look like you are dressing up to attend a '70s' theme party. Ensure that you use only a couple of elements of the fashion trends from the '70s at one time, for example, in case you want to wear platforms and high-waisted cigarette jeans, it is important that you team them up with a top that is cut in a modern style and that your accessories (like a pair of wayfarers) are from this decade and not the '70s. Keep these tips in mind and go ahead and mix and match your clothes to give you that perfect seventies fashion flair. By Tulika Nair
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