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For superb Victorian or Edwardian
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The 70s Disco Fashion
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The 70s Disco Fashion 1970s Costume History
. Micro, Mini or Maxi 1970s Skirt Lengths
For eveningwear women often wore full length maxi dresses, evening trousers or glamorous halter neck catsuits. Some of the dresses oozed Motown glamour, others less so. Left - Two young women in their early twenties on holiday in the Canary Islands c1972. The short check flared skirt was very popular, as was the empire style of the diamond check pattern mini dress. Right - Halter neck catsuit pattern of 1971. Exotic and tropical prints were a reflection of designers gaining inspiration from foreign travel destinations.
One frequently worn style was the Granny dress with a high neck. Sometimes the stand neck was pie-crust frilled, or lace trimmed. Often they were made from a floral print design in a warm brushed fabric or viscose rayon crepe which draped and gathered well into empire line styles. Right - Typical short and mini dresses worn at an office party in 1972/3. At the front a young girl wears a long floral granny dress that covers her knees. Another hugely successful evening style of the 1970s was the
halter neck dress, either maxi or above knee. At a disco, girls might don hot pants. In contrast to the reveal all mini, a woman would suddenly confound men by completely covering her legs and retort that mini dresses were an exploitation, rather than a liberation of women. » Easier Travel Broadens the Fashion MindThe influence of the self styled hippy clothes and the mish-mash of 1970s fashion from every corner of the global village crept into mainstream fashion. Easier travel meant that people brought ideas and accessories from abroad. Others looked for designers to provide styles that fitted the mood of an era, that had returned to nature and was anti-Vietnam-war in outlook. Cars and Central Heating Bring Lighter Weight ClothesIf travel broadens the mind, enclosed eco systems alter the fabric options. By the late 1970s women travelling in enclosed heated cars could choose to wear lighter weight clothes and abandon full length coats. Homes and stores in the temperate climate of the United Kingdom almost universally became centrally heated and most women could tolerate a chill mad dash between car and front door knowing that warmth awaited them. Long coats gradually began to
decline as an essential winter buy and a series of garments from velvet jackets,
quilted padded duvet coats, hip length wool velour jackets and shaded ombre
dyed raincoats, were all a more usual sight as a quick cover up from the elements.
Caftan or KaftanThe Hippies of the sixties had brought with them clothes from other ethnic groupings which had often never even been seen before in the west. Nehru jackets and loose flowing robes from hot countries made their way to world cities and permeated down to mainstream fashion, helped of course by designers like Yves St Laurent. From the mid to late 70s, caftans, kaftans, kimonos, muumuus, djellaba (a Moroccan robe with a pointed hood) or jalabiya (a loose eastern robe) and other styles from every part of the Indian sub continent and Africa, were translated into at home style robes and comfort wear. They were worked in every fabric imaginable, but were especially suited as glamour dressing when sewn in exotic fabrics and edged in silver, gold or other metallic embroidered trims. Right - Kaftan pattern of 1971. ± Ethnic Trends of 1970s FashionIn the 1970s, every type of ethnic image set a trend. A peasant fashion for eyelets with lacing, oversized ric rac braid with false bib parts of blouses became universal. Real blouses began to appear beneath short bell, or just above elbow knitwear. The lower sleeves became fuller and fuller so that by the late 1970s they were similar to Victorian engageantes. Sometimes they were left open and were known as an angel sleeve. The edging of the sleeve was often of the bordered fabric used in the main body of the garment. Richly patterned, border print fabrics were perfect for some of the simple garment shapes of the fashion era. The ethnic influence was so strong that it revived craft skills from far flung places. Macramé bags and bikinis from the Greek Isles and crochet waistcoats and shawls from Spain were all high fashion. The poncho was short lived and soon became a children's style. Gypsy tops with drawn up necklines trimmed with bells and puffed sleeves were made in cheesecloth or light cottons. In the year of 1978, Broderie Anglaise made a brief appearance as trimmed petticoat hemlines designed to show beneath peasant style skirts. At about the same time, Tibetan and Chinese quilted jackets and square armhole waistcoats, in mix and match prints were teamed with softly pleated skirts. Sometimes they had stylised patchwork print effects and were a very pretty feminine fashion. Indian imported cotton voile dresses overprinted in gold by Phool were often worn with quilted jackets. The colours were vivid and striking bright pinks, sea greens and wonderful shades of cornflower blues. Indian silk scarves of similar designs abounded. It was only in the 1980s when it was widely reported in newspapers that the dresses were quickly flammable, that they lost favour. It was during the 1970s that friendship bracelets first became fashionable. These hand braided bracelets made from coloured yarns were initially made by teenagers. As the 1970s fashion for teaching friends how to do it flagged, street sellers started to make income from the craft by weaving bracelets to order, as customers waited. The bracelets started as fine strips no wider than 6mm, but by 2001 they were often as wide as 2cm. 1970s Afghan Fur Trims and Cheesecloth FabricsFoul smelling untreated bags from far flung countries began to creep into the UK. When they got damp they stank as they had not been cured properly. The same smell lingered on imported Afghan coats which were decorated and embroidered and bordered in fur. Sheepskin fur cuffs, front bands and hats with frog fastenings all gave a romantic Russian look to clothes. The new longer clothes were made of floating and romantic fabrics that used cotton voiles and chiffons. Other fabrics such as Broderie Anglaise, tiny pink or baby blue and white checks, which had a virginal quality, all looked good in this longer fashion trend. Cheesecloth clothes with a semi opaque quality were ideal for long peasant overtops that swung and flared away from the body hiding the waist. They followed the line of flared and bell bottom trousers. Flared
Trousers, Bell Bottoms and Trouser Suits
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Punk Fashion History Development In The 1970s How aspects of Punk fashion, an anti establishment fashion, soon became accepted as part of mainstream styling by the turn of the 21st century. |
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For evening in the early seventies, either straight or
flared Empire line dresses with a sequined fabric bodice and exotic sleeves were
the style for a dressy occasion. 
Really the tank top of
the 70s was a forerunner to the scoop necked camisole top of the 1980s, the
shell of the 1990s and the vest of the millennium. It may be laughed at now, but it was a useful garment worn
with a blouse, or simply worn blouse free with a matching V neck long style
cardigan just like a modern twin set.
Disco looks began in
the 1970s and was memorable for its hot pants look and Spandex tops. Shiny
clinging Lycra stretch disco pants in hot strident shiny colours with stretch
sequin bandeau tops were often adaptations of professional modern dance wear
that found itself making an impact in discos as disco dancing became serious.
Gold lame, leopard skin and stretch halter jumpsuits and white clothes that
glowed in Ultra Violet lights capture the 70s Disco fashion perfectly.
