Thursday 11 February 2016

CRIMES AGAINST FASHION: THE SEVENTIES!

Back when I was a teenager, Jackie magazine was my guide to all things cool... and fashionable! Let's just say the seventies was a slightly scary decade...

Cathy says:
I bought my copy of Jackie magazine every Wednesday, and read it from cover to cover... I learned how to be a teenager from Jackie mag, and one of the things I loved was that it kept me up to date on the latest fashions. The fashion pages were always illustrated in those days, perhaps because it was cheaper than organising a model, a photographer and a crateful of clothes! One of my early ambitions was to be an illustrator for the Jackie fashion pages, and once I sent off some paintings inspired by one particular spread and got an encouraging letter back from the magazine!

There was just one problem... much of the fashion back then was not my style at all. I was not a fan of flared jeans and shirts with collars that might as well have been wings, the way they flapped about in the wind. I didn't like platform shoes (although I had some scary bright yellow ones) and popular haircuts like the feather cut left me cold. I did like the fashion for smock tops, though, and made one in needlework class at school. I was very proud of that! I also had a pair of dungarees that I loved a lot!

Casual clothes were fine, but anything smart was pretty grim. The brown suit in the picture here is horribly similar to a brown trouser suit I had at one point... it had been a present, and I hated it. Brown was very popular back then, but brown crimpeline flares and a blazer top? NOOOO!!! Later on I had to stick to a brown colour code in sixth form, and managed to have fun with it... tabards, layered skirts and woolies with peruvian style prints were in fashion by then. Skinny jeans had also appeared, part of the punk movement, and soon I had ditched brown crimpeline for drainpipe jeans, my dad's old outsize 50s jumpers and Converse trainers (yes, we had them back then too!). Punk was a breath of fresh air... and then I went to art college and discovered the joys of vintage shopping, and I've never looked back.

I don't miss 1970s fashions, even though they definitely count as vintage now! I'm glad to have grown up in that decade... even if it sometimes seems like a whole different world to me, now. And I still miss Jackie mag. There has never been anything quite as cool!

And now? My daughter is into vintage, too. Seventies style...

Cathy says:
Would YOU have worn any of the styles pictured? COMMENT BELOW to have your say!

4 comments:

  1. WOW!! They are soo amazing! I think I'd like to wear best the cream coat and the brown skirt!! X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chic! The orange dungaree dress and yellow shirt would be more of my style-the cream coat and brown skirt is just as fab! Totally agree! The fashion these days is not as funky and groovy as it was in the seventies!

      Delete
  2. I love looking at vintage stuff, I think it's quite cute.
    But it's not really my style, I like the casual stuff but again I dont think I would wear it.

    Oversized t-shirts, jeans and converse are my thing and would love to find this outfit somewhere and sometime soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm not much of a girl to be picky about clothing. I like wearing skinning jeans and high top's and my favourite Perry The Platypus T-shirt! But my Mum is a must for vintage. I would be more then surprised if she wasn't wareing some of that stuff right now!!! Plus, I really do like the crème and brown coat and there's this really cute jacket with the first couple of pictures. It's like, made with the same stuff as a pair of skinny jeans. Actually, reading this and looking at the pictures I've found myself a lover for vintage! I think I might have a spot at my Red Cross and see if there's some stuff to have a good rummage with.

    ReplyDelete

EMILY: INSPIRED TO HELP REFUGEES

Reader Emily, aged ten, explains how a Cathy Cassidy book inspired her to raise money for a refugee charity... Emily says: The Cathy Cassidy...