70s Fashion Trends for Women: Flared Legs, Disco and Platforms VIP Jewelers

70s Fashion Trends for Women: Flared Legs, Disco and Platforms

Oct 26, 2010 Christina Gregoire

Shiny Disco Dress – photo with permission of 15dollarstore.com If you want to go 70s style, you need flared jeans, pantsuits, bow blouses, shiny or metallic clothing and platform shoes. But, give it your own twist.

Just like the 60s, the 70s was a decade with several cute trends. And, from the Marc Jacobs catwalk to your neighborhood mall, women and girls will be wearing these new-old 1970s styles. Look for high-waisted pants with flared legs and defined waists. Discover your inner disco diva with glam and glitter. And, remember that most seventies styles look best with platform clogs, Candies-style sandals, or disco platform shoes.

Miniskirts and Midiskirts

The early 70s were a hippie hangover, in every sense of the word. And, easily-bored, trendy Boomer girls knew right away that guys in shaggy bellbottom jeans were not as much fun as men in suits…with a little cash in their wallets because they had real jobs.

Until about 1972, fashion was coming from one of two directions: London Mod minis, midis, maxis, and hot pants or California Hippie whatever-feels-good-do-it clothing. Here is the breakdown of West Coast skirts and dresses in the early 70s:

Miniskirts were usually made of denim or non-stretch cotton fabric.
Mini dresses had Pucci-like prints.
Miniskirts were worn under long maxi-coats. The coats were left unbuttoned to show the leg in a sexy yin/yang effect.
Midi skirts sometimes took the form of unflattering gaucho pants. However, the accompanying gaucho hat was hot.
Other midi skirts were patchwork and sometimes the patchwork was made of different pieces of old denim.
Accessories included J-Lo style floppy hats.

70s Hot Pants

If you are young and you missed the fun, here’s the rundown:

Hot pants were sometimes worn under a flirty little dress of the same pattern.
Hot pants were often worn with white or brown leather boots with a chunky heel.
Hot pants on the West Coast were seldom cut very high. The look was more like Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader’s hot pants.

70s Stretch Fabrics

In the early 1970s, stretchy knit jersey was starting to replace the natural eco-hippie fibers and designers were still playing around with their new toy. This synthetic stretch silk would soon be made into:

Wrap halter-tops
Wrap dresses
Slinky below-the-knee disco dance dresses
Jumpsuits

1970s Disco Glam

By day, women wore pantsuits and other outfits with wide-leg trousers and jeans. Well, I must confess that the early pantsuits were less than flattering. But, that didn’t matter because once the sun went down everything changed for the better.

I have no first-hand knowledge of London and New York fashion during the early 70s, but I spent quite a bit of time in Hawaii, Seattle, and Southern California. Disco didn’t just pop up and hit you on the head like the Beatles, Madonna, or Lady Gaga. It was a slow slide.

Clubs with live music were getting stale. These small intimate bars were groovy and laidback. But, Baby Boomers were ready for a change. And, this change took the form of nightclubs with very few tables, large dance floors as big as your high-school gymnasium, and canned music blasting through humongous speakers.

This type of club is deadly common today, but it wasn’t in 1971/1972.

Disco Clothing in the 70s

At night, women changed out of their ugly pantsuits with bow blouses, and put on stretchy, sometimes glittery, flowing dresses and jumpsuits. The ideal way for a 70s woman to live well was to spend the day at the beach, perfecting her tan, then dancing all night at a club, showing off her golden skin. And, the low cost of living made this possible for many.

In my part of the world, miniskirts and mini dresses at a disco were a sure sign of a lower-class girl. If women wanted to fit in they wore:

Tight Bellbottoms of a stretchy fabric. The top might tie at the bosom, like the time-warped Dallas Cheerleaders, or it might be a halter top. God help you if you were chubby.
Long flowing dresses with platform shoes. Extra credit for having clear Lucite heels.
Clingy, figure-hugging jumpsuits with bellbottoms and a self-tie waist. White or yellow were good colors for showing off your tan.
Accessories usually included some kind of tacky rhinestone necklace.
Hot pants were only worn by waitresses in their awful uniforms.

Saturday Night Fever

Then, John Travolta starred in Saturday Night Fever and everyone was jumping on the Disco-Duck bandwagon. After Travolta in his white pantsuit, Disco was slowly starting to turning stale. I mean, how many times can you hear “Do the Hustle” without losing your mind. It was like hearing the Macarena every hour.

So, as the dance scene started to fill up with too many Wild and Crazy Guys who acted like Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd on SNL, hipsters decided to try something new. They got married…or remarried.

And, if you want to do a hip 70s style, it can be done on a shoestring. But, don’t wish for the 80s. Hang on to the 70s for as long as you can.

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