It's hard to pin down the collective tastes of a planet for an entire decade. It's easy to say the seventies were all about browns and earth tones, but that's not completely accurate. Sure, the entire country seemed awash in shades of brown for a few years in the 70s; however, the decade also had its share of super loud color expressions.
The "browning of the seventies" was really a reaction to the psychedelic color palette of the late sixties. We'd had enough of The Magical Mystery Tour; now it was time for some marijuana infused color schemes of brown, light brown, dark brown, red-brown, or orange-brown.... and maybe just a little bit more brown. Accent it with some Harvest Yellow, Avocado Green or more brown, and you're in business!
But, to complicate things, there was still a tendency to go really wild with colors. Often combing colors that should've never been combined - namely red and yellow..... or orange and (you guessed it) brown.
Here's a few images of 70's fashions for women that threw out the dreary earth tones in favor of big colors.
That design you see in the background was seemingly everywhere in the seventies. And check out the colors of the chick's outfit in the foreground.... for some reason I'm craving some McDonald's french fries.
Sweet Lord. I'm at once repulsed and captivated by that rainbow shag. Seems too much like something Elton John would have worn.
Oh shit, I can see the pastels coming on.... look out, the 1980's are coming.
Lemon yellow "perky polyester"... I'm at a loss for words. That poor non-yellow girl at the end.... probably felt like a blue outcast.
These colors and patterns are so bold, it's almost like these three chicks are a team of superheroes. Some masks and maybe a cape for the girl in blue, and I see a comic book series in their future.
Yikes. Not sure how to take that waistline of giant red Ruotine pasta.... should've gone with the Fusilli.
When I'm old, I want scientists to cryogenically freeze me with specific instructions to not thaw me out until white go-go boots come back into fashion. Gilligan like.
This is from 1970. Evidently, peace, love and "flower power" were still in full effect. Alas, I was too young to enjoy it.
If I had to choose a picture to place in a time capsule to demonstrate women's fashion of the seventies, I might just choose one of these two. They say a picture says a thousand words.... well these say a million.
I'll end by saying that the title of this post is "bad fashion", but I really should've never labeled this series as such. I love these fashions, and I mean that sincerely. I certainly have a good time poking fun at them, but, at the end of the day, I prefer these styles to anything popular today. I'm just sayin'.
