That's So 70s: Touches of White from Wards!!

I'm not sure what about these outfits is the "coming thing?"  They look like ordinary dresses to me.  Shelley looks nice though.

Here we go!! Some more flower patterns straight out of the 70s.  However, I'm not sure exactly what the "excitement" is of acetate jersey???

Well, I'm not sure what to say about this pic, Karen looks nice!!  All I can say is "That's Sooo 70s!"

Random Goodness: The New Long Look...

For 1971...............

Somehow I missed these dresses at the disco scene of the 70s!!

That's So 70s: Say Yes to the Dress, Part 5!!

"Huh?? Has this guy completely lost track of time?  Why, oh why have a post on wedding dresses in the middle of the winter?" you're probably thinking to yourself.  Well, why not?? After all now is the time when those Spring weddings are in full planning mode with all the headaches and stress involved. (1)

And those 70s Wedding mags had answers to all those pressing questions for our young brides-to-be!

Of course we are going to start out with wedding dresses, and of course Kathy modeling a wedding dress. Duh.  I'm not sure what the gal on the left is wearing however. All I can say is "That's So 70s!"

Apparently goofy headgear was the "in" thing for bridesmaids styles in the 70s.  Perhaps it was a devious plan to make the bride look better by comparison.

I rest my case......

Now THAT's a wedding gown - ruffles galore!

Well that's enough of the dresses.  What about the fellows?

After all it's "his wedding too."   And that's why you dressed him in a velvet purple tux with a ruffled shirt...

Although it's his wedding too, there was a concern about him actually showing up on time.  I can feel the love now!

Perhaps the ruffled shirts is what was scaring the guys away!!

Every girl goes crazy for a sharp dressed man...And what was sharper than an all white tux!  And man does this guy know he's the real deal.  After all he's got his head cocked to the side totally ignoring the babe on his arm.  "Yeah it's good to be me!"

Well I think that's enough of the 70s tuxes for the guys.  Let's get back to the dresses...

Yep, more floppy hats for the bridesmaids - even for Kathy!!

Oh no.  More tuxes. This guy doesn't have the "sharped dressed man" look going on so much.  I think his bride is smirking at him!!

Actually I don't think the lady has much to be worried about if he goes out dressed like that!

Okay, okay, this post is going downhill fast.  Not sure what this bride sees in this guy. Perhaps we need to get back to the dresses....,

A bridesmaid dress with a hooded coat.  Looks like Kathy said "I'll hold mine, thank you."

"Tel A Bride"  Is that like a mail order bride or something?

"Now what?"  Is she asking this question about what happens after the wedding?

Well, not to worry, this wedding guide explains all. Check out the questions:

• What am I feeling inside at the moment?
• What do I understand about my joy or pain.
• What am I afraid well happen if I get it.
• What will I do or give to feel more tenderness?

Sounds like one heck of a wedding night!!

footnotes:

(1) And I should know.  My daughter is the maid of honor (or MOH in modern terms) for a friend's wedding this summer.  All I hear about is plans for the wedding.  At least the bridesmaids dresses these days don't come with big floppy hats!!

Columbia Minerva Awesomeness! Part 4!!

They're baaack.  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the 70s, along comes the grooviest, snazziest, most hip fashions from that font of do-it-yourself 70s styles called Columbia Minerva.

Karen and Kathy in 70s style homemade sweaters and hot pants and stockings and elephant belts and, well, this is actually kinda groovy - in that special 70s kinda way.!! (1)

And nothing is more 70s groovy baby than "Gals in Nantuk Ombre."  I have no idea what that means but it is really groovy!!

Hmmm, a newspaper and a tennis racket - interesting combination.  I'm sure Jayne Modean and friend could explain the strange juxtaposition.

Smartie pants are pretty groovy if you ask me!!

Karen seemed to be a regular in these CM things.  However, in this case the smile seems a bit forced. Perhaps she was thinking "My agent is really going to hear about this!"

What I love about Columbia Minerva is that didn't have the pretense of high fashion.  They were all about campy, 70s style fun and that's what made them awesome!!  Like here, CM had you covered from head to toe!!

Allow me, your humble historical blogger, to explain one of my great dilemmas.  You see, there are TONS of groove-tastic Columbia Minerva pics out there.  That's not a problem.  However,  there are only a handful that include Kathy.  Soooo I have to ration them judiciously.

Columbia Minerva was always pretty awesome, but none so more than this!!  To all my readers: you're welcome!

footnotes:

(1) I got this from somewhere on the internet, not sure where, may have been My-Retrospace.  In may early days, I wasn't very good at documenting where I got material.  If this isn't correct, my apologies.

Lovely Loungewear - Part 2

I don't know why I choose lounge wear this week.  Let's face it - lounge wear is more of a Fall type subject.  However, the subject just seemed to make sense at the time!

What a way to start!  A veritable bevy of lovelies lounging away in happening 70s styles.  And as a bonus, we have Kathy and Karen in a modeling "smile down". (1) (2)

Like I said in the previous post, lounge wear is that sorta in between type of style between regular daytime clothes and sleep wear.  Here is is simply "Exotic Looks".  Totally cool man!! Robes or robe-style jumpsuits mean 70s lounging awesomeness! Let's face it - the robes are just one small step away from the classic "moo moo".  Shudder the thought.

A black and white version.  But I had to include for the mutt.  He's stealing the scene! (lucky guy, he's hanging out with Kathy, Joanne Vitalli, and Dottie Harris, dang him!)

"Super Value" from JCPenney!  Well what does that mean? Well it translates to "Cozy Styles in Brushed Acetate-And-Nylon".  You may ask "How does one do "brushed acetate", well, Shelly Hack and Mick Linberg show us how!

Like I said, the term "Lounge Wear" had a rather broad meaning.  Here it included gowns.  (I guess to wear while elegantly flowing around one's mansion?)

The next two pics are from the same page from Spiegel catalog (their pages are too long to fit on a a standard scanner, so I had to split the page in two).

You see!  party Pajamas and Luxury Loungers on the same page - what confusion! (the idea of "party pajamas" causes one to imagine an entirely different direction of 70s grooviness!)

One final pic on this whole "lounge wear as gowns" idea.  Well, Kathy, Pam Erickson, and Kay Campbell rather sell me on the idea here!  It appears that Pam is trying to engage Kathy in a "smile down", but Kathy isn't buying into the idea

footnotes:

(1) The "smile down" was a classic modeling pose back in these catalogs.  I always wondered if they had contests to see who would blink first.

(2) In case you were wondering, no, I wasn't having a bad day when I scanned this page.  This particular Spiegel catalog had a number of pages that were off center and slanted.

Hot Pants - Still Kicky (Part 2)

Yippee!  Hot Pants again!  Last time we looked at Hot Pants, we entered some kind of weird time travel loop where the past wrote the future and the future wrote about the past!  You can blame Aldens catalog for that with their "Hot Pants - Kicky" theme.  So now we venture into the breech once more with offerings from the other Big Books.  What adventures in Hot Pant-ness await this time?

Yippee! Kathy in some stylish blue hot pants ensemble from Spiegel.  Definitely a groovy blast from the past that is still mod looking in the present!  You gotta love the white go-go boots and nifty knit hat!    I'm not sure what Karen is wearing.  Those are pants, but with animal prints on them, they are definitely not "hot". Based on her expression, perhaps she just came out of a time travel loop from a previous post?

So Spiegel started us off pretty good.  However, I bet JCP and Sears had some "kicky" hot pants also!

Yippee again! Kay in hot pants, and knit ones to boot!  Speaking of "boots", it looks like the model on the left lost most of hers!  

Yippee again!  Here,we have Shelley Hack in "short shorts" and a halter.  While short shorts probably deserve to classified in their own category, I'm not sure it is worth quibbling about.

In the mid-70s, short shorts were not just reserved for the "Juniors' section. Oh no, no, no!  Here Joan McMonagle and Joanne Vitelli model some really classy shorts!

Well, those are short pants. However, they are pushing the edge as to what can be considered "hot pants" or "short shorts".   Perhaps here we have an example of that transition in fashion trends where the short shorts begin to fall way to longer shorts. (Sigh, not all fashion developments were for the better, unfortunately).

Okay, okay, Kathy is in a smashing outfit that kinda of looks like a uniform and not in hot pants.  What gives?  Well Karen is wearing hot pants, so well that is close enough.  Besides Kathy is still kicky hot!

Well that about wraps up this edition of Hot Pants - Kicky".  Oh wait, not enough 70s fashion craziness for you?  Not enough bizarro hip and happenin' groovy 70s-ness for you?  Well let's see what we can do about that!

Wow! (Yippee, I guess?). From right to left we have: Karen (in a wig)  in some kinda of German-themed Hot Pants, Kathy (in a wig also) wearing some kind of wild patterned dress, next we have red short shorts (in a nautical theme, no less, complete with white boots/sandals), and finally Karen again wearing something actually fairly lame.  If that doesn't get your 70s fashion freak going nothing will!

Well, anyway, everyone seems to be having a good time.  And isn't that what 70s fashions were all about?

Columbia Minerva Awesomeness

Blogging at times can be difficult.  It can be tough to find good material to comment on - especially if your log has a very narrow focus.

Then there are the rare moments like this when blogging mana seems to fall from the Internet heavens.  Such is the post today.  This one pic richly deserves to have a post all of its own for it is truly blogging gold uncovered from the world of Internet mining, preserved here for all posterity.

I strongly suggest that you do not look directly at the pic all at once.  There is simply too much and it will overload your senses.  Instead start at the left and SLOWLY work your way to the right - for each outfit needs to be fully appreciated on its own merits before moving on.

I am not personally familiar with Columbia Minerva.  Apparently it was a rag that showed you how to sew your own totally rad 70s style clothes.  People did that alot back then to save money, That is before we had our clothes made in overseas sweatshops for nearly free.

And yes this is real.  This is not photo shopped.  This is 70s fashion at its finest.

If you are not laughing hysterically now you are either: a) a heartless, soulless cyborg, b) comatose, or c) someone who actually wore one of these outfits to school and was socially scarred for life. Where, oh where, do we begin. 

Let's start at the left.  And yes, that is Shelley Hack in pre Charlie's Angels days boldly modeling something called "El Gaucho" (shouldn't it be "la gaucha" or maybe "gotcha" as in "gotcha to wear something ridiculous"?).  I am from the rural plains states, and I have known actual cowboys and cowgirls and I have NEVER seen any of them in any outfit REMOTELY like this.  It looks gay even on a good looking girl. 

I'm not sure what the point of the just-past-the-knees pants are but I doubt seriously that they would hold up in actual brush country.  And what does any aspiring vaquero (vaquera?) needs to match her blindingly white cowboy hat?  That would be equally blindingly white, plastic, sorta-kinda cowboy boots!

Next up is our favorite 70s model Kathy in "Peasantry".  Hmmm, I always thought that girls wanted to be princesses, not peasants.  Perhaps it was worn to PLAY peasant like Marie Antoinette did.

Kathy actually pulls this off and looks pretty hot.  You can almost picture her on a covered wagon heading our west in late 1800s.  "Katherine, we'll homestead here on this godforsaken, windswept 40 acre plot.  You plow the fields, clean the sod house, raise the young 'ens, while I stand here guarding for injuns and admiring your figure in that smoking hot peasant dress!".  Also, apparently peasants wore the same white, plastic go-go boots that cowboys do in this alternative universe of fashion.

And that brings us to the Pièce de résistance, the "medieval".  What can I say more than what the picture says about itself.  What poor, demented creature would wear this in public?  Maybe to a Dungeons and Dragons role playing session, but even in that world you would probably get the crap beat out of you for showing up as Friar Tuck in crochet!  Once again, apparently white, plastic go-go boots were as popular in the 1100s as they were in the 1800s and 1970s!

Look again and laugh again for this is the pic that keeps on giving and giving!