That's So 70s - Corduroy!

What am I thinking: two "That's So 70s" Posts in a row! But you have to admit that nothing, and I mean nothing, screams 70s fashion like corduroy.

Something about corduroy really caught the imaginations of the fashion world in the 70s.  Those tightly wound cords of fabric running side by side just seemed to capture the essence of the age despite the onslaught of man made fibers.  The term comes form the French "corde du roi" which means cord of the king.  And you can see why in the following pics.  The fabric seemed to be the perfect regal answer to the 60s!  

Yep, this magic fabric could be molded into any shape or color as seen here with Kathy - pink corduroy skirts, vests, jackets and pants.  Why I do believe that even that snazzy hat that Kathy is modeling could be as well!! 

But by far and away the most common use was in pants.  What Back-To-School shopping trip was complete without at least two - possibly more - pairs of corduroy pants (usually in different colors)?  Yes sir, High Schools and Middle Schools across our fair land were awash in a veritable tsunami of brightly colored corduroy clad students on the first day of class!

Part of the corduroy magic was the soft, plush, almost velour like feel of the material, which was perfect for either your average High Schooler trying to impress the ladies, or a pimp - take your choice. (Thanks to JJ's Playhouse for the pic!)

Good grief!  Now even the pages of the catalogs are in corduroy!! And apparently, this total immersion in the fabric is having profound effects on our models as Kathy and Kay have some kind of neck-breaking pose here!! (Thanks to Blue Senshi for this pic!)

However not even corduroy could escape the 70s penchant for coordinates as seen here.  Corduroy came in different types.  Here it is pinwale.  A wale is a row, and corduroy is defined by its wale number which is the number of rows per inch. The standard is 11, but pinwale is typically 16 so it has a finer feel.

Okay, I got all technical.  Sorry about that. I think we should return to some smashing 70s corduroy fashions to clear our minds......

Yep, this was the hey day of 70s corduroy.  Basically, anything that could be made with corduroy was made with corduroy at some point.  Here we have everything from jumpsuits to sweaters in the stuff.  While maintaining that semi-regal air, corduroy also had a bit of the laid back casual look to it, which made it perfect for the 70s.

Editors note: I don't know how many times I misspelled "corduroy" while writing this post.  Can I FINALLY get it right the first time without the spell checker?  Let's see "courdoroy".  Rats, dad bern keyboard!!

That's So 70s - So You Think You Can Sew!

One of the small (very small) pleasures of the old Big Book catalogs was the excitement of discovery of the tiny pics of our favorite models in sections further back in those 1000+ page tomes.  And one of those sections that consistently produced results was the "Roll Your Own" sewing section.....

Yep, this is what I'm talking about - lots of 70s-style patterns and tiny pics of of Top Models (here it is Karen and Kathy) AND some tongue-in-check sub-title "Sew Soft, Sew Cool, Sew Easy-Care These Many Pretty Ways"

Welllll, what to say?  First, is the obvious "What the heck is a top model like Kathy or Karen doing here?!?!" It would be like today a supermodel, let's say Adriana Lima, in a Home Depot circular on a riding lawn mower (on second thought, that would be pretty hot!)  Second, it was obvious that folks sewed their own clothes a lot more back then.  There is a noticeable decline in the size of this section from the beginning of the 70s to the end. (1)  Finally, some of these pics are pretty cool!

Obviously, they would rather sell you the finished product than the raw materials.  After all they could send that off overseas to a sweatshop where people are paid virtually nothing to sew garments all day.  Nah, that'd never happen.....

Totally mod Bell Bottoms Man!! And Kathy does them righteous like!! Check out those patterns, the possibilities are endless!!

What!! Here's Shelly Hack in the back sections of a Penney's catalog!  Whatever you've gotta do to move the stock, man!!

Of course one of the great things about sewing your own is that you can really let your animal side out like here - lions, tigers and bears, oh my!  Check out those groovy go-go boots matched with the animal print mini skirt!

Speaking of mini-skirts from the early 70s.....

Sighhhh.  Those were some groove-tastic, good times weren't they!  

Like I said earlier, these sections often had the goofiest sub-titles "More Ways to Play the Mating Game" Hmmm, something tells me that the author of that was a guy, just a wild guess.  And yes, that is Kathy on the far left where where the middle crease is..  One thing about these sections further back in the catalog is that is darn near impossible to get a good scan if there is something along the crease, and for some reason it seems that there is a lot of Kathy pics there, always irritates me.

Okay, I can't end on a sour note.....

Big, bright smiles from Kay and Dottie - that'll brighten your day!!  "Companionable?!?"  I bet you can't say that word(?) without smiling, chuckling, and saying to yourself  "That's Soooo 70s!"

footnotes:

(1) Probably someone should do an actual academic study on this.  Someone, like an Historian Blogger perhaps?? Oh wait that would be me.  Uhhh, I'll get right on it, promise, no really, well maybe later....