Spiegel Catalog Hooliganism

Gentle readers, once again we must explore the beginnings of our society's culture collapse.  Last year we saw the hooliganism unleased by Glad Rags.  Now, I am sad to report, we must peer further into the beginnings of the abyss as we observe the contributions of Spiegel to this disturbing trend

Don't let the ribbons and balloons fool you.  These gals are obviously up to no good.  After all the title is telling them "Juniors...You've Got to be Young to Get Away With It".  Get away with what?  Right there you have solid evidence that the youth of that era had no regard, NO REGARD whatsoever, of prevailing social norms.  Yea, party and laugh and play like there's no tomorrow.  Que sera, sera.  Oh what will this behaviour lead to next?

What is it about children's playground equipment that brings out the worst in our favorite models?  Listen missy, you better not hang off the merry-go-round like that! There are rules you know!  And don't think that by wearing a USA tee-shirt that exempts you!  Of course the merry-go-round may not actually be moving since the brunette (anyone know her name?) has one foot on and one foot off the thing, but nevertheless, there are rules!

See, it starts out with flaunting the rules of the playground.  But it leads to this - walking down train tracks!  And with those crazy shirts, they are practically camouflaged to boot.  At this rate of moral descent, where will it end?  Kathy even goes one step further by taunting the train! Yea, laugh and play like it doesn't matter now.  

Just walk away Renee, you won't see me follow you back home....Yea, that's it, just walk away like the rules don't matter.  To make things worse, Karen is now on the rail, balancing on one foot.  

So now the truth is out.  The sad fact is that we can trace the beginnings of our culture's moral debauchery, our path to perdition, our descent into moral relativism to the seemingly benign and playful hooliganism of these big book catalogs.  Oh the horror, the horror!

That's So 70s: Fashion as Couples Therapy Part 2

One of the interesting things about doing this blog is learning what types of subjects are popular and those that are, well, duds.  Some popular subjects are obvious (people like to see pretty girls in swimwear, duh).  However, I've been surprised by some.  One big surprise was the first post on 70s couples fashion.  Well maybe I shouldn't have been.  After all it opens up a rich vein of 70s bizarro-ness to explore!

Wow, right off the bat, we are hit with THREE different couples sporting completely different styles.  The upper two pics have the rope belt and the belt outside the shirt.  Why fashion designers insist on trying different things with belts, especially for men, is beyond me.  The guy on the right is obviously holding in his laughter.  He is probably thinking "Gawd, I wonder how gay this makes me look?  I mean I went into this modeling thing to meet pretty girls, not to be a pretty boy!".  Ladies, the next time you're tempted to get your guy a belt like this, please don't.  It is just future garage sale material.

I wanna be a cowboy, and you can be my cowgirl.....Okay, okay, this is where us in "Rural America" do a collective eye-roll at what "big city" designers think is "western style".  Sorry, but the threads that Kathy and that guy she is with are wearing are not "western", not even in the Urban Cowboy sense.  I mean those shirts don't even have pearl-snap buttons, come on!

The next two pics go nicely together....
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Here with three couples we see the complete span of fashion evolution from the neo-60s flower child look sported by Kay and dude on the left (complete with matching hippie necklaces), to the mid-70s causal jeans look of Kathy and dude (complete with the "self belts", remember those? What a complete fail!) to the pre-disco, leisure suit style sported by the brunette (1) and her guy (2).  I mean, wow! Ten years of couples fashion development in one breadth!  Also please note that in the perfect catalog world of perfect people wearing perfect clothes we MUST make sure that the hair color matches.  After all, we can't have a brunette matched with a red head or a blonde, now can we?  

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More "western style" shirts by Kathy and her guy - in blue for him and pink for her.  Looks like they are getting kind of chummy there, wouldn't you say?  I can hear the cameraman from back then..."Okay guys, for this shot I want you to really look like you are into each other....That's it!....Perfect!....Hey guys, you can stop now....Hey, we're still here......you who?......Well this is awkward...."  Perhaps there something to this "Fashion as Couples Therapy" thing after all!

And finally, le piece de resistance.........

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.....Oh Groovy Baby!!  Let's all do a bad acid flashback to the late 60s for some "far out" fashion fun!  You gotta love the accessories - what flower child would be complete without them?  What is great is how Kay is barely able to contain her laughter while the guy is trying to act all macho-like.  Sorry, not in that outfit you can't, just ask the guy in the rope belt in the first pic!

Footnotes:  

(1) Does anyone know the name of that model?  You see her in quite a few catalogs from that era.  Cute!

(2) You may wonder why I don't do a post on the now infamous leisure suits of the 70s.  Well first, it is well trod ground covered in depth on other sites.  Second, I'm not so much into posting pictures of dudes (except when they are with girls).  But mainly, and this is hard to admit..sniff...I have had bad personal experiences with them.  You see, as a youth, I was forced to wear them in public.  You know church, family photos that sort of thing.  It was painful.  The scars are still there.  No, no, I can't say more.  The wounds are still too fresh.  The memories too vivid.  It's still too soon, too soon.  I, I, I, need to take a break now......

Scintillating Sears Sleepwear

To be honest, I was a little hesitant about this week's post.  After everyone went bonkers over the swimwear posts, I wasn't sure that we should even broach this corner of 70s fashion.  However, in order to give a proper historical accounting of all the goings on of that era, we must.  I know, I know, such are the burdens and risks undertaken by the blogger historian.

 

Yes, Kathy fans, you can thank me for this fine pic form Alden's. What you say?  Isn't this supposed to be Scintillating Sears Swimwear?  is this false advertising?  No, not at all dear reader.  May I suggest that if that fact is what you first noticed, then you need to go back and take another look of these smoking hot ladies who are showing us the best of 70s sleepwear.

 

Besides I couldn't think of an alliteration that goes with Alden's - Awesome Alden's.....oh never mind. 

 

See, get it? The title is Sleeper Quintet and there are five of them.  How tricky!  Kay is kicking up her heels in that stripped thing (That'll keep you up at night!).  Meanwhile, Karen has, the ever popular for nightwear, leopard print thing going on.  Dottie and the blonde on the left are in the classic little girl look,  Kathy outshines them all in bright neon orange!  Once again this is not from Sears and once again, it is the alliteration problem - Jumpin' JCP Jamies perhaps?

Ahh, how sweet is that !  Kathy looks like a princess.  She is even doing a little curtsey.  They almost had the alliteration thing going here - Penney's Packable... PJ's.  That's it! Perfect!  Now with that problem out of the way, we can move on to something important, like Scintillating SEARS Sleepwear.

And Scintillating it most certainly is.  We have Kathy in TWO babydoll pics and a bonus shot of Shelley Hack.  Not much more I can say about this pic!

And finally I threw in a bonus pic for all you Colleen Corby fans.  Nice!

 

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of sleepwear pics featuring Kathy and the gang.  Plenty more to come.  What?!?!  No snarky footnotes? Well it's hard to be snarky about Awesome Jumpin' Scintillating 70s Sleepwear! 

K Club Special

 

Note: no poll this week.  It will be back in the future.

 

Well after the rather verbose opus last week (a cautionary tale of BUI - Blogging Under the Influence!), I thought that we'd change things up a little.  At the end of last year, I mentioned that I planned on doing more varied posts - ones with some of the different models.  Let's start with some pics of the other K Club members.  Also this week there will be more pictures and less commentary (I know how disappointed you must be!).  Don't worry, Kathy will be back (1) as well as other honorary K Club models (ones whose names don't start with a K sound).  Soooo, here we go.  

Here are the other three K Clubbers besides Kathy (Colleen, Karen, and Kay) in pretty much standard catalog attire.  Kay seems to be a little unsure about what is sneaking up to their left!

Country fresh prints?  What country exactly are they talking about?  Not really C&W from where I come from!

Nothing says 70s fashion quite like Dacron polyester halters and pants!  We also have the classic catalog pose of one model looking left, one right, and one straight ahead, very odd!

Yes, the look for Spring is a lively, sort of stripped, flowered pantsuit.  Perfect for afternoon tea or for afternoon tripping out! 



Yes, these dresses are indeed incomparable - if you are going to a Southern Ball.  Also the classic formal purses - so small as to be essentially non-functional.

 

Take to Heathery? Uhhh?  Whatever that is, it sounds kind of forbidden, like witchcraft or something.  I love the scarf on Kay.  It looks like an ascot from a man's smoking jacket ensemble.

A Short Story Told Three Ways: one in acrylic, one in acetate taffeta (sounds like a dessert!), and one in suede-textured rayon.  In other words, three stories of artificial, man-made fibers, that's soooooo 70s! 



Camouflage (camouflage), you should have seen it pop with her corsage...(2)  And we'll end on...a leafy pantsuit!  Perhaps Kay is trying to wear some kind of camouflage for Duck Dynasty!  Interestingly, camouflage wouldn't be considered a fashion statement back in the 70s, but now it is practically de rigueur in some social circles.

 

Footnotes:

(1) Yea I know what you're thinking "Oh, he's just using some filler material this week to stretch out his collection of Kathy pics".  Well, you'd be kind of correct.   However, I do plan on branching out to include posts focusing on the other models, individually, and in groups.  Like I mentioned before, I want to use this blog as a means of historically chronicling all the fashion zaniness of this era.  Kathy will be back in force soon!

(2)  I couldn't resist at least one song reference, and a C&W one at that!  I bet not many blogs have lyrics from that song in them!

Random Weirdness: 70s Photoshop - Magic or Madness

 

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at some fine pics from Spiegel where they used some spiffy props in their shots.  For comparison, I thought we'd look at one of their competitors, JCPenney's.  Now please note that these pics are from the same year; however, JCP opted to go with some really randomly weird photo shopped backgrounds instead.   Did it work?  Did the photoshop technology of the 70s produce magic or madness? Well, let's see.

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Indian Lake is a scene you should make with your little ones.....(1) Yes, obviously we are at the lake. Can't you tell from the background?  And naturally when one is at the lake, one is going to wear a tartan skirt, dark hose, and a matching tartan vest (with tartan collars for a triple tartan slam!).  Why I see that at the lake all the time!!  Or why not wear a long red dress?  That sounds like perfect attire for a lakeside barbecue, or perhaps a boat ride.  (Please note that I mean no disrespect to the fine technicians of that era in this post.  In fact I prefer the artistic purity of their efforts as opposed to the computer stuff done today).

To add an extra dimension of random weirdness, the tiny pic of Kathy shows her doing an Irish jig.  Uh, tartan is Scottish, not Irish and St Paddy's day is in the Spring, not Autumn.  Oh well, she still looks good! Magic or madness?  The verdict on this pic is definitely madness!

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Flowers in her hair (in her hair), Flowers Everywhere (Everywhere)....(2)  So you didn't quite buy the lake idea did you?  Well then, how about some random field of flowers?  Now this is slightly more believable.  After all, the image of a pretty girl in a dress in a field of flowers is, at least, plausible?  Right? Okay maybe not.  Kathy still seems to be trying to do that Irish jig thing.  Magic or madness?  I have to go with magic on this one, at least they are trying in the right direction.
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Now we move from the field to an Autumn forest scene complete with a stream.  Notice that the models, if they were actually there, would be standing IN THE STREAM, and the stream has SNOW in it!  I'm not sure that wearing a short dress would be a particularly good idea.  But remember, with the technological wizardry of 70s photoshop, Kathy and Karen never had to leave the comfort of the studio. How did they do that?  Magic or madness?  This one is madness, for sure.
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Let's set the table for this last pic.  The background is some kind of bucolic forest and field theme.  So what are we going to showcase here?  First we have Karen in a kind of shirt dress and a dress with a nautical theme.  How do those fit in with the background?  Shouldn't the sailor dress be with the lake background in Pic 1?  Are we heading for madness again?

Roll out the barrel, roll out the barrel again.....(3) Okay, okay, as I tend to do, I'm wandering off base here. Obviously, Kathy is dressed for Oktoberfest, and the background is the park where the crowds will gather to indulge themselves in bier, bratwurst, and um pah music till the wee hours of the morn!

Well a guy can dream, can't he?  After all that is the genius of  randomly weird 70s photoshop technology! Magic or madness?  There's no doubt about this one.  This last pic is absolutely magic!

Footnotes:

(1) This is a song from The Cowsills which is the actual music group that The Partridge Family TV show was based on.  Remember the Spiegel post from two weeks ago referenced a Partridge Family song.  So this kind of ties the two posts together in a randomly weird 70s sort of way. Cool huh?

(2) Another Cowsills song.  Two in one post!  What are the odds of that?  Well, actually, pretty good.

(3) Nope, this is not a Cowsills song.  And it isn't Partridge Family either.  It's just a good ol' fashioned Oktoberfest song.  I was going to do "The Chicken Dance" song, but it doesn't have any lyrics.  Oh no, now I can't get The Chicken Dance tune out of my head!  Arrrggghhhh!