K Club Special Part 1: Kay Campbell

Here is my first post where I concentrate on one of the other "K Club" members besides Kathy (1).  After a long internal staff debate of about, say, 5 minutes (2), I decided to highlight Kay first (no offense to the other K Clubbers).  She was absolutely EVERYWHERE back in the 60s and 70s as a model, and she had a smile that could absolutely light up a room!

See what I mean! She also had those eyes that just seemed to draw you to her.  Wow! Her look was perfect for that era.  No  wonder she appeared in just about every kind of print modeling.  Also, her career was a looonnnggg one.  Below are a couple of photos of Kay from 1963!

And here is a photo of her from 1977:

Now that is quite a time span for a model to stay on top of her game (and she actually modeled for a few years after that)!

I admit that, for the longest time, I had no idea what her real name was.  Even after I found out Kathy's name, Kay's real name remained a mystery to me.  Also, I have been unable, to date, to locate much info on her such as where she is from, and what the heck happened to her after she stopped modeling.  If anyone out there has any further info, I'm sure the visitors to this site would appreciate it.

Here's a pic of her in mid-career circa 1971.  I love the pose on the little pic of Kay in the lower left.  Is she about to fall down or something?  Doesn't look very comfortable to me, and why have her do that?  Is that going to make people want to buy these pants?

One problem that I've had in my role as Blogger Historian of the Big Book catalogs of this era is that it's hard to do an internet search on her.  There are too many other people named Kay Campbell out there (3) - including an actress on All My Children.  So, for now, she is a bit of an enigma.

But, when she was an active model, boy! did she model!  I have a ton of pics of her, so expect follow up posts in the future.

Just like the other K Club members and their friends, Kay could really pull off the cute look with perfection. Who else would you want to model this outfit with the potted flowers?

Okay, okay, Let's have one pic that includes Kathy just to get you by to next week...

In the lower right corner we have three of the K Clubbers in small print: Kay, Colleen, and Kathy.  The Big Book catalogs often would have these tiny pics included.  I guess it was to show a different angle or combo or something.

One final pic.  I know some of these have been re-posts from other sites, so for all you Kay Campbell fans, here is an original which displays her versatility.

If you can't make up you're mind on what length to wear, Penneys says you can have them all! And each in the same crazy purple print.  Kay looks great in all of them!

footnotes:

(1) "K Club" is what I call the four catalog models: Kathy Loghry, Karen Bruun, Kay Campbell, and Colleen Corby. Their names all begin a hard k sound, and they often appear together in the big book catalogs.  K Club sounded better than "Gang of Four".

(2) Yea it was one of those corporate staff meetings where nobody could agree.  The R&D department said they needed to do more research on Kay.  Marketing wanted to another swimsuit post (like they always do, they only think about the short term, you know).  IT wanted to spend the week doing software upgrades (like normal).  As CEO of this corporate empire I had to get tough and lower the bloom "Look guys, we are in a very competitive marketplace.  We've got to pull this together.  I don't care what it takes!"  Then Accounting mumbled something about inappropriate charges on the company jet.  "Meeting adjourned" I quickly added.

(3) You get some really interesting looking police mugshots on these kind of Internet searches (not our Kay Campbell, other people named Kay Campbell)!  People, don't drink and drive, please!  BUI is okay, DUI is not!

Springtime Sears Sundresses - Part 2

Ahh, sundresses!  The very second post of this blog was on sundresses, and it's about time we do a follow up post, don't you agree?  What an excellent subject, and what a fantastic fashion style for our favorite model, Kathy Loghry, to highlight!.  As I mentioned in the first post on this sweet subject, they are quite simply an unfair advantage of the fairer sex!  How is possible for any red-blooded American male  to resist the charms of young ladies when Spring has sprung and they are in their sundresses - Lord have mercy!

Okay, okay, this is from JCP, not Sears.   I'm not going to get into that whole "alliteration" issue again.  Besides, JCP is about to go belly up, so let's give them a break, already.  Now, I challenge y'all.  Image that you are a young college frosh and deeply concerned about passing your next test on quantum mechanics in your Modern Physics class, and then WHAM! you see this walking down University Row!  Now do you understand how hopelessly unfair these sundresses are?  I mean, come on man!, give me a break already!

Okay, okay, now we have some summertime dresses from Sears.  And once again: WOW! How is a young, studious college man supposed to concentrate on important things like, oh let's say partial differential equations with glorious creatures like these on campus - simply not possible (I know from first hand experience).

So, what exactly constitutes a "sundress".  Well, to tell you the truth, I don't really know, and I don't really care.  Basically, any short dress that was worn in Springtime and knocked my socks off, I privately classified as a sundress.  However, here Sears has, fortunately, told us that these are sundresses right there in the title.  Kathy in that funkadilic scarf? I don't know about that one.

Somehow, I passed all my courses (including Modern Physics and Partial Differential Equations) so I guess those sundresses weren't TOO much of a distraction.  And let's face it, they made college life a little more enjoyable.  I'm going to regress a bit here, but just like these models, girls back then seemed to be a more innocent and sweet (1).  Sigh!, maybe I see the past through rose colored glasses, but still....

Karen, Kathy, and Colleen!   Three of the "K Club" gang in one pic!  I'm not sure these are "sundresses", but who cares?  These gals are rockin' it!  

Why not throw in a final pic of Colleen, Kay, and Wendy Hill for a final "sundress push".  Kay has got some serious "gull wing" collars going on there.  Not that I would have noticed that when I was younger, no probably not  (okay, once again, I may be guilty again of BUI - Blogging Under the Influence - and revealed too much, gotta stop now!).  

footnotes: (they're back after a few weeks off!)

(1) What I mean is that gals back then seemed to know how to be sexy without being overtly hyper-sexualized.  Sundresses were one of their primary weapons, used to good effect often.  Today, girls seem to confuse being sexy with trashy, in-your-face shock treatment.  No, no, no, the old ways that women back then charmed young men were MUCH more effective.  Don't you agree?

That's So 70s: High Rise Pants

Certainly one of the biggest complaints against the younger generation today is the low slung baggy pants, and I admit I find these sloppy and disgusting myself.   Maybe it is because back in the 70s we didn't have that problem.  No, no, no.  In fact, the exact OPPOSITE style seemed to have caught on for awhile.  Not sure what in the heck I am talking about?  Perhaps some examples will illuminate you....

We used to refer to these as "high waisters", but whatever.   Naturally they go well with the groovy shirts and scarfs straight from the same time period.  I'm not too sure exactly WHERE a young lady of that time would wear such an ensemble: dinner?, dancing?, golfing?, horseback riding?  Oh I get it now.  You'd wear such an outfit if you wanted to stand side by side in a park staring off to one side!

You can sort of start to see the late 70s bell bottoms look in some of them.  Here, we are in that awkward era right before that so the pant styles just sort of thrashed about (with matching jackets no less).  When it came to 70s pants, the look was long and lean.  Heck here they even have VERTICAL striping to make them look even longer!

Only women could get away with this look.  This style of pants on a guy would immediately label him a nerd (as if the calculator on the belt didn't give that away already).  In college we had an engineering prof who wore these types of pants.  We nicknamed him "Zipper".  Yea I know, we were mean, and he was a really great guy to boot.  Oh well.

As if the ridiculously narrow waist on these things wasn't enough, here they accentuate that with some kind of a wide belt that looks like something off a geisha girl.  What?  Why not throw in tiny shoes that deformed the feet while you're at it?  Perhaps the scarfs were some kind of fashion requirement with these things?  The combination is quite odd, wouldn't you say?

As we know, all fashion trends start off as cutting edge and then evolve inexorably to some ridiculous extreme before going extinct (only to be recycled again in a few years). It's kind of like how the dinosaurs reached their most outrageous sizes right before their demise.   To see this development for these high rise pants, one only has to take a look below....

Wow! That's a whole lot of checkering going on there!  Perhaps ol' Professor Zipper was more in style than we realized!

So there you have it.  Proof positive that the 70s had no room for the low slung trousers of today.  We can only hope that this style comes back.  They may have looked a bit strange, but it certainly beats than alternative we have today!

WAIT, WAIT, don't leave yet!  We have a special BONUS pic!  As I was browsing casually amongst the archives (and getting ideas for next week) I happened across this gem and just couldn't resist myself!

I asked myself "Should I put this in the current post about high waisters, or an upcoming post on plaids, or an upcoming post on Random Weirdness: Headgear?"  It could have gone in any of those, BUT the shear height of the waist on this plaid nightmare forced me to include it here!  The clincher was the elastic band belt, and the fact that the model is striding so confidently towards high fashion style.  Upon seeing THAT I had to say "High Rise Pants: That's Sooooooo70s".

Body Suits - Part 2 (Sort of)

By "sort of" I mean that one of earliest posts of this blog had some bodysuit pics, but that post wasn't focused on that one aspect of 70s fashion.  So maybe this should read "Bodysuits - Part 1b" or something.

I have also noticed that it has been awhile since we last visited this corner of 70s styles.  Well that is a situation that cries out for rectification, and I think that after perusing the following pics, you will agree!

Sometimes these things are referred to as "body shirts".  Who am I to quibble over semantics?  These gals look absolutely smokin' (1)!  As previously mentioned the idea (apparently) is to wear a skirt or shorts or something over these.  Comfort and practicality were not the goals (obviously).  Oh no indeed.  The purpose was to show off one's perfectly toned body.  For example......

Yea, I think you're getting the idea now.  You're probably saying to yourself  "Hey man, what so long for another post on this subject?"  Good point, good point indeed.  My only defense is that I was distracted by trying to get posts on all the other whacked out fashion styles of the 70s.  Sometimes even us historian bloggers must remind ourselves of the basics, and what can be more basic than these body suits?

I respectfully disagree.  This is not the "Total Look for every body".  I mean, let's face it.  You can't have just "any" body and pull off this look.  But we can all admire those that can pull it off, and oh boy can these gals ever pull it off!

I admit it was tough to pick out the best pics for this post.  After all they all rock, sooooo I included them all!

I said to myself "What the heck, let's be generous this week!"  I hope all you readers agree!  However, this one almost - and I mean almost - was left on the cutting room floor.  The reason?  It's Kathy's expression.  She  doesn't seem too pleased with something.  I have no idea why.  After all she looks great in yellow (or any color actually).  Also, I have no idea what they mean by "body conscious fashions".  Huh?  You either got the bod for this or not!  No reason to be conscious about it at all!

Finally I included one for all you Colleen fans (I know you're out there, so I try to keep everyone happy).

Here, we are told, we are supposed to be sold on the "versatile" body suits.  After all they are "sleek and trim-fitting under skirts and low slung pants".   Hmm, perhaps some of those refrigerator repairmen should consider wearing these.  It would save a lot of embarrassment (sorry for putting that image in your minds.  To correct go back and look at all these incredibly hot ladies again!).  

Footnotes:

(1) Please, dear readers, please help me identify the model next to Kathy in this pic!  She started to appear in the big book catalogs in the mid-70s, and I have tons of pics of her.  I'd love to do a post featuring her, but I would like her name first.  I've tried, with zero luck, to find this info.  Any ideas!