That's So 70s: Crazy Family Coordinates!

One of the more consistent themes about 70s fashion is coordinates - His 'n Her coordinates, skirts and pants coordinates, etc.  It seems that the 70s were obsessed by the idea of people dressing the same, like some kind of tribal affiliation.

Well, hold onto yer hats parders, 'cause you ain't seen nuthin' yet.....

Why stop at just couples dressing alike when you can dress up the whole dad bern tootin' clan the same! "It's Fun to Dress Alike"  No it's not.  It's...kinda...creepy actually, sorta like belonging to a cult or something. You'll notice that Dottie Harris appears perfectly comfortable but, as you go down in age, the girls seem increasingly less sure about all this.  The youngest looks like she is plotting an escape before the kool-aid is served.  Perhaps the brainwashing takes a few years to become fully effective "Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated!"

Oh dear, don't tell me that Kathy has also fallen under this mysterious spell!  This clan is going green in matching corduroy, no less!  The youngest one here, unlike the previous pic, seems to have no second thoughts with the assimilation process.  Hmmmm, perhaps SHE is actually the cult leader?

So surely these two examples are aberrations, Right?!?!?!

Nope.  "Hey, let's all dress up in matching overalls and play farmer.  Or we can all dress up in matching flower-power outfits and be suburban hippies."  The possibilities are endless.

Fashions of the 70s weren't nothing if not coordinated!  From Aldens all the way to Spiegel, no socio-economic strata was left untouched by the scourge as witnessed.  Here we have not one, but three mother / daughter examples.  All I can say is "That's Sooooo 70s!"

Naturally, why stop with the mom and the girls when you can include EVERYONE?  And kimonos are made for just that!  Now I have one question "Is it just me or does it seem that the 'blue' clan has thoroughly defeated and embarrassed the 'gold' clan by relegating them to the small inset pics?"

Of course, the 70s were a time when the concept of "family" was beginning to become more, ahem, elastic.....

This one is a bit random and hard to explain.  I think I'd better exit this post before things get any weirder....

(This last pic is re-blogged from somewhere.  I think it was My-Retrospace.  My apologies if I'm wrong.  I downloaded this pic several years ago and before I was too careful about that sort of thing.)

Programming Note:  I had to post early this week due to some family commitments.  For tehe next post I'll be back on the regular schedule.

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.

Sizzling by the Shore - Part 6: Summer is Finally Here!

Well, it's not quite summer, but heck I COULDN'T WAIT.  Let's do us some Sizzlin' Sears Swimsuits - 70s catalog style! (Do I hear any complaints? Nah, didn't think so.)

Let's face it.  I'm not going to do a swimwear post without one incredibly, smoking  hot pic of Kathy.  So let's get this out of the way up front!  Kathy in a crochet-knit swimsuit from a Sears catalog circa 1974.  I believe that this may be the apogee of 70s catalog greatness! (1)

A bit of a closeup of the inset pic from above.  You have to admit, the bikinis back then had a style that was sexy, but still classy. (1) (2)

Groovy Baby!  Check out this pic from the early 70s!  The swimsuits may seem Victorian to us now, but let's face it - there're still pretty smoking hot!  You can almost visualize Austin Powers entering the scene at any moment!

Now back to the mid-70s and WOW, back to the bikinis!  You gotta love this!  And that sheep thing going on, not sure what that's about....better not comment further....better move on quickly.....

Why just Sizzle by the Shore when you can also chill by the pool?  And what better way of doing that than with Kathy in repose and Karen with hands-on-hips. (3)

So you're not into swimsuits (and what exactly is wrong with you on that?).  Well, there's always Swimdresses!  (and no, that's not a real word)  Still these gals are working it hard - especially considering that the beach/ocean scene in the background is, ah hem, sooooo real looking!

I could have wrapped  up this post nicely after the last pic, but heck I decided to put the metal down again with another blast from the early 70s (do I hear any complaints? Nah, didn't think so.)  "By-The-Sea Stuff", indeed! yeah baby! (you have to love the dedication these models have by balancing precariously on that boat!)

(1) Thanks JJ's Playhouse for these awesome pics!

(2) The crochet-knit swimsuit is one fashion style from the 70s that every red, blooded American male wishes would make a comeback!

(3) A bit of background here, my first job was at the local country club, and during the summer, a lot of the local hotties liked to sunbath by the pools.  Let's just say that during the summer, the pool area got LOTS of extra attention!!

That's So 70s - More Jumpsuit Madness (Part 3)!!

Yes, as a dedicated blogger I do track how people find my site - which search words they use, for example (and trust me, some are pretty strange).  And believe it or not, searches having to do with jumpsuits (70s jumpsuits, women's jumpsuits, formal jumpsuits, etc.) pop up on a regular basis.  Why the interest in this fashion oddity?  Well, they just bespeak 70s fashion coolness in a way nothing else does!

Why wait so long for another post on this groovy 70s fashion?  Well, one problem that I have is that jumpsuits are often shown with something else.  Like here, Kathy is in a snazzy, blue jumpsuit but Karen has the white go-go boots going on .  So do I put this pic with jumpsuits or with a post on boots?  Such are the dilemmas of the Historian Blogger!

During the 70s, jumpsuits enjoyed a wide range of applications such as here as formal wear.  Karen looks ready to step out in style in that red evening jumpsuit!

Or they could be used as very causal dress like here with Kathy in a short, denim jumpsuit topped off with a red visor and cute scarf!  You can't beat that!

Yep, either long or short, jumpsuits were everywhere in the late-70s, and thanks to the wonders of the modern industrial age, they can be made with all artificial fabrics like Dacron polyester Terrycloth treated with Zelcon (for comfortable absorbency, natch).

Typically, however, jumpsuits were everyday wear like here.  The flowers on the yellow one are a nice touch!

Here's another pic where I debated whether to use it in a jumpsuit post or somewhere else.  Although, Kathy is not the one wearing the jumpsuit, the pic seemed to fit in with a jumpsuit theme.   I guess the idea here is that the dress and the jumpsuit match.  Once again this is an example of 70s coordinates taken to an extreme.  This obsession of matching outfits was soooo 70s!

Wait, what is this?  A black and white pic?  And to top that off, Shelley Hack seems rather glum.  Basically I threw this in because, dadbernit, I bought this sales flyer and there were no Kathy pics in it.  So that made me all the more determined to use something from it in order to get my money's worth (not a good reason for posting a pic I agree).