His and Her Fashions: Groovy Baby!!

 How did couples in the 70s show their relationship status????

With His 'n Hers sweaters from Wards!!  And with matching psychedelic shirts too!!

Speaking of matching shirts.....

It's all smiles here!!  I guess the couple that dresses together stays happy together???

Need more proof???

Here it is!!  This looks liek a heck of alot more fun than updating your Facebook status!!

Wig Out!!

Wigs were just one of the many modern wonders that the Big Book catalogs of yesteryear offered to the world......

So how many models can you identify here?????

Yeah, those look REAL comfortable.......

"You could be so Happy" because looking like yourself is definitely NOT going to do it?????

So much for the world of fake hair, we'll return to teh world of real hair next time!!

Random Weirdness: Modular Furniture

'Cause regular furniture just isn't cool enough......

Yards and yards of plastic stuff.....IKEA eat your heart out!!

Random Goodness: Sweaters and Pants!!

Fall means one thing in fashion - sweaters!!

Especially when paired with groovy bell bottom pants!!  Are those pants kind of gasp!! PLAID.  I'm not sure I like the direction that this post is headed!!

The pants are high wasiters and cuffed, but still a little plaid-y for my taste.  The bow tie is polka dotted, so maybe that will put the plaid-madness at bay!!

 Yeah not much to say here, no plaids in sight!!

Hey how did the gingham shirt get in this post?!?!

 Well this post is getting kind of dull, not much to see.......

Yeah, yawn, not much crazy, zany 70s non sense with sweaters and pants....

But wait!!!

Oh no!! The Plaids are back!! And this time in high waisted, bell bottom variety!! Will we ever be free of the dreaded plaids of the 70s!! And it has the same "It's a Plaid, Plaid World" title from the 1973 Aldens Big Book Catalog!! (or at least the same editor!!)

Click here to see!

Fashion as Couples Therapy: Summer Sweaters!!

Two couples with fashionable acrylic sweaters.  Er, make that three couples?!?!

Yeah, well, better not go there!!  Pic is from the '70 Penny's Spring Summer Big Book catalog!!

Penny's Summer Dresses, Part C!!

And for the finale of our mini series on 1970 Penny's Summer Dresses....

 Here we have not one, but two pics of Kathy including one of tiniest insert pics I've seen of her.

Why did they make that pic so small?!?! Kathy looks adorable - especially with what appears to be a flower in her hair (actually it's just in the background.)

Once again, these pics are courtesy of Blue Senshi.  Thanks!!

Sleep Time - Animal Style!!

You want to heat up those cold wintry nights???

Animal Prints from Penneys brings out that Animal Spirit to keep you warm!!  I really like Kay's hat: very cool, er, I mean hot, oh, you know what I mean!  Were the other models jealous??  Who wouldn't be?!?!?

K Club Special - Part 19: Karen Bruun - Part 3

We continue our third round of K Club Specials focusing on the big four.  And once more we'll take a look at Karen's extensive career!

A JCPenney's pic of Karen from early in the 70s.

And another pic of Karen from Sears in the mid-70s.  Very nice!!

But she was more than just a catalog model.  During her career, she would pop up everywhere - like here for Simplicity.

Karen in an ad for Turtle Bax - naturally there is a turtle included!  The turtle looks happy, and why wouldn't he?  After all, he gets to hang with Karen and Pat!!

And here for Hanes.  Anyone remember those Cracked Animal stickers?  They are vaguely familiar.

A really fantastic pic of Karen and Colleen from Spiegel.  Spiegel always went for that Uptown Girl classy look, and they succeeded here for sure!

For some reason I really like this pic of Karen.  She seems so relaxed and comfortable.  She was a natural for the look that Spiegel was trying to project.

Even when they were casual, Spiegel was classy and sophisticated....

Okay, okay, maybe they weren't always that classy.  I have no idea why that guy is laying on the ground, and now Karen (as well as Shelley and the other model) don't look that much at ease here.   Perhaps that will do it for Spiegel in this post!

Of course, that didn't mean that Sears couldn't try for that classy look - like here with the long dresses.  Hmmm, let's see.  We've seen Karen with Colleen and now with Kay.  Seems like we we are missing someone?

Yep. How can you have a special on Karen without including Kathy?  They appeared together so many time in catalogs such as here in Aldens.  These two were certainly "snappy" indeed!!

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!

Kathy Loghry JCPenney Catalog Photos

Well this post is back to catalog pics!  Kathy was a mainstay model in the JCPenney catalogs during the early to mid-seventies.  Here are several that span that time frame.  Plenty more photos from JCP in the future.

JCP and Sears published two big book catalogs every year.  One in the spring and the other in the fall.  Getting these was always a big deal.  There was no internet then and these catalogs represented a connection to what was happening in fashion for the average household. 

The first photo is from the JCP fall winter catalog in 1971.  This is about as early a catalog photo of Kathy as I have been able to find. 

Kay Campbell is to Kathy's left.  The other model is unknown.  I'm not sure why you would want a leotard with a turtleneck.  Seems to me that it would be pretty hot but I guess the idea is that you wear a skirt over it (from the insert pic).  That way you can go to the gym straight away from work, rip off the skirt and jump into the aerobics class.  Also that combo doesn't seem real practical to me to wear all day (how do you go to the bathroom)?

The next two pics are from 1976

 

You'll notice the tiny pic of Kay showing the reverse view.  This was common in these catalogs, but why?  I think we know basically what it would look like from the front view.  After all neither of these outfits is too flattering on the figure.  It must have helped to move the goods because it is very common.  I don't understand why Kathy has her arms out.  It is like they wanted to highlight the massive sleeves on the weird tunic with the cool rope belt she is wearing.  Huh?  I don't get it.  Massive sleeves do not look good on any girl, even Kathy.

 

Another set of funky, fun outfits modeled by Kay and Kathy.  1976 was after the flower power era and just before the disco (ugghh) craze.  These outfits show the fashion confusion well.  They borrow from the hippie look - check out that cool hat that Kay wears - but they seem to be pointing to something beyond the hippie look, but what nobody will ever know because both outfits are a clear miss (even by the standards then).  The uber-long, featureless dress look didn't catch on.  Kathy seems to not be terribly comfortable in the long tunic with pants combo, perhaps she knows the outfit is hideous!

 

This last pic is from 1977.  This is about the end of Kathy's catalog model career.  I haven't been able to locate any photos past then.  Once again we have the awful, uber-long pants with bizarrely unflattering tops.  However Kathy's dress seems more conventional.  She is even holding a purse!  You'll notice how she poses as if she is walking forward.  Very common type of shot.  It must have taken real skill to hold that pose and make it appear that you are actually moving.  Who said modelling was easy!