I'm old enough to remember the 70's as a time of great fashion freedom and experimentation. Popular entertainers like David Bowie were popularizing the idea of androgyny on and off the stage. Watch his Ziggy Stardust performances. Keith Richards was famously photographed in 1975 wearing his girlfriend Anita Pallenbergs femminine blouse by Annie Leibovitz. Mick Jagger played an androgynous ex rocker wearing eye makeup and lipstick in the 1970 movie Performance. The Britsh folk rock group The Incredable String Band had an album cover photo of them all in colorfull Danskin style scoopneck leotard tops. Watch Robert Plants performance in The Song Remains The Same 1976 concert footage. He is distictly femminine in his mannerisms and his light blue poof sleeve crop top. Hendrix was known for his colorful attire complete with flowing scarves and fringy trims. In interviews he is very adrogynous, shy and softspoken. And all this was before the glam rockers starting with The New York Dolls! Go look at the pictures. Drag rock! I remember wearing velvet and satin trousers delicate floral print shirts, sheer nylon "body shirts" and nylon and polyester print bikini briefs. Clothes like this were commonly avalable at the new boutique shops and later at department stores for those wishing to emulate their rock star idols. The idea of mens necklaces and earings was from this era too. The earings seeming to be more popular than ever. Never got my ears pierced. Go figure.
Oh, thank you my dear Angelic friend for all those wonderful comments! I also keep the seventies quite present, and I also regard them as a period of ground-breaking experimentation fashion-wise.
Some of it's boldest "unisex" styles have not been surpassed, from what I can recall. All the performers you bring to mind (thanks for the nice recollections!)are only a few among the many flamboyant "glam-rock" singers and other artists who challenged the established gender-roles and boundaries.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to all those fashion trends and styles which, as you point out, were available at stores everywhere.
That's when I started myself experimenting with fashion. Bottom-bell pants, flowery blouses, high-heeled platform shoes, heavy jewelry, were the "mainstream" among young people, but would be considered "radical" styles nowadays. I started wearing necklaces in those days, like any other normal guy back then, and had my ears pierced in the late seventies. Please keep on commenting!
I'm old enough to remember the 70's as a time of great fashion freedom and experimentation. Popular entertainers like David Bowie were popularizing the idea of androgyny on and off the stage. Watch his Ziggy Stardust performances. Keith Richards was famously photographed in 1975 wearing his girlfriend Anita Pallenbergs femminine blouse by Annie Leibovitz. Mick Jagger played an androgynous ex rocker wearing eye makeup and lipstick in the 1970 movie Performance. The Britsh folk rock group The Incredable String Band had an album cover photo of them all in colorfull Danskin style scoopneck leotard tops. Watch Robert Plants performance in The Song Remains The Same 1976 concert footage. He is distictly femminine in his mannerisms and his light blue poof sleeve crop top. Hendrix was known for his colorful attire complete with flowing scarves and fringy trims. In interviews he is very adrogynous, shy and softspoken. And all this was before the glam rockers starting with The New York Dolls! Go look at the pictures. Drag rock! I remember wearing velvet and satin trousers delicate floral print shirts, sheer nylon "body shirts" and nylon and polyester print bikini briefs. Clothes like this were commonly avalable at the new boutique shops and later at department stores for those wishing to emulate their rock star idols. The idea of mens necklaces and earings was from this era too. The earings seeming to be more popular than ever. Never got my ears pierced. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you my dear Angelic friend for all those wonderful comments! I also keep the seventies quite present, and I also regard them as a period of ground-breaking experimentation fashion-wise.
ReplyDeleteSome of it's boldest "unisex" styles have not been surpassed, from what I can recall. All the performers you bring to mind (thanks for the nice recollections!)are only a few among the many flamboyant "glam-rock" singers and other artists who challenged the established gender-roles and boundaries.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to all those fashion trends and styles which, as you point out, were available at stores everywhere.
That's when I started myself experimenting with fashion. Bottom-bell pants, flowery blouses, high-heeled platform shoes, heavy jewelry, were the "mainstream" among young people, but would be considered "radical" styles nowadays. I started wearing necklaces in those days, like any other normal guy back then, and had my ears pierced in the late seventies.
Please keep on commenting!