Are the 1970s the best worst taste in fashion history?

The 1970s - it's the decade I was born, and along with the 1960s, my favourite fashion decade. The 1970s are often called the decade of Guilty Pleasures, of good bad taste, the decade that taste forgot. The 70s is the decade we love to laugh at.

When we think of 1970s fashion, we immediately think of flared trousers, wing-collared shirts, platform shoes and big hair. Colours were bright, patterns were loud and make-up was glossy and shimmery. It was the era of Glam Rock - of The Sweet and the Bay City Rollers and The Osmonds.

In the UK, Mike Leigh's classic 1977 play Abigail's Party was a comedy of manners that showed a certain type of adult in a certain kind of suburban hell - all Demis Roussos, hostess trolleys, and dancing across the shagpile clutching a blue nun and cheese and pineapple on a stick. Alison Steadman as Beverley is a 70s suburban fashion nightmare: her salmon hued pinky brown empire line maxi dress with its angel sleeves and tiered ruffles and low cut chest oozes desperation and sadness if a dress can do such a thing.

Alison Steadman as Beverley, 2nd from left

In the U.S Charlie's Angels rocked a more glamorous, albeit cheesy aesthetic. The three main characters were beautiful undercover L.A cops who strutted the streets in jean jumpsuits and platforms by day - all swishy hair and glossy lips, and by night rocked glamorous seventies one shoulder evening gowns, all disco and shiny hair.

Farrah Fawcett became an immediate pin-up - her hairstyle - huge and feathered and ashy blonde was a whole character of it's own. A phenomenon. It became one of the most popular styles of the 70s. 

But when it comes to rocking a 70s look today, it doesn't have to be all platform boots with goldfish in the soles, blue eyeshadow and paisley polyester shirts with huge collars. (Unless you want it to of course.) The 70s had it's peasant granny dresses inspired by the Edwardian revival, But there was also the cooler, edgier more rock'n'roll 70s. The 70s of The Rolling Stones, of Marianne Faithfull and David Bowie, Pam Grier and later Patti Smith. The fashion world had Halston and Lanvin and YSL, hotpants and platform boots, big sunglasses and floppy wide brim hats. And then there was Vivienne Westwood and Punk.

Punk sounded the death knell of flared trousers in 1976

The 70s were one of the most diverse decades in fashion. The hippies and glam rockers of the early 70s were so unfashionable by the late 70s that people burned their flares and sold their hippy record collections for pennies when punk became fsahionable in the mid to late 70s. 

The following are my favourite looks of the early to mid 70s, that can easily be incorporated into a modern wardrobe without looking like fancy dress.

Flared Trousers

The 70s continued the hippy styles introduced in the 60s, but after the idealism of the 60s had died, so too had the flower-power aspect of 60s fashion. Flowers and rainbows gave way to a more toned down, populist hippy look. The DIY aspect of hippy fashion from the 60s had become more tailored. Essentially, the hippy had gone mainstream. 

Bell bottoms, and their flarier cousins, Loon pants and Elephant Bells were the go to trouser cut of the 1970s, and were universally popular for both men and women. The tight hip and wide from the knee trouser is probably the most flattering trouser shape you can wear, which is why we probably keep returning to the cut. The flare has had so many resurgences since it's heyday, from the late 80s Stone Roses, Happy Monday return of the Summer of love, the 90s boot cut jean, and the more recent return of the wide cut trouser for women. Whether it's bell bottom jeans or wide leg sailor trousers, everyone should have a pair of flares in their wardrobe. They look great with a tight t-shirt or shirt or jumper, trainers or platforms. It's the universally flattering cut you can always rely on.

Disco/ Studio 54

Disco brought with it glamour and fun - certainly it had it's cheesy teenage side But disco doesn't have to be rollerskates and rainbow leggings and glitter on your cheeks. The disco I love, is the one illustrated by the energy and glamour of 70s Studio 54. Bianca Jagger  entering Studio 54 on a white horse in a shoulder baring Grecian gown.

 Diana Ross and Jerry Hall in jewel coloured silk Halston, Liza Minelli in androgymous flared white suit, Diane von Fustenterg in her wrap around dresses in glorious patterns and Cher in a glittery bell bottomed two piece.

The Studio 54 look is glamorous, fun, expensive and decadent. If the Beautiful and the Damned were a club, Studio 54 would be it. 

Drugstore Cowboy

Although not technically a 70s movie, it's a 90s depiction of the 70s. Kelly Lynch's Diane, wears some of my favourit outfits depicted to film. Her knee length black boots, short button up a line suede skirt and black top with a choker, hoop earrings and bouffant hairdo was a look I wore throughout my 20s. Alternate the black cami top for a polo neck and add a mac or 70s leather coat and you have a perfect winter look.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira in Scarface pretty much owns 70s glamour. of Michelle Pfeiffer's languid looks in Scarface as the tragically cool Elvira, draped in jewel coloured silks had a distinctly 70s Halston vibe. Here we see her sporting another one of my favourite 70s cool stapes, the floppy wide brimmed hat teemed with big sunglasses.

In Scarface, Elvira wears the classic pairing with a smart white blazer. Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg wore the look giving it a more rock'n'roll edged, Bohemian vibe. It was a look copied by Kate Moss in the 2000s and can be spotted on beaches and at festivals every summer. It's such a classic cool look. Universally flattering and eternally flattering. Accompany the look with a pair of large gold hoops and long pendant necklace or a thin scarf tied around your neck and the look is pure 70s Bohemia.

Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg in the 70s

Kate Moss wears the look at PFW 2011

Platforms.

My obsession with platforms has been going on since I found a pair of my mothers knee laengh patent plafroms black boots in a cupbaord in the mid 80s. Unfortunately, as my mother is 3 shoe sizes smaller than me, they nevver fitted, and the one time I wore them to a fancy dress party when I was 12, I managed to cripple myself for the best part of a week. The platform shoe has a difficult history. There is obviously the comedy shoe - Bay City Rollers and Elton John spring to mind with their ankle busting round toed and ridiculously high boots. Men in platforms can be done - it requires a lot of confidence and a lot of style. But really, for me, the platform is the greatest shoe ever invented. High witout being ridiculously uncomfy. Flattering on the leg. Great as a wedged sandal or a boot. 

Platform shoes were about from as early as the 40s, where women's shoes had a slight elevation of the sole. However, the plafrom really hit it's home run in the late 60s, and it was during the disco era that the shoe really took off, with glitter, flashing lights, the famous goldfish, stars. Glam rock stars famously wore the shoes, David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust was a huge fan of the shoe. In the late 70s, the plaform gave way to the stilleto, but had a resurgence in the early 90s when Vivienne Westwood redesigned the shoe with a dramatic heel that was almost impossible to walk in at 9 inches high. Naomi Campbell famously fell over strutting down the catwalk in hers. 

Unsurprisingly, the shoe didn't really take off, however, the Spice Girls encouraged a resurgence at the end of the decade with their bufflao boots.Another 70s platform shoe resurfaced in popularity in the early 2000s when the YSL Tribute Sandal appeared in 2004, quickly gaining popularity with celebrities and the fashion world for its sex appeal with the added comfort of a platform sole. 

Hotpants

Hotpants, short shorts, the bum-skimming short trouser that launched a thousand cheesy songs admiring it's tiny aesthetic and daring baring of skin caused all sorts of controversy when first launched in the 1950s. Mary Quant popularised the tiny shorts in the 60s when they became popular among hippies and teenagers. The style spread like wildfire in the 1970s. You'd be hard pressed to find a photo of Yoko Ono not wearing hotpants.

Yoko Ono in hotpants

Often worn with tights and knee high boots and a large brimmed floppy hat, she strutted New York's dirty streets like a bohemian superhero.

The term was first used by Women’s Wear Daily in 1970 to describe shorts made in luxury fabrics. While hotpants were generally marketed to women but they are unisex, and some men also tried this fashion. David Bowie and Elton John were some of the adventurous men who attempted this style, but it remained limited to women. The sexual revolution liberalised dressed codes for women and hot pants became a symbol of this. Hot pants expressed women's new found freedom. However, in the second half of the 70s, hotpants became linked to prostitution (think Jodie Foster's child prostitute in Taxi Driver). They received social stigma and fell from grace for a few years outside of nightclubs and among cheerleaders and the odd popstar.

Kylie in her gold lame hotpants, 2000

Since the 90s, they've been back with a bang. Kylie Minogue helped popularise the teeny short in 2000 when she wore her famous gold lame hotpants in the Spinning Around video. Since then, they have never been out of vogue - they are trendy, socially acceptable and sexier than ever!

Flares, platforms, hotpants, floppy hats, big sunglasses, hippies, Disco and Charlie's Angel's. The early 70s were a smorgasboard of cheese and glamour fun and froth. In the latter half of the decade, the upcoming generation rejected what they saw as the hippies turning into the establishment, and everthing that came with it. Punk drew a line halfway through the decade which saw a culling of all that came before. Disco, glam rock, hippies and all their music and fashion were the enemy. Punks believed in anarchy to enact change and eschewed any sort of dialogue with the establishment. 'Never trust a hippy' became a popular slogan. Hippies were a thing of the past: their parent's generation, not only were they seen as outdated and out of touch with their slogans of peace and love, but since many hippies ended up joining the establishment they once railed against, they were seen as failures at best, hypocrites at worst.  My next article: Who were the punks? will look at punk fashion in the UK and take a look at one of Britain's most recognisable youth tribes.