No one really ever wore bell bottom jeans during the 1980's or 90's.  Well, I'm sure somebody did, but it didn't catch back on until this decade.  The flared jeans and bell bottoms you see come from your ancient ancestors back in the 1970's kids.  Maybe some inquisitive kids found an old suitcase filled with them in Aunt Suzie's attic or something.  Actually, the real history goes back to sailors wearing the original bell bottom back the latter part of the 19-teens and the style did start reappearing in the 1990's, but the wider bottoms were referred to as being "flared", not bell bottoms.

There are a lot of 70's clothes popping up on places like eBay.  If you choose to go the eBay route and grab yourself some genuine vintage fashion, be aware that today's bell bottoms may be a bit different than the ones your Mom wore.  In the 1970's people tucked in their shirts more often and wore their pants up higher.  That sounds rediculous as it's written, sorry, but I just mean that there weren't as many low riders in the jeans crowd.  Hey, they put their kids in colored Tuff Skins too, remember?  You can try to compensate by throwing on some platform boots!  The look will rock!

Really, you can find some decent prices (sometimes) on vintage clothing on eBay, but remember that you are buying vintage.  The pants will generally have a higher rise and might feel like they are hugging your mid-section if you are used to wearing low rise jeans.  If memory serves correctly, you might also expect to have your legs and undergarments stained blue if you make the mistake of not washing them first.  (I've seen a lot of deadstock items listed).  If you do go for purchasing deadstock jeans, ask if there is any fading on them.  I never would have though of this, but I did get my hands on some authentic 1970's jeans with the original tags still attached about a year ago.   I noticed immediately that there was a definite change in color where they had been folded and stored for 25 years.  They were still very sturdy, but there were permanent lines of differing color from such a long period of storage.

If you are shopping and just read all of that anyway, thanks for your patience. Check the bottom of the page for Vintage Bell Bottoms!

You didn't really see the most extreme of the disco outfits come out during the light of day too much.  They were, of course, designed to show up in the strobing lights of the dance floor.  Exposed to direct sunlight, who knows what might have happened.  That might explain the Village People.

In truth, as the video below will show, disco fashion did reach out and touch those outside the disco fantasy world.  Business attire changed and I doubt that some of the "business" clothes of that period would cut it today.  Different strokes for different folks though.  I remember my sister taking me to get my first haircut that wasn't at a "regular" barber shop some time in the late 70's or early 80's.  The guy who did the cutting was nice enough, but for all of my memory blocking attempts, I can't forget the shiny shirt unbuttoned half way down his chest and the gold jewelry swinging beneath it.  I left with bangs removed and a brand new "feathered" look.  I have never been so glad that my family didn't take a lot of pictures of me back then.  I know they had good intentions, but MAN!

By the way, I don't own the stuff in found on the page links.  I'm just here to point you toward it.  Hopefully, if you are looking, you will find what you want.  eBay has become the place to find that stuff now that it is popular again.  Click on any of the items or use the handy search box on the right if you want to look for something.

OK.  So I was looking back over my bookmarks and the first thing I did was realize that I really need to take better advantage of the folder system.  It seems that I'm a virtual slob (that isn't me in the photo though).  My wife would probably have a comment to add here, but she never reads what I put online.  I want to share some of the stuff I find amusing and I hope you'll find that your visit wasn't too much of a waste of time.

Do you remember Tuffskins?  They were the heavy duty "jeans" sold by Sears.  Every year, as summer vacation drew to a close, you would see herds of small, elementary aged boys being led to the local Sears fitting rooms.  Once there, all of the mothers would go about the ritual of shaming their sons by forcing them into dark green Tuffskins and then shouting for all to hear that they seem a little loose in the crotch.  Or, worse yet, they would announce that they were going to grab some "huskies" for them to try on.  The horror.  I was a husky.  Husky was Sears' way of avoiding the placement of a "Fat Kid" tag on the back pocket.  Oh...it still makes me cringe.  After the "husky" memory, what I remember most is the funky colors and reinforced knees.  They always felt like cardboard.  It didn't matter if you washed them 100 times, they still sprang back into their original shape.  Sadly, Tuffskins are one of the first "vintage" items I've been unable to locate on eBay.  I think they deserve to be in a museum somewhere if nothing else.

I managed to wear holes through my Tuffskins enough times that my Mom relented and bought me more traditional Levis and Lee jeans, but I seem to remember that they were the kind that turned your legs and underwear blue until they were washed several times.  They were also BELL BOTTOMS!  For those who might not know, bell bottom jeans were specially designed to find their way past the chainguard on banana seat bikes.  It happened to me on more than one occasion.  They looked something like these:

[nms:bell bottom jeans,3]

You can see more of these using the eBay search box on the right, but I don't want to fill this blog with rss feeds from eBay.

I actually remember my Mother telling me to tuck my jeans into my tube socks with the colored stripes at the top to avoid the embarrassment of getting trapped in the chain.  I never thought of it at the time, but that must have looked pretty darn amusing all by itself.  No wonder I didn't have a girlfriend until high school.