The 70s culture was still before cable TV, satellite dishes, microwave ovens... Heck,  VHS wasn't even around yet!  The video games that were available were very simple and hard to find.  Pong was enough to fascinate me for hours.  There were no cell phones or text messages.  For Pete's sake, cordless phones were not even in use yet!  In the 70s, the push button phone was just starting to replace the rotary dial phone.  When we finally got one, I'd stand there and push the buttons just to hear the nifty sounds it made.  Most kids spent their days outside playing various games with their friends or riding bikes.

The 1970s... a Simpler Time

70s culture was simpler, and seemed to run at a slower pace than things do today. The fashions at the beginning of the 70s were bell-bottomed pants leftover from the late 60s and plain black and white fabric tennis shoes. The fashions changed when disco became the rage.  To be hip, you now had to dress in silk print shirts, tight dress “slacks” and have platform shoes.  I never made it to "hip".  The platform shoes slid on the dance floor allowing you to pull off those “Travolta” dance moves. Another fashion trend of 70s culture was the cowboy hat, no matter who you were or where you lived you had to have a cowboy hat. You might not have worn it regularly, but you had one to pull out on special occasions.  My aunt (who lived in Texas) even bought me one.  I never really wore it though.  I did have an uncle who bought into this fad though.  Someone convinced him that he looked like Burt Reynolds when he wore his cowboy hat.  He even grew a pencil thin mustache to complete the Smokey and the Bandit look!  He was still sporting that babe magnet the last time I saw him, which was some time in 2010.

McDonald's was a big restaurant in many areas, but in some places, the golden arches didn't arrive until late in the 70s. If you wanted to have a meal away from home, it was a mom and pops diner or Burger Chef. If you got to the more populated areas, your choices of eat out restaurants would increase, but there were still far less of them than there are now. In 70s culture you had three methods of listening to your favorite music, number one was the vinyl album, FM radio was starting to overcome AM as the most popular choice of radio. Then you had the 8-track tape deck.  8-track players and tapes were less expensive than albums and turntables, so many people opted for the 8-track. Cassette players made the scene, but not until very late in the decade.  I still remember using my first tape recorder to make an audio tape of my tenth birthday party.  I wonder where that ever ended up?

Entertainment in the 70s

To see a movie you had to go to the theater.  Movies did not make it to TV for many years. The movies you could watch on TV were extremely old.  That's probably why I still picture everything from before 1965 or so, in black and white.  Television has come a long way since the 70s, you had an aluminum antenna that could bring in four or five channels maximum. Then came the rotor box, this handy device allowed you to turn your antenna from inside the home. The rotor box could double your choices of television stations depending on where you lived.  You spun the dial, and listened to the loud "kerCHUNK" sound as the antenna on top of your house magically moved into the best position for the channel you wanted to watch.   Yes,  the 70s were far different than today.   For those of us that grew up in the 70s, we think it was the best of times.  Watergate and the energy crisis were just stories on the news for the most part.  Most people feel that their childhood decade was the best.   It probably has more to do with being a kid than what decade the calendar reads.

The outfits that we sometimes consider costumes today are the product of the hip and cool 70s fashion of the period. Everything was loud and unapologetic. The most ridiculous make-up and party attires were worn by popular rock stars and celebrities, and they were imitated by millions of their loyal fans.

70s disco clothes are spectacular and truly out-of-this-world. Fashion rules were broken and the deviants belonged to the IN crowd. Men and women alike wore outfits that challenged traditional color schemes and conventional fabric combinations. Who said animal prints and ruffles together are way too over-the-top? The 70s didn't just pioneer revolutionary changes in lifestyles. The people of that era were great fashion innovators, too.

You know you are in a 70s costume party when you are surrounded by a sea of people wearing flared pants and matching suits with striking colors. Mini dresses in bright floral prints paired with high cut boots in equally brilliant color is just a taste of the stunning combinations that women of the 70s concocted for their disco attire. Everyone wants attention and they must want it badly because people going for an over the top 70s look today will take the time and effort to put on outrageously big afro wigs and heavy make-up that makes the men's faces beyond recognition. If you think women are incredibly eye-catching, wait ‘til you see the men in their ruffled shirts and animal printed elephant pants.

The color schemes of 1970s fashion display all of the fresh colors of summer except that they can be worn during evening disco parties and still look hip and somehow fabulous. Glam rock and punk rock styles were IN, thanks to the rock stars and movie stars that perpetrated the unusual and glamorous trends. Everybody was loving these outfits during their prime. Added to the hippy outfits left over from the early part of the decade, the mix of styles created an eclectic vibe that refuses to be forgotten.

These incredibly breathtaking 70s outfits have now made it to the future and they are patronized most by people who have a penchant for a retro vibe. Vintage stores in your neighborhood may still have a few of these priceless pieces of clothing, but now they are becoming so popular that they get purchased very quickly. You can find a wide selection of these fun, chic and glamorous 70s clothes right here! Some are new and some are vintage. I hope you enjoy them.

Someone who has a real flair for fashion can take what is old and give it new life by adding in a little bit of their own creativity and imagination. You should also take into account that not every style will look fabulous on every figure. Think about what old styles you can use to best show off your strongest points and avoid putting on anything that is going to accentuate areas of your body you might not want to highlight. There are all kinds of styles and fashions from the 70s that you can grab hold of and make your own. That is one of the neat things about that decade. There was so much creativity and variety. Make the most of it.

  It wouldn't be strange at all if this was 1976 and we were getting ready for the U.S. Bicentennial celebration, but this is 2009 and people are trying to keep up with 70s clothing trends.  It's kind of refreshing in a retro kind of way.

I sometimes like to take a look at what people bought the week or two before to get an idea of where the demand is at the moment.  I try to keep up on what 70s trend is carrying the day, but there is simply too much stuff!

This past week saw a big rush of bids on a pair of vintage Adidas shoes.  The ebay listing was actually for Adidas France Tahiti shoes.  Those shoes went for over five hundred dollars.  One of the things I try to do if I can when I look at what is selling is remember what was up with that particular item back when it was actually in its prime.  For these shoes, I do actually remember owning a few similar pairs.  I can guarantee that my Mom didn't spend anything near five hundred bucks for them.  If I recall correctly, these actually sort of fell out of favor when other brands came along with the fancy white leather look.  All things Adidas seem to be popular right now as another Adidas item, two shirts also went for over five hundred.  One actually sold for 706 bucks.

For the past week, the biggest vintage 70s clothes seller was a Seven Arrows East West leather jacket.  It wasn't even really close to be honest.  A couple of people must have really wanted that old beauty.  Its final selling price... $3,250.

I kid you not when I say that might be worth more than all of the clothes I've worn so far this year put together!  It's a pretty cool coat though.

Click here to jump to the... 70's Clothes Store

A Little Bit About 70's Clothes

Clothes from the 1970s are back. I suppose they never really went away. 70's clothes have just been hiding away in the dark corners of attics for a few decades. Whatever your reason for wanting it, 70's vintage clothing and brand new "retro style" 70's clothes can definitely be found online nowadays.

Thanks to sites like Amazon and eBay, you can shop for vintage 70's clothes or 70's style clothing at any time of the day or night from the comfort of your home. You may, as I mentioned already, have some vintage fashions tucked away already in your home or the home of a relative who enjoyed their prime years during the 70's.  If so, you've lucked out.  They might just give it to you for a song.

Honestly, you cannot really talk about clothes worn in the 70's and mean just one style. The 1970's was a decade of profound change in the world and especially in the United States. The changes were social and political but they were reflected in many areas of popular culture, and that included clothing. At the point where the decades transitioned, 60's and 70's clothing were not all that different. Of course there were variations, but "sloppy" hippie clothes were pretty popular. As the 70's progressed, the decade came to be known for female fashions like peasant dresses and hotpants. Two very different looks for sure, but both might be found on the same girl during the same day. Just as the country was rebelling, people were ready to express themselves through their clothing and people (especially women) were quite likely to wear whatever they wanted, when they wanted.

70's retro clothing cannot be defined without including what occurred in the latter part of the decade. Fashion began what some would consider its decline into 70's disco clothes. As tastes changed and society morphed yet again, people began wearing some very bold outfits designed to look good on the dance floor, under the spinning mirrored disco ball. 70s clothes pictures tell the story quite well. This was the time of Farrah Fawcett hair and the Village People. 70's fashion clothes can now be found in a few different placed besides your own attic. Of course, if you want to buy 70's clothes, the easiest place to check is probably online. There are also 70's clothing stores that specialize in genuine vintage as well as 70's inspired clothing, but they can sometimes be a bit pricey. Thrift stores used to be a good source for 70's and 80's clothes, but they are now quickly picked over by people who re-sell them either on eBay or in one of the 70's shops I just mentioned.

Pictures of 70's fashion often feature disco outfits or 70's hippie clothes. It isn't as though people were walking around in 70's costumes that they thought about putting together every morning. Just as people today dress without giving much thought to what their grandchildren will think of them, so the people in the 1970's wore what they saw on television and in the movies and bought what was offered up at retail outlets. If you would like to get an idea of what things looked like back then, find yourself some good re-runs on television. Take note of the year the show was made and check out some episodes of Welcome Back Kotter, Room 222, The Dukes of Hazzard, and even The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. They are an interesting little peek into what was "in" at the time.

70's Clothes and Costumes

If you are looking to buy vintage clothes from the 70's, it is there, just waiting for you. Do you need some women's metallic jumpsuits or plus size disco clothing? No problem. Someone bought it back in the day and is ready to sell it to you.  If you can't find a vintage original, you can probably find a pretty good reproduction of it.   70's fashion and 70's clothes might not stay popular forever, but for now, they are enjoying a second life. If you enjoy retro fashion, you should be in your glory. Grab some groovy threads and stay a while.  Clicking on the images below will take you to some great deals on 70's style clothing on Amazon.

California Costumes Women's Disco Diva Costume,Silver,3-5	California Costumes Women's Discolicious,Multi,X-Large	Women's Saturday Night Fever Costume
Saturday Night Fever Red Dress Costume Size Small	Adult Saturday Night Fever Costume Size X-large (44-46)	Adult Super Jumbo Black Afro Costume Wig

Maybe not, maybe they just really think I'm nuts!  I had to explain that bell bottom jeans were a fashion from the 1970's designed to help kids keep track of where their feet were when the walked or rode bikes.  I remember getting myself stuck several times when my jeans became lodged in my bicycle chain.  I'd have to call for help and then my Mom would get mad because my jeans now had black grease stains and frays at the bottom.  Maybe that was my contribution to seventies fashion.

US AuctionsAustralian AuctionsAustrian AuctionsBelgian AuctionsCanadian AuctionsFrench AuctionsGerman AuctionsIndian AuctionsIrish AuctionsItalian AuctionsDutch AuctionsPolish AuctionsSpanish AuctionsSwiss AuctionsUK Auctions

VINTAGE LeVIS BELL BOTTOM JEANS SMALL e SIZE SM 3OWX30L WELL BROKE IN    US $15.00

Vintage Womens Faded Glory LB 28 x 33 Bellbottoms Jean    US $22.00

Worn In Women Vintage Bell Bottom DB 26 x 32 Jean 6PS    US $28.50

Vintage Hi Gear womens Bell Bottom 26 x 33 Blue Jeans    US $32.50

Vtg 1960s SUEDE LEATHER BELLBOTTOM JEANS WOMENS 28x32    US $175.00

LEVI 646 0247 Vintage Bell Bottom NWT Deadstock 38x36 Jeans Orange Tab    US $50.00

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There are a lot of 70s fashions 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 for true vintage, be sure to find out if there are any imperfections like that, that you should be aware of before you buy.

I don't even turn on the news anymore because all you hear is economic gloom and doom.  Declaring a 70s style clothing day could be a fun distraction and might actually stimulate the economy a bit as people looked for the old fashions in unorthodox places!  Wouldn't it be great to see the anchors on all of the nightly news shows donning 70's fashions?

We could make it really fun.  Politicians in every town could drive around with our tax break money and give a dollar to everyone dressed like a hippie or a disco queen on the special day!  President Obama said he wanted to "spread it around", didn't he?  Once you received your dollar, your hand would be stamped with a special seal and you could get a free chunk of government cheese or something.  Remember eating that in the 80's?  Good stuff.  Really.

Why stop at 70 Style Clothing Day though?  We could come up with new incentives (or just do it for fun) and have dress like an 80's Prep Day and then prepare for 90's Seattle Grunge Eve!

Maybe we could even have competitions between towns and cities.  Instead of having professional sports teams wear those ugly throwback uniforms, they could face off wearing bell bottom jeans and tie dyed t-shirts (just on the special day though; they get paid enough to dress decently).  I'm a Pirates fan, so what have I got to lose?

Personally, I think it would be kind of cool to see the dress up day for the early part of last century.  Everyone in the country walking around in vintage fashions would be pretty neat to see.  I always have a hard time imagining what the country looked like back then in color.  That must be a condition of growing up watching re-runs in black and white.  Even when I see the rare color film footage on the History channel, it freaks me out a bit.  The 1940's and earlier were in black and white as far as the pictures in my mind are concerned.  Why not raid the vintage stores and attics of the country and let us re-live our country's history a bit?

I apologize for this random bit of silliness.  Every once in a while, I drink too much coffee and my mind starts zipping around outside the box.  I think I'm OK now.  But I'd still like to see a day devoted to 70 Style Clothing.

I do not really know what has fueled the retro clothing surge. My guess would be that people hit a point of wanting something "different" in their lives. Dressing in hippie clothes is different. Slipping into a disco costume is different. The extent that people today will go about their normal routines in 70's clothing is not entirely clear. In the late 1970's the disco look actually made its way into the business world. A look back at the business styles of the day, particularly for women will show that what was acceptable then, might not quite fly today. Seventies clothing for professional women was often designed to make them look like they were ready to hit the dance floor at the drop of a hat. I don't think most professional women today could live with that. That isn't to say that a business woman of the 1970's was any less professional. It is more that the culture was more accepting (or at least use to seeing) of the disco fashions that were popular among so many.

There is also a false belief that everyone in the 1970's wore clothing that made them look like they were either ready to head back to Woodstock or dance the night away. Any veteran of 70s fashion would probably tell you that you could go back to the 70's era wearing jeans and a t-shirt with no danger of standing out. In the same way, the retro clothing we as a culture often think of as 60's clothes or 80's clothes don't entirely define an entire generation of people, it should not be thought that everyone woke up and dressed in a stereotypical 70's costume.

It sometimes seems, when looking back at retro clothing that the book ends of a decade's start and finish are often quite different. It should always be remembered that every person was still able to "do their own thing" however. There are many men who probably made it through the entire decade of the 70's without ever putting a silk shirt across their shoulders. Likewise, some women went for and kept "short and sassy" and never went for Farrah's feathered hair. There will always be those who follow the fashion trends more closely than the rest of the people. There will also always be people who completely ignore fashion sense and, instead, aim entirely for comfort. Some people will rebel and do the opposite of whatever is popular at the moment. It always will come down to the individual and what they can live with. I suppose my point is that there is no one set example of 70's clothes.