70s men's fashions...

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lordkenmore

lordkenmore

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I suppose 70s men's clothes fashion isn't quite right for this section, but it might be interesting for some, and does have a vintage theme.

Quote:
"The 1970s must have taken place on a different planet. These photos of men’s fashions from that decade leave us drowning in astounding mustard knits, garish patterns, high waists, way-too-skimpy briefs, and other fashion faux pas that defy description 40 years later."

http://www.boredpanda.com/1970s-mens-fashion-ads/
 
No matter how ugly those outfits appear from today`s perspective, I didn`t even know belted sweaters existed, there is one thing I just love about 70s male fashion.
Obviously even in the United States it wasn`t considered a crime to show your bulge proudly.
 
I grew up in a town of 2,000 people in rural west central Minnesota, so I didn't see men dressed as shown in many of the examples in the link. A few of them, of course, look very familiar. Every decade seems fashion-forward while you're in the thick of it. Thirty years later you wonder what people could have been thinking!

As with many fashion spreads in print media, you don't often see people actually wearing those clothes on the street. I'm talking to you, Details magazine, LOL.

Photo 1: These guys were definitely not from the farm/rural Minnesota.
Photo 2: Saw plenty of this sort of thing.

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I was in my 20's during the 70's and I remember the fashions very well. Most of the examples in the link were extreme for the time. There was a company called Intenational Male that published a catalog of their men's fashions, and they were often like the pictures in the link. But most men dressed in a more toned dowm version of these fashions. But the look of the 70's was definately way different than what we now consider fasionable. And the comment in reply #1 is right on, to coin a 70's phrase, men proudly displayed theit "baskets", as we called them and it was most appreciated by admirers of the male anatomy. Many men didn't wear underwear, but we didn't call it commando then.
Eddie
 
Lightwieght wool,

it actually breathes, and well, it seemed the Brit's were using plus size models, for undies yet! Not what you'd see on any Calvin Klein billboard, or even in any Sears catalogue.
Aren't Bonds Australian, or British?
 
The 70's

I honestly can't think of a single aspect of fashion/design from the 70's that I admire.  WTF were we thinking???  Men's fashion (bell bottoms, long point collars, polyester, vests), fabrics, automobiles, furniture design.... the list goes on and on.  Trash!

 

The best part of the 70's is that they're over.

 

Looking at the photos in the link leaves me queasy and wanting to hurl.

 

lawrence
 
Have been watching tons of 1970's programs on TV

Of late thanks to OTA broadcast stations like MeTV, so am getting quite an eyeful nightly of fashions from that period. Though was rather young then thus didn't think much of things, looking back now can only say "what were they thinking". *LOL*

The 1970's seems like the decade fashion forgot. All that Poly and her sister Ester especially those double knits. Kojak most often looks like a pimp.... Don't know what look Rock Hudson was going for in McMillian and Wife but it bears no resemblance to his former hot stud image of 1950's.

Here is a link to the original article in Daily Fail (Daily Mail). Fair warning some of you may need a cool drink of water afterwards..... *LOL* Yes, the 1970's was an era when men tended to advertise full tackle. Not since the codpiece was there so much frontal display of male goods.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-just-cringe-worthy-fashion-40-years-ago.html

The person who invented the poncho ought to have been lined up and shot: http://www.wowamazing.com/trending/funny/30-colorful-1970s-mens-fashion-ads/
 
Lightwieght wool

Is actually what religious habits were made (or still are for all I know) of for those in warmer climates. This goes back to when sisters and nuns wore full habits as well. Yet they were cooler than you or I would be in normal clothing.

Besides breathing wool also does not wrinkle nearly as much as the next best fabric for warm weather; linen. In fact for really centuries light weight wool weaves were quite common for summer wear.
 
I gave my cuffed bell bottom Levis corduroys to Goodwill as their is no way I can fit in them again but still have some vintage Levis shirts in the back of the closet. Leisure suit went away long ago and I only keep one funeral suit and one other nice suit for other things, if it happens to come up they come up, hopefully not.
 
These are the extreme gaudy 70s fashions...

Fortunately, the reality was not quite as bad, it was more like you see on that 70's Show which is pretty accurate.

For some reason, knit polyester was a big thing then, with most mens pants being polyester that kind of clung to you. Cannot buy those pants anymore, they seem to have disappeared since Dockers came along in 1986. Not only were leisure suits made of pure polyester, but John Travolta's white suit (which actually looked quite nice) in Saturday Night Fever appears to be. He probably still has that suit, polyester never seems to wear out. There was a detective show where on the opening, somebody throws another guy overboard and he is wearing a leisure suit. They were waterproof, too!

If you want to see ugly fashions, men's hairstyles, and eyewear, take a look at any news reel about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in central PA. It happened in a depressing area, during a dreary week of weather, and even Governor Thornburg had what looked like a polyester suit, ugly eyeglasses, and who cut his hair? Scenes of the control room, all the guys were so ugly, and there are a lot of pictures of their backsides. I would have been embarrassed to know if I was in those pictures today.

One fashion I did like in the 70s were the tennis shorts and polo shirts that were more tailored than you can get today. Now, tennis wear looks worse than what we wore in gym class. At best, you might look like a soccer player.
 
Thunderbirds and Captain Kangaroo

I called it before I even read the comments!

 

I was young, but I remember pre-energy crisis 70's as a mash-up of hippies, a "western" look, and the growing ecology movement. Knitting, crocheting. and "macramé -ing" were big crazes.

 

After the energy crisis hit, layers were "in" because everyone's thermostats were turned down. That meant more hand-knit sweaters, vests, etc...

 

Then came the Bicentennial and everything was dropped in an effort to turn the entire United States and everything in it red, white, and blue. There was a "Bicentennial Edition" of damn near everything... literally. Hmmmmm...... I wonder if lube and condoms came in Bicentennial Editions? I would NOT be surprised.

 

Then came Saturday Night Fever....  Patterns were replaced by solid colors and the whole western/leisure suit look got toned down a bit.... Finally.

 

Even as a kid I thought high-waisted pants looked strange. I felt vindicated once puberty hit. Exactly WHERE was I supposed to put my equipment? Pants neither hid it nor allowed room, lol. It was like you were supposed to demonstrate that you were trying to squeeze the 'bait & tackle'. Underwear was weird too. For all the skimpiness, there wasn't much actual room in front...

 

Once puberty hit and my skin started producing several gallons of oil per day, I refused to wear polyester because it felt so slimy...

 

I was so happy when the 80's hit. Overnight men's pants acquired short rises, big hips, and tapered legs... so much more comfortable and better looking, IMO.

 

Jim

 
 
We used to joke that you can take polyester clothes and they'd stand up in the closet without a hangar!

When I was in college (1970-74) my mother used to buy me clothing that was "double knit" as they used to call it. Which was fine for living up in Chicago. But I was doing my flight training in Louisiana. First of all, nobody there wore "double knit" at school. Aircraft cockpits are not air conditioned. By the time we'd take off, I'd be soaked to the underwear in perspiration. At school everyone wore traditional cotton, for good reason. It breathes. Besides, the stuff my mother bought me looked like it came from another planet compared to what other guys at school were wearing.

I never saw those belted sweaters either.
 
I can say that I never wore anything as crazy as most of those outfits shown. I usually just wore jeans or shorts & t-shirt - some of the jeans were flared, and some of the shorts "short". If I'd worn anything like most of the garments shown, I'd have been laughed out of town. Such clothing was NOT popular in my area - these are more "big city" looks.

Fun looking at these pics; remember some from the Sears & JCP catalogs. I was hoping they would have some with Doug Barr (Howie from "Fall Guy"). I always thought he was so hot!
 
Thank God I never wore that stuff. My Mom always bought me "Preppy" stuff.

She always said Button Down Collars, Khakis and a Blazer would always be timeless fashion.

Looking at those clothes... I had really blocked all that out of my mind. I forgot how ridiculous all that "style" looked.
 
leisure suit

Yuck!!!...sweet jesus!!! Lawrence said it best..the best part of the 70's is there over. I was a teenager during that decade...I remember well bell bottom jeans, stacks (platform shoes) and those damn leisure suits. I had two...a dodo brown one I wore with a yellow poly shirt and a Lime green one I had some crazy black shirt with some kind of primary color print on it. And of course a pair of brown wedge heel shoes and a pair of black stacks. Like someone mentioned above..I didn't see men in my community dressing like the models in the link..but then maybe they did and I just don't remember. I also remember wearing Musk and Brute. My mother on the other hand loved the idea that she didn't have to iron anything and the leisure suits could be washed and hung to "drip dry". was'nt our clothing basiclly made out of a form of plastic back then?
 
Bell bottoms, herculon furniture,

plaids, corduroys and calf height leather 2 inch heel mens shoes also.
The 70's were odd for fashion. You could match the Chevy Nova with it. We called it the beach ball vinyl interior.
Then came the preppy 80's with Lacoste and Ralph Lauren Polo. Turned up collars and a sweater wrapped around the neck. Bazare still.
 
a lot of '70s fashion was dreck...

but I still like the Edwardian style double breasted long coat look popular then, and what I wore at my wedding in 1971... imagine it with the waist fitted more ( I was skinny then and 6'1!) with a white ruffled shirt!

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