Sunday Music Corner
They’re Ba-a-a-a-ack….
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| Asos hat |
The Seventies, that is.
Reading reviews of the designer offerings during New York Fashion Week, references to seventies style were ubiquitous.
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| Philip Lim 3.1 |
Back in my teens, we called these “elephant pants.” Maybe because they made us look like little elephants, but we wore them anyway. This time I’ll give them a pass.
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| Prada espadrilles |
The seventies weren’t my favorite decade: high school, college, and much personal sturm und drang, but there was the music to pull me through. Sure, there was the disco and the glam rock, but there was also Genesis, Camel, Fripp & Eno, Santana, Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira”(in my humble opinion, still her very best), Weather Report, Pat Metheny, Marshall-Tucker Band, The Isley Brothers, The Band, The Crusaders, Devo, The Cars, Roxy Music, The Sex Pistols, The Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Bob Marley and so on. Musically, it was a rich and varied time.
But as prologue, there was a moment in the cusp between the sixties and seventies, and in that moment there was Velvet Underground.
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Elephant pants (I’d forgotten the name – no surprise!), platform shoes, maxi coats…(hides head, ugh!). Been there, done that…someone else can live it now. But the music, vinyl played very loud through earphones, is still cherished! I reach back to duplicate that experience in CD’s any day.
We called them “Elephant Pants” as well, and up in Vancouver they were the most ridiculous style ever, given our copious rain. They’d happily wick up every drop that hit the ground and share it with every square inch of those miles of fabric. They weighed so much, soaked to the knee, that I marvel I ever managed to lift my feet!
Have you read Keef’s take on the 70s yet? His Life is really quite good.
Gosh I admit really like this style. I love wide-legged pants, and tall shoes (platforms mean that I can wear shoes taller than 2.5″!) I never go with the whole slim line from top to bottom look, but rather often go with Triangles, either inverted or upright. The thing that ruins the triangle shape for me is the fact that I have an ample top half. So I’m like a triangle with speed bumps! LOL
I’m a traditionalist. Hejira was OK, Blue was her classic-best.
Tapestry was what I listened to so much I wore it out.
Yep, they were “elephant pants” here in RI, too. I don’t remember if I owned any — in my (preppy) circles, we were into painter’s pants and Izods.
Can we add The Ramones to your list?
I was always told that if you wore it the first time round, you are too old to wear it when it comes back, again.
I hated the 70’s then and it looks even uglier now.
I like the denim color of those espadrilles.
I was oblivious to fashion in the 70s—I was too busy living life and just being a sweet young thing. Somehow I muddled through.
I was a little kid in the 70s, but I still had pants very similar to those …
Love those Prada wedges.
Might go and listen to Perfect day now x
I might do the wide legged pants, but I’m not so sure about the cuffs.
Meh. The 70’s. I do not want to re-live middle and high school through fashion (I spent college in hippie/Annie Hall attire). It is, however, slightly better than 80’s fashion, which to me was just horrible in every way.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I too wore the elephant pants and I’m sure I have photos somewhere! And the music!!!
Really, are elephant pants any less flattering than low rise skinny jeans? For a hippy,long waisted teen on the shorter side, they, and platforms, were a long-awaited boon from the fashion world….they made your legs go on forever and camouflaged the width. After the horizontally striped go-go dresses and mid-calf boots of my high school ,I was ecstatic…to me it harked back to Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich in their man-tailored trousers.
Elephant style or no, I won’t wear cuffs. Or platform shoes.
Oh, god. Elephant leg pants. Yikes.
I saw some of those cork wedgies in Nordys the other day.
Now if you’re going to bring back the ’70s, I’d like to see a re-issue of the Jaques Cohen espadrilles – anyone remember them? Very Upper East Side!
I remember standing in the wind one day in the early 70’s and having my boy friend laugh hysterically. Thee wind was blowing them across my feet, so I looked footless. It was funny. It’s possible I might not have worn them again after that.