Fashion in the '70s

Book excerpt: Whereas the 1970s opened with a fashion hangover from the 1960s, with looks such as mini skirts, bell-bottom trousers and the hippie look still enduring, the decade soon took on its own sartorial identity. The most prominent trends were the peasant look, glam (influenced by glam rock) and disco, popularised by the 1977 film 'Saturday Night Fever'. Many other individual fashion items went mainstream, none more so than platform shoes, flared trousers and the wrap dress. All of these styles and more are included in 1970s 'Fashion: the definitive sourcebook'. The historicism that had started in fashion in the 1960s continued in the Seventies with Art Nouveau and Art Deco-inspired styles championed by Biba, but the Laura Ashley pastoral style was also popular. Finally, the emergence of punk fashion towards the closing years of the decade paved the way for a new aesthetic that rejected traditional gender, beauty and fashion roles and paved the way for alternative fashions since.