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Monday, March 26, 2012

The Notorious 70s

I have stalled a bit on the pants project, because:
a) one of my dogs was sick for a few days (he’s okay now!)
b) my glasses broke (ordering a new pair today, hopefully)
c) the new season of Mad Men started (Zou Bisou Bisou!)

But let's continue with our theme of bifurcated garments, even though I have no new trousers to display, by enjoying some treasures from the pattern collection.

Having sorted through the 40s, 50s and 60s, it's time to dig into the patterns of the 1970s. What springs to mind if you think of 1970s fashion? Probably many things, but polyester is bound to be among them. The most notorious fashion of the time is the polyester pant suit, sometimes referred to scathingly as the "leisure suit."

But the pant suit reached both high and low points during the 70s. Some designer coordinates from that decade are still beautiful (IMO), while other outfits truly deserve our disdain except perhaps as Halloween costumes.

Here is a fitted, belted style which I think looks great:

Apparently the nautical look was popular:
It seems that you could turn any dress or jumper style into a pant suit - just chop it off and add matching pants:
And these? I don’t think you could pull it off today.
I hope to get back to my pants fitting project later this week. Will I reach my goal of four styles by the end of the month? Oh, the suspense!


On another topic, I would like to say Happy Birthday to a very important person. Tomorrow is his 49th birthday! Sending wishes for lots of cake and happy days, Bro.

Katrina

3 comments:

  1. Happy birthday to your brother!

    I agree; the first group of patterns is great! I would wear any of those pieces today. In fact, I have a similar pattern in my stash, paired with fabric and ready to go when the mood hits. I'm sure that I will get tired of 1950's and 60's dresses at some point!

    When I think of the 1970's, my first thought is Diane von Furstenburg wrap dresses; my favorite single piece of clothing ever. I didn't wear them in the when they first became popular of course, but as soon as I discovered them I was hooked, and have amassed quite acollection. Of the things I actually wore in the 70's, what stands out best is Candie's. I learned how to walk in high heels in a pair of those, and love them to this day!

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  2. Great selection of patterns - a lot of those 70's styles look fashionable today if you ignore the illustrations (those hair styles!).

    Good luck with the trouser/pants challenge! I have mixed feelings about setting myself targets - good motivation though as long as I don't beat myself up for falling short.

    You've done great with the muslins you've made already. Well done.

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  3. Thank you Sis, and thank you @Anita.

    I fudged on the lemon chiffon cake, adding orange juice and orange zest to a box mix. The cake itself didn't turn out very well. I forgot to add the eggs after A. started mixing the ingredients, and had to pour the batter back into the mixing bowl from the pans. I think the light flouring from the pans killed it (A. said it tasted like baking powder).

    The cake was also a little flat, and shrank quite a bit upon cooling. I'm not sure if it's just because I made three layers from a mix designed for two layers, or if the acidity of the orange juice also affected the rise in some way. It did eliminate the need to trim the layers, though!

    I personally thought the lemon frosting (also with added orange zest) was very tasty, and for me, the cake is largely a vehicle for delivering the frosting anyway!

    I also came to the conclusion that it's better to zest then juice, rather than juice then zest.

    All good information for my 50th, next year.

    A., K., and I had fun baking together, among other things, so I had a very happy day!

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