Admit it; You did it; Changing clothes in school and 70's fashions

Those of us that grew up in the 1960s and 1970s remember there were just certain things your mother (and for my character Kassandra Dubois from "Because You're the First" her father) just didn't think was appropriate to wear to school, or for that matter, to wear at all.

In the story, Kassandra's mother buys her a granny dress, with giant bell sleeves in a Empire cut.  In 1972, this was the height of fashion.  The mini-skirt had been around for a while, and the fashion world was ready to give us a change.  Truly, parents should have been pleased about the advent of the longer skirts, since the micro mini had been the style since the late sixties, and it was customary to roll up those skirts with elaster bands waists and make them as short as possible, leaving very little to the imagination.   This was done as soon as you left the house on your way to school.  Then the skirts were rolled back down in time to go home.   Very ingenious, we all thought.  As if we were fooling somebody, right?

The miniskirt of the 1970s

  So what we called the "granny" dress or "maxi" dress should have solved the problem of overexposure.  Except for one thing.  The people that had made this style so popular were the "flower children" or "hippies" as they were called, which gave the garment an immediate undesirability to many parents, including Kassandra's father in the story.  He says he sees the long flowing dresses on the girls from the notorious hippie gang and followers of the mastermind of seven murders in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, Charles Manson.  In many homes in those days, hippies were considered a major threat to the "silent majority" (a term President Nixon coined), that is, the good, clean, God-fearing American, like Kassandra's father. 

 

Kassandra says this is ridiculous in the novel; that the Manson girls never wore this style.  Of course, you only saw them in their prison garb anyway.  But the granny dress did have the hippie taint, Manson girl or not. 

 

 

 

 

The granny or maxi Kassandra wore looked something like this one; loose fitting; bell sleeves, empire line.  I'm sure you can probably still find them in vintage fashion shops.  What was once considered counterculture and subversive as far as fashion went 40 years ago, is now considered mainstream, and as we all know, even conservative in a time that has survived everything risque from Madonna's pointy bras in the eighties to Lady Gaga' dress made out of beef. 

 

Of course not all clothes were miniskirts and granny dresses.  Colorful paintsuits and jumpsuits also were becoming popular.  In those days, many middle class suburban teenagers would check out the Sears catalog for some of the latest fashions.

 



 



 

 

Here is a Sears advertisement from a circular in 1972.  As you can see, bright colors and plaids were also part of the look of the time.   Although I don't know who dresses in these types of clothes to go to the beach!!

 

What I do remember is being young and wanting to express myself, to find my own style, like so many people back then, and today. That is what great fashion allows you to do; to find a place where you can be yourself.  Styles change, but being young does not.   It's a time of exploration, a time to rebel, and a time to see how far you can fly.  Of course we all found some bumps along the way, just like Kassandra and her friends do in "Because You're the First."  But we find our way somehow.  You can see how they do it by reading the book!!!

 

 



 

Available for download on Kindle!! Happy Reading!!!