Fashion in the 1970s was about individuality. In the early 1970s, Vogue proclaimed "There are no rules in the fashion game now"[1] due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing. Common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularized by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colors, glitter, and satin.[2]
New technologies brought about advances such as mass production, higher efficiency, generating higher standards and uniformity. Generally the most famous silhouette of the mid and late 1970s for both genders was that of tight on top and loose on bottom. The 1970s also saw the birth of the indifferent, anti-conformist casual chic approach to fashion, which consisted of sweaters, T-shirts, jeans and sneakers.[3] One notable fashion designer to emerge into the spotlight during this time was Diane von Fürstenberg, who popularized, among other things, the jersey "wrap dress".[4][5] von Fürstenberg's wrap dress design, essentially a robe, was among the most popular fashion styles of the 1970s, would also be credited as a symbol of women's liberation.[6][7] The French designer Yves Saint Laurent[8][9] and the American designer Halston both observed and embraced the changes that were happening in the society,[10] especially the huge growth of women's rights[11][12] and the youth counterculture. They successfully adapted their design aesthetics to accommodate the changes that the market was aiming for.
Top fashion models in the 1970s were Lauren Hutton, Margaux Hemingway, Beverly Johnson, Gia Carangi, Janice Dickinson, Patti Hansen, Cheryl Tiegs, Jerry Hall, and Iman.
[J]eans have invaded ballet, theater and gallery openings with such assertion that everyone else feels overdressed.
In the late 1960's, [Saint Laurent] watched the student riots in Paris and came up with the pants suit, which everyone is still wearing.
During the student upheavals in Paris in May [1968], [Saint Laurent] saw the girls and boys behind the barricades dressed...in pants...'They looked beautiful...,' he said...'Fashion is not only couture....Events are more important.'...[In] his last Paris couture collection, shown in July,...[p]ants outfits overshadowed more conventional attire.
In the nineteen‐seventies sportswear came back to fashion, sweeping traditional categories of apparel like dresses, suits and coats out of women's wardrobes. Blame the social revolution, labor costs or the economy...
In 1970, the women's movement began to take dress down an increasingly informal path. T-shirts, blue jeans, cutoffs, hiking boots, hair flowing freely...Women disposed of bras and freed their breasts under T-shirts or blue work shirts....Relaxed informality settled into the mainstream. In the '70s, political statements moved from buttons to...T-shirts.
Keeping up with fashion is being put down by busy, productive women who claim (a) they have no time for it, (b) it's a frivolous occupation, and (c) fashion is a conspiracy on the part of designers to persuade feather-headed women to keep pouring out money for clothes they do not really need but are made to feel they want.