While reflecting on the 1970’s male fashion trends, I felt a lot like Pam Ewing on “Dallas” after she woke up to find that Bobby’s death was just “a dream, a horrible dream.” Some things, such as 1970’s men’s fashions, are best dismissed as a bad memory:
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.1: Helmet Hair
As the 1960’s gave way to the 1970’s, the Vietnam War divided people into two groups, Hawks (Pro-War) and Doves (those favoring peace). Hawks tended to wear their hair cropped rather close and conservative while the Doves let all their hair grow wild and free. At this time, it wasn’t unusual for adults to ask young males the question “Are you a boy or a girl?
Depending on what our mothers would let us get away with, those of us who came of age in the 1970’s went to either an old-school barber who favored 1950’s-era crew cuts or, as the decade progressed, a modern hair stylist. In 1976, for the first time in my young life, I actually used something akin to hairspray on my head. My hair was so slick and stiff that the other students at my parochial school reminded me every day that “The Wet Look is out.
Though most considered me to be the prototypical nerd, my high school creative writing teacher said that my hair style would have been considered too long and radical in the 1960’s. I guess I was a rebel at the time and didn’t know it.
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.2: The Pocket Protector
At the age of 12, I fell in love with that glorious piece of plastic known as the pocket protector; over time, it has earned the more popular nickname of “The Nerd Pack.” For the next 6 years, I carried that little pack in my shirt pocket, crammed full of more pens and pencils that an entire classroom would need in a month’s time. From my point-of-view, I looked cool but I got over that by the time I made it to college in 1981; my social life picked up about the same time as well.
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.3: Disco Gear
John Travolta is a talented actor, but thanks to “Saturday Night Fever,” he had most of us convinced that wearing a white polyester suit with a black shirt was the epitome of cool, kind of like the precursor to the “Miami Vice” look of the 1980’s. Disco mania took hold in 1977 and held us in its thrall until about 1979, when common sense started to prevail once again, but for two years, we all wanted to be John Travolta.
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.4: Vietnam Chic
A very short-lived trend of the mid-1970’s, the Prisoner-of-War (POW) bracelet contained the name of an American solider who was either missing-in-action (MIA) or being held captive in Vietnam. Upon their safe return, we would put a star on the end of the bracelet.
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.5: Wild Ties
NASA Engineers preferred white short-sleeved shirts and thin black ties, but the rest of us embraced neck-wear that looked as if it was designed by someone who had forgotten their medication. When I turned 16, I took an after-school job at a library that required me to wear shirts and ties. My typical designer noose looked as if it had been cut from the same material that covered the sofa in our living room.
1970’s Fashion Statements for Men No.6: Cool Watches
Replacing the tradition watches of a previous era, timepieces with red light-emitting diodes (LED) and liquid crystal displays became the in-thing, especially for young men. Later models could play music and contained a built in calculator.
