I've been noticing the neo hippie look amongst my daughter's crowd looks a lot like the stuff we wore, but, it's all pre fabricated and predicted in advance then the collection is ordered in factories in India. (I learned this in India with a fashion expert who was there for a collection and we met her in the hotel).

I think the hippie looks we made for ourselves were assembled from bits and snippets of fabric we had and lots of people still sewed in those days.

Embarrassing things, let's see, well, the go go boots were something I was working for by ironing for my mother the slave driver, and I guess she never came through, then when I was about eighteen, on my birthday, she told me she felt bad about the go go boots, but did I want some boots now? I said damn right, and she bought me some gorgeous black boots. I loved them dearly.
I think the go go boots thing was because of the Saturday Teenybopper stuff on TV.

Mom made me a nehru jacket then never finished it and it's in the sewing cupboard still and we brandish it yearly to show her about not finishing a project.
The grandchildren could wear it.

I had a 'sizzler' dress that was a shiny fabric with matching panties. It was flared and so when you danced in it, you weren't revealing absolutely everything.

Oh, the ultimate thing was when we couldn't wear anything but dresses to school (this was the last year of that dress code in the early seventies) and so, we'd try to get the privilege of wearing tights or stockings instead of baby knee socks.
Panty hose weren't yet common for kids, so, we wore 'petit pants' to hold up stockings and somehow I found some purple fishnets...oh man were those funny.
Of course, I was skinny then, and didn't look like a roastbeef!


Halter tops were another thing that most of us wore and we made some of them out of big handkerchiefs. I had a wardrobe malfunction once with one of these homemade halter tops, and boy was that embarrassing.
It wasn't with a guy around thank God.

I see some of these trends in the stores for my kid, but I think it's really just knock offs of the sixties and seventies.

The most hideous things were the synthetic prints with colors that insulted nature. Mom would buy some of the weirdest fabrics.

I always wanted gogo boots but never could have them. But does anyone remember those fake boot-top things? They had a sock foot and then a knee-high portion that was that wrinkly shiny vinyl stuff, so that if you wore them with a matching pair of shoes it looked like you had boots on. If you didn't look too closely, that is.
I had black, white and red ones. That must have been around '68 or '69.

"But does anyone remember those fake boot-top things? They had a sock foot and then a knee-high portion that was that wrinkly shiny vinyl stuff, so that if you wore them with a matching pair of shoes it looked like you had boots on. If you didn't look too closely, that is."


Yes, I had a black pair of those fake boot/socks.

And I had a pair of beige go-go boots that I wore to death. I still have my chocolate brown pair with the stiletto heels.

Hot pants came out when I was in high school and I was a BIG fan. I had a pair of black hot pants that I practically lived in. I often wore them with a hot pink sleeveless top. The hot pink top actually belonged to a trouser suit - I had a matching pair of culotte pants with really wide legs.

I also had a pair of hot pants that were a turquoise and lime green floral print with a matching plain turquoise midi skirt with buttons up the front. (You wore the two together but left the skirt unbuttoned so you could see the hot pants). Sounds awful in retrospect, but actually it was quite nice. And, of course, in those days I had the legs and the figure to get away with anything! Sigh!

I remember thinking life was so unfair when my mother refused to buy me witches' britches.

I remember my favourite purple and pink tie-dyed t-shirt teamed with hipster jeans and my kickers. Kickers were the "in thing" (a type of desert boot). Does anyone remember the TV ad? I still remember the jingle - "What kind of kid wears Kickers? The same kind of kids who wears jeans. Small kids, tall kids, Kickers fit all kids.... Ooooh...gotta be seen in Kickers". I don't really think I liked the boots as much as the feeling of being cool.

In my uni days I was a big fan of cheesecloth tops teamed with batik skirts, patchwork jeans, denim skirts, and halter neck tops.

I think Maynooth still has his Levis Big Bells - he swears they will come back into fashion.

Did anyone here ever iron their hair.I tried it and had the iron on just a tad too hot.OOOOOOOOO what a smell. I had to go get it defrizzed and had to have four inches cut.I was devasted.

My friend and I went in and bought a bolt of really colorful print fabric and we picked out a patteren that had two different looks and we each picked the style we wanted and then she made us each the lovest Hot pants outfits you ever saw.

The only trouble was we never knew when the other one was going to wear her outfit so we often showed up at school the same day wearing our outfits.

I also had a LIME GREEN pair of the hugest bell Bottoms they had in the store and I never failed to trip at least once a week.

I let my dad use them as paint rags when I was done with them.

I also wanted a suede coat with the fringe on it and I finally got a job that paid me pretty good so I could afford to buy one.Turned out it wasn't so trick or warm in 20 below or a snow storm.

I also had a houndstooth check suit I thought was so cool. I wore it twice and ended up giving it to the sally ann.

I see some of the fashions today and they seem offley familar.

Is it just me or do the fashion of the sixties and 70's seem to pop up when designers have no imagination?

They sure were excitng times and I remember them very fondly.
PF

I admit it, I wore hot pants too. But my legs weren't as plump then.

We also wore cut off jean shorts that were so short, that Daisy Duke would have blushed! I mean the pockets were sticking out.

I had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals that my grandmother wore for comfort and I wore to show I wasn't a fashion slave. They were wonderful leather sandals.

My hair is undefrizzable..I have the Janis or Carole King look. So I'd braid it wet and sleep on it, then unbraid it and have a massive head of hair just for fun.

We went through a tie dye fad at home and we were digging through everything to tie dye it. Dad's underwear...boom, tie dyed.

I was going to tell Minkpenny that 'pattes d'eff' is what you call bell bottoms in France too for the same reason.

Anyone have a Buffalo Bill jacket?

Bruyere that was what my suede jacket was with the fringe on it.

Isn't it funny but I bet most of us will know which Janis you mean and also know who Carole King is.

Anyone here remember Paisley. I had a lot of that and Madras Jackets and tops.And Corduroy pants and wide belts.

Oh and matching sweater sets in cashmere.

Penny Loafers? Tennis dresses even if you didn't play tennis?
PF

I remembering taking apart a pair of jeans and resewing them into a skirt.
My favourite top was a lime green terry top. My girlfriend's mother talked about it for years after it gave up the ghost; she hated it that much! Once when I was wearing it downtown, a man stopped at offered me a job topless modelling for what was then an incredible amount of money. I was only 14 at the time!
I also had this peasant skirt and blouse that my mother and I made. The blouse had a scoop neck and big, billowing sleeves. I felt really pretty in that outfit.

"We also wore cut off jean shorts that were so short, that Daisy Duke would have blushed! I mean the pockets were sticking out".

Gee, Heather, I can't get over how much we are alike. I actually wrote about my cut-offs in my original post and then deleted that bit. I was too embarrassed to admit that my cut-offs were so short that half my backside was hanging out. Makes me blush even now to think of them. I used to wear them with a short little top that tied in front, accentuating that teenage cleavage and exposing the entire midriff. That top had double bell sleeves which were so cool. My mother wouldn't buy me one, so I use my friend's top as a pattern and made my own. Of course, I had a bit more up top than she did, which is why hers wasn't so revealing. I nearly caused Sr Juliana to have a heart attack when she saw me wearing it down town one weekend.

I'd have a fit if my daughter wore what I wore when I was a teenager. Yet I couldn't see anything wrong with it at the time. No wonder my mother went grey so early.

All I can say is; I am glad that there is so little photographic evidence of what I wore back in those days. (Buying film and having photos developed was quite expensive, so people tended to only take photos on special occasions). However, there are a few pictures in existence which my daughter uses as ammunition. We went shopping for clothes last weekend and when I suggested one of the tops she was trying on was too revealing, I was reminded that she had seen what I used to wear.

Re your comment: "I've been noticing the neo hippie look amongst my daughter's crowd looks a lot like the stuff we wore". I've noticed the same. My daughter loves that stuff. I've learned to refrain from telling her that we wore much the same unless I deliberately want to put her off buying a particular item.

Dr Scholl's wooden sandals were the height of fashion when I was in high school. I had a red pair. They gave me blisters and it hurt like hell every time my foot slipped in them and I fell off the edge.

I'm still nursing a wound on my heel from running across a field in the middle of the night and hitting that edge on the clog style shoe. Ouch.

My own daughter took a long broomstraw skirt with a patchwork material that I'd bought in nostaglia, and wore it as a dress! I couldn't get over her flair.

My daughter thinks I was a band nerd of course and never did anything.

As to the teenage cleavage, it seemed like overnight, we were clamouring to have bras then oops, by the time we had anything remotely in need of support, we cast them off!

Oh one really funny outfit, a bathing suit with heart shaped cut outs that gave you a tattoo on your behind and your...well chest.

It's funny when my kids look through photos of me in high school -wearing a halter top or on roller skates. They think I've always been just plain old mom, with not much going on.
There's no real way to explain to them that they didn't invent making out, cutting class or having a first boyfriend.

And, to add - there's no pain like having to run across campus and your foot landing crossways on one of those Dr. Scholl's wooden sandals. At first there's no sensation but you know the pain is coming....oh, man -there is is and it almost doubles you over and the world goes black for a second, till you get your breath back.
So much for making it to class on time.

"Dr Scholl's wooden sandals"

I had forgotten those horrid things, I am glad I am not the only person to have found them uncomfortable.

Platform soled shoes.

Yeah, I had a pair of white suede ankle strap platforms. I got more compliments on those than any other shoes I've had. [ though by the end of the day they my feet ached so it hardly seemed worth it. Nowadays you couldn't pay me to wear something that blasted uncomfortable.]

"It's funny when my kids look through photos of me in high school -wearing a halter top or on roller skates. They think I've always been just plain old mom, with not much going on."


I'll never forget the look of astonishment on my daughter's face when she found some of my old modelling photos in a drawer. Imagine daggy old Mum being a model! It wasn't a big deal to me and, although it was no secret, it was something that had never been mentioned before. She just couldn't believe it. I think my daughter really believes I was never a kid myself.

I found platform shoes to be more comfortable than regular heels. At least your entire foot was elevated in a platform, and got to stay in relatively flat position. Shoes where your heel is elevated three inches more than the ball of your foot are absolute killers, as far as I'm concerned!
I too had Dr. Scholls sandals. I remember after I went on a 26 mile Miles for Millions walk, my arches fell giving me temporary flat feet. My father made me wear the Scholls sandals with arch support and walk around the house, because he thought that they would push the arches back up. Did that ever hurt!
Wow, this thread is really stirring up old memories that haven't seen daylight in a lot of years!

Anyone remember when "crimplene" was the hot fashion material? Everything was made from it! I had a pale blue suit made of it for my going away outfit.

Oh yes and what about crimplene pant suits? LOL

Also did the Dr Scholls but forgot about them till now.

I also had a mustard pair of corduroy jeans with a matching 'bunny' jacket.

I remember my aunt making us halter tops out of triangle shaped pieces of fabric.

Man what memories.

I don't recall ever wearing crimplene myself, but my husband did .When I first met him, he had the most appalling taste in clothes (well, it was not so much bad taste as an aversion to shopping). He wore (shudder)crimplene pants. To save himself the agony of having to enter a shop more than necessary, he had bought several pairs of them, in yuk yellow, babypoo green and bilious brown. They didn't fit very well, either - trying on would have meant more time in the shop! After we had been married a couple of years, the pocket in his favourite pair of these developed a hole. He asked me to mend it. I craftily reminded him that I Don't Sew, so he asked his mother to fix them. She did; she sewed the pockets right up! It worked, and the pants went to the big ragbag in the sky.

He is now obsessed with pleated jeans, you know, ordinary jeans but with a small single pleat from the front waistband. He has a couple of hoarded pairs which we found in the Melbourne Markets several years ago, but they are on their last legs. He enters every jeans shop with high hopes and leaves with them dashed. He can't understand about fashion; he still wants to wear them, can't see why anything had to change. It is annoying that you can get that style in other fabrics, such as gabardine (chinos?), but not ordinary denim ones. If anyone knows where we can get them in either Canberra or Sydney, I would be grateful!


Scottie

Well Scottie one good thing is your hubby is not hard to please. Tried any charity shops. Hee hee

I used to have this cute little outfit made out of Seersucker. It was shorts and a top. But it's one of the embarrassing incidents. I sat on a snow cone at the roller rink and looked like I'd wet my pants. Just the thing when you're trying to get a boy to skate with you.

Oh Sue, a beadspread, well at least it wouldn't have creased

Oh Blinkybill you are a hoot! Bet Sue did not have to iron it either - thats probably why she made it.