With all the ballyhoo about the Met Gala, I am pulling out a draft post going back a year. It has been waiting for the right moment to present itself to me.
This year's theme was Camp, which is a great motif to play on. The concept of camp can lend itself from anything to drag to disco. Retro somehow always finds a way into campiness as well. And this fashion revisit is an entire on-line collection devoted to patterns of yesteryear. I am centering in particular on the year 1975. It sits reflecting on the flower power era which was still in bloom, as well as teetering on the brink of the discotheque craze that was about to take rage. Those fashions had so much to draw on in terms of color, pattern and even gender options.Growing up in Erie, it was not quite the epicenter of fashion. But I got glimpses of it from the Sonny & Cher show or certainly the Osmonds. I dared to wear a fringe vest to school with a choker chain around my neck. That was BOLD! I loved my denim elephant bells and saddle shoes. I could get natty with an argyle vest. And a favorite was a pair of banana yellow bell bottoms. I have no idea where this sense came from????
My mom was handy with a sewing machine and could easily churn something out. Usually for the girls, but I remember a few spunky blazers and even a billowy Victorian shirt at some point that I loved. Check out some of these pages if you have time. This resource is not the actual patterns themselves, but just a catalogue of the pattern envelopes. However if you look for the comments under each listing, you can see there are still a handful of collectors out there who will trade.
Vintage Patterns : 1975
