Girl From Texas: July 2021

My senior year of high school. Rust colored w tan polka dots silk shirt; I chose this shirt bc it was the only clean one I had that day. August, 100F, the fabric stuck to my skin like wet saran wrap. This hairstyle was known as “The Farrah”, after this pop culture phenomenon: tv series “Charlie’s Angels”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie%27s_Angels

Every young girl in America had this hairstyle…..and every young man in America had this poster :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett_red_swimsuit_poster

My students used to ask me, “Were you at Woodstock? Were you a hippy?” To which I answered, “I was only 9 years old during Woodstock.” My generation is not full on original Baby Boomer, but “Generation Jones”, and we are more like “Gen X”ers than Baby Boomers. The late 1970’s for me and my friends were influenced by trailing / fading hippie looks (long straight hair, more groomed beards, bell bottom pants) as well as the new disco trend, “Charlie’s Angels”, Cosmopolitan magazine, “Annie Hall”, Studio 54, Madonna, “Staying Alive”, then later “Urban Cowboy” (everyone I knew bought boots and learned how to two-step, which lasted about 15 minutes), then New Wave and Punk. We were still very conservative in Dallas, and that means preppy; The Official Preppy Handbook was our Bible. But that look was mostly for day time…..at night, heading out to the disco ruled our lives. The drinking age was 18 and there was no disease you could get that couldn’t be cured by antibiotics. You can see all of these elements mingling together in actual clothing my friends and I wore to actual school events. Dresses still ruled the day. Tight “Disco Jeans” on weekends.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Official_Preppy_Handbook

High school styles Dallas Tx 1976-1979

Pink satin palazzo pants

“Bell bottoms”, so called because they flared out below the knee

Grunge

Offset bc an anomaly : This was one of those Old Timey photography studios, which were popular during the era. You dressed up in costumes and posed……here, my girlfriends and I, as Old West “madams”. Other popular choices were cowboys, steampunk, pirates, Victorians, 1920’s gangsters, etc.

More bell bottom jeans

The short haircut my girlfriend is wearing in this photo was called “The Dorothy Hamill”

https://www.liveabout.com/dorothy-hamills-famous-wedge-haircut-1282727

One of my friends in a better, more typical, swimsuit of the era

Cashmere sweaters

Real people, real fashion. /\ Preppyish clothes with 1970’s hippie facial hair

Assorted high school proms and formal dances, \/ with assorted boyfriends:

This blue dress is the last dress my mother ever made for me, and yes we fought about it. You can see it looks like something from the 1940’s, with that sweetheart neckline. Blue shantung silk. Mom was clearly reliving her youth here….

1940’s dresses with sweetheart necklines……

But wait - this is the late 1970’s!

……And here’s what everyone else was wearing in the era! Once I turned 16 and could get a job, earn my own money, save up, and buy my own clothes, I did. Freedom!

Below, I was chosen, as part of a “Mr and Miss Most Handsome” whatever, to model prom wear for a local newspaper :

And me in a real, actual 1979 “disco style” prom dress:

Quiana, the miracle fabric! Never showed wrinkles no matter how you messed it up! 😏 This was called a “disco dress”, 100% polyester hot as hell, could be worn fitted or loose, with the neck halter changeable into various configurations. I had one in red and one in black.

Senior prom May 1979 - notable for the vintage thrift store dresses my girlfriend and I decided to wear (in contrast to everyone else going sexy at the event). We were rather modest…..but only bc I was sporting some rather disgusting and prominent vaccination buboes on my arm, for a “Grande Tour” trip I was about to undertake. The dresses give this photo a rather dreamy, timeless look.

Plus ca change……At a discotheque in Athens, Greece July 1979 . I am wearing an elasticized “tube shirt” as a mini skirt, holding my date on a leash…..a punk look

Transition to college years 1979-1983

People I knew, places I went, things I did

“Great Gatsby” 1920’s themed ball. I made my dress by hand out of gold shot purple silk and hand beaded the neckline, hair fillet, and the shoes. Who says I can’t sew?

The “Annie Hall “ look

https://medium.com/outtake/the-influential-style-of-annie-hall-bb0946702bca

Believe it or not, an “every day” campus look

One of my many Laura Ashley dresses…..wore them whenever I got hot

Proof: No acid washed pleated “mom jeans”…..just Calvin Kleins. Popular because of this ad, the caption of which was, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvin Kleins.” Brooke Shields, from the movies, was the “It Girl” of the moment.

Lots of preppy

And some punk too

Hippie look still going strong…..Gunne Sax peasant dress on my roommate

https://www.vogue.com/article/vintage-trends-gunne-sax-dress

More “Dorothy Hamill” haircuts

No acid washed pleated “mom jeans” here, either

College days meant less time to do one’s hair (because more partying - er I mean studying) so spending hours every day to blow it out, roll it, curl it, spray it, control it went right out the window. Natural hair (which in my case is curly), bed hair, frizzy hair, ponytails and buns were common.

My best swimsuit, ever…..purchased on the French Riviera

This is how real people really looked in the late 1970’s early 1980’s at Rice University in Houston, Tx. It was hot and humid year round, and mold grew on your leather shoes on rainy days that turned into weeks. First thing we were told as freshmen was to buy an umbrella and rain boots. My friends were nerdy smart left leaning hippie types; Rice was a geeky nerd school like MIT or Cal Tech…..Think “Big Bang Theory”…..other campuses in the former Southwest Conference each had their own styles:

UT Austin - still had the last true remaining hippies on the planet but inventor of “preppy cowboy” look

SMU was wealthy and preppy

TEXAS A&M was “country” aka cowboy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Conference

Classic UT Austen preppy cowgirl/ boy looks

But back at Rice……People weren’t as cute.

More photos \/ of proms, dinner dances, cocktail parties and balls, with assorted boyfriends of the era:

This red dress is the twin of the black one, further up /\ Made of “quiana” the magic fabric……sort of a loose flowing spandex, never wrinkled, always fell back into place……don’t get me wrong, it was 100% polyester and sweaty as hell, but it looked good. Silk padded kimono thrown over it.

Another vintage thrifted ball gown, this one pale pink organza silk, with a silk taffeta lining.

Hot pink or fushia shantung silk

Black velvet

We didn’t know it at the time, but fashion was morphing in the early 1980’s. It was the era of Ronald Reagan, “Dress for Success”, Laura Ashley, Ralph Lauren. Wealthy, expensive, fantasy looks. As I approached adulthood, punk faded into preppy professional styles. People started getting married; weddings became a key recurring social event.