Fashion Pt III Back in the Day

Late 70's fashion veered away from the hippie look and splintered into the 1000 different fashion moments we know today. Above, me rockin' the "Annie Hall" look.

At JR prom, with my boyfriend, and an embarrassingly poor quality and unflattering home-made dress. But the one dozen yellow roses on my wrist made me feel like a queen ! And here you have the earliest example in my life of Iris Apfel's adage that "the more bling you have, the less they look at your flaws."

A growth spurt and lack of proper nutrition gave me the sort of slender good looks necessary to catch a beau - or two - in western society. Thank god. Above, brief stint as a model. Below: I am third from left and rockin' what was then called the "Charlie;s Angels" look. Check out those shoes - I am ready to spring up form that dreary College Bowl competition and head out for a night of "Saturday Night Fever" style disco dancing. And I did!

The look du jour for "formal" prom and dance dresses in the late 1970's was low cut spaghetti straps and a wrist corsage. Above: "typical" late '70's prom dress, made of that wonder fabric, quiana. It was a sort of soft, thick, flowing polyester knit fabric that never wrinkled. You could bunch this up, store it at the bottom of the laundry hamper with wet jeans and  dirty socks for weeks, and then pull it out and it would look just the same. Good thing....Where is my corsage, you ask? Well, it got lost.... somewhere.... during something I was doing, prior to the photo being taken. No need to mention that, forsooth.

By senior prom I flexed a little counter-culture muscle, in my own way. As I was getting ready to head out on a 10 week "Grand Tour" of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and I had just gotten a whole battery of vaccinations required by the World Health Organization to set foot on the continent of Africa. The smallpox vaccine, in particular, was oozing a a 3" crusty weal on my upper left arm that looked like a syphilitic chancre similar to that of the Cook's knee in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I had to cover it up with something. I opted for vintage - a lavender silk under-dress, with lavender flower silk chiffon over-dress. To spice it up and make it my own, I undid a few buttons. The original style had a high frilly neckline, granny-esque. Always workin' it..... my best gf followed suit, in peach eyelet.