On browsing through today’s Wall Street Journal, something in the design section caught my eye: an article detailing and explaining the return of the 70’s color palette in contemporary home decor. It explains how the 70’s color palette is being used to update contemporary styles and giving the 70’s a breath of fresh air by selectively using certain design elements from the era. The article is linked here: Harvest Gold, Again? Why ‘Ugly’ 1970s Colors Are Back—and Chicer Than Before – WSJ
So I thought what better time to post this piece that I had written a few months back on this exact topic but never published.
I’ve noticed recently that the 70’s seem to be back in terms of fashion. Not the 70’s of your parents, though. More likely the 70’s of your parents’ rich friends, if they had any. Maybe they can be called the “architect” 70’s, or as I like to say, the “highbrow” 70’s. Think wide leg pants, slim tailored clothing, short-hemmed shirts, wide collars, velvet couches, conversation pits, warm wood tones (real wood this time, though) and creative uses of concrete. In terms of home design, maybe the kinds of houses that would have been built as case study homes if the series persisted beyond the 60’s.
The 70’s have already been “in” before. The early 2000’s saw the 70’s return in the form of the jean jacket, trucker hat, vans/converse shoes, film cameras and vinyl LPs. At the time, we identified people who abided by these styles with the broad moniker of “hipster”. You might call these the “lowbrow” 70’s. You might think of indie rock band (and personal favorite of mine) The Strokes as the poster children of the style.
And yet, fashion changes. Many of those aspects of the 70’s now seem thoroughly “out”, although some have become so thoroughly mainstream as to now be non-noteworthy or fashionable (for instance, so many young people now have record players and film cameras that they’re hardly a mark of being on the vanguard of fashion and trends).
Anybody who pays attention to clothing, home design, and other design trends will know that trends change quickly. After a decade goes by, things start to appear dated, especially if they were done cheaply. That kitchen renovation from 2008 starts to painfully bear the hallmarks of 2008 (don’t get me started on fake wood laminate floors either). That cheap Zumiez hoodie from 2010 or those skinny jeans you used to rock might as well be relics from when steam engines rolled the earth, as far as the world of the fashionable is concerned.
But it’s silly to say things like that, and I always laugh when I hear people talk about things that are “out”, because often, trends that died come back to life in different forms. The obvious example of this right now is 90’s fashion – baggy pants, platform sneakers, big hoodies, and other elements of the 90’s have come back in a big way, as a younger generation born to parents who were coming of age in the 90’s begins to adopt elements of their parents’ style. Gen Z are, after all, the children of Gen X.
Unfortunately, for any Gen Z kids who may have lost their way on the internet and stumbled upon this blog, I’m largely out on the 90’s. I still associate it with my childhood, and not necessarily in a good way. I’m much more interested in the re-emergence of the highbrow 70’s.
It’s fascinating to see this trend emerge. I initially liked the 70’s when I got into classic rock in high school, but when I got to college and beyond, my love for the 70’s reversed course and I became more interested in the early 20th century than the later. I learned more about early 20th century urban design, art deco architecture, jazz, and mid century styles of fashion, architecture and design. Most of my fashion inspiration still comes from the simplicity of early and mid 20th century clothing.
Bear with me as I go on a brief detour, I promise I will get back to the point of the piece quickly, but it’s important to set some background.
The 70’s felt like a sepia-toned era when so many of the great promises of American society collapsed. Domestically, they were a stagflationary decade with high oil prices, and the beginning of the end of the American manufacturing economy. They were largely the beginning of the current regime of offshoring manufacturing which left fewer and fewer jobs for people at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, only really benefiting those at the top. Globally, they were the beginning of conflicts in the Middle East over Israel, OPEC which formed as a result of said conflicts, the opening up of the Chinese economy to world trade and the gradual weakening and collapse of the Soviet Union.
Many of those domestic and global changes made it cheaper to manufacture clothing and building materials because of outsourced supply chains. This was largely the beginning of the current world order of America being the world’s economic driver, which basically works as follows:
- We (America) will give you (developing country) dollars with which you can buy oil if:
- You allow our corporations to set up factories in your country where we can take advantage of your cheap labor;
- The products of which you can then sell back to us at much higher prices, thus giving you more dollars with which to trade globally and buy oil which will fuel your continued economic growth.
And that’s roughly been how things have worked since the 70’s.Ok, now back to fashion and design.
It shows in the quality of clothing, building materials and other things that we’ve outsourced labor and substituted so many materials with synthetics. While some of those things are very beneficial and have made life more efficient, some of them have had very negative impacts.
For instance, the switch from natural fibers to synthetic fibers, while good for clothing companies’ profits and for consumers who want to buy more clothes cheaply, has been disastrous for the environment and for the quality of clothing itself. Synthetic fibers don’t hold up and age the way natural fibers do. Although all garments aren’t made the same, pants and outerwear that are well-constructed and made with quality materials can legitimately last a lifetime. On the other hand, that 100% polyester jacket you got from H&M may look good now, but will start falling apart in a few years.
Which is part of the reason why I like the decades before the 70’s more. If you’re going to shop vintage (which all the cool kids are apparently doing these days), it makes more sense to buy things from the 60’s or earlier, because the materials are made to withstand the test of time. Outerwear in particular is usually made with cotton canvas, or 100% wool, and the fabrics have much more structure to them as they were milled and stitched differently. The focus was on making a quality piece of clothing, because most people didn’t buy much clothing and needed the few items they had to last a long time.
The 70’s were something of a dividing line. I have a very nice 100% wool 70’s reproduction of a 40’s naval CPO shirt that might be my favorite piece in my wardrobe. It cost $45, but it has structure to it that I can’t find in newer clothing (unless I spend a small fortune) and fits wonderfully. At the same time, the 70’s were also chock full of cheap graphic tees, jeans that ripped easily, and the beginnings of synthetic fibers that changed style irrevocably.
The quality of clothing drops off a cliff in the 80’s. Most things are made with synthetic fibers, they fall apart upon heavy use, and are not meant to be worn a lifetime. Double that for clothing made in the last 20 years (from any major brand–it should go without saying that there have been quality clothing companies out there who continue to make nice clothing that can last a lifetime, but we’re talking broad trends here). A lot of the same largely goes for furniture and home goods.
The elements of 70’s design that are coming back in now, as the WSJ article does a good job explaining, are being blended with more contemporary designs to create something entirely new. Warm earth tones are being used frequently, conversation pits in old homes are being restored and elevated with furnishings from different eras and many a kitchen and bathroom are being designed with a mixture of natural materials, like wood and concrete, accenting a 70’s color palette to create an earthy and warm vibe.
At the moment, it’s about using certain elements of the 70’s in an updated way. Remember that Naval CPO shirt I was just talking about a minute ago? While I love the 40’s look of the piece, I hemmed it to fit a bit shorter so that I could wear it untucked, a much more casual (and 70’s) styling than the uptight 40’s (or the U.S. Navy, for that matter) would have allowed. And that’s really what’s great about the 70’s to me: traditional yet casual. A transition from the formal past into the casual (perhaps too casual for my liking) future.
All of this is to say that it’s interesting to see the highbrow 70’s re-emerge. Although many of the fashionable trends of the 70’s wore off quickly and still don’t look good, quality is quality regardless of time. A nicely done 70’s bathroom can actually exhibit a fairly timeless quality, as can a well-made 70’s jacket or pair of pants. It doesn’t all have to go the way of floral prints and Led Zeppelin LP’s, though Led Zeppelin will always have a place in my heart.