A Pause for Softness in the Seventies



Betsey Clark

Who remembers Betsey Clark Hallmark cards? I loved them, the quiet simplicity.  Betsey Clark had her own style lifting us into the prairie look with her simple drawings.  It's important to note she was "kicked out" of many art classes before venturing our on her own.  Everyone else was gaga over Hollie Hobbie but I loved Betsey Clark.  The pastel little figurines neither really smiling or sad.  It was better than Hollie Hobbie who hardly ever showed her face due to her calico prairie bonnet.  It was the beginning of the Little House on the Prairie series on TV.  I read all the Laura Ingalls books in sequence during a tough year at school.  My worst yet.

Laura Ingalls could bring you back in time and with Garth Williams as her illustrator did justice to the quality and simplicity of her amazing journey about life on the prairie as cover wagons traversed across our country in the 1800s..  It was my personal soap opera in a book series.  Thank you Laura Ingalls for taking the time to write your story and let us share your thoughts, your feelings, and your way of life so many years later.  The series is like a movie so good you think about it the next day.




Hollie Hobbie

 

We loved this simple prairie look and long before Christian LaCroix added rough boots to lace we began this trend in the 70s.  Again, this was reinterpreted by our Stevie Nicks who added more edge to the style mixing for leather and strength to it as she pushed Fleetwood Mac to amazing heights with her song writing. Who didn't want to be Stevie Nicks? She did it all with originality, confidence, and style both in fashion and music and she made it OK for a women to have a name a man's name.  Her style pulled the prairie look into cyberspace as she adder leather with lace, feathers, draping sleeves, feathers a top hat perfectly placed.  She always knew the balance of pushing the envelope and knowing when to pull back. We wanted to be her or at least look like her. In a way, she was a trailblazer for Lady GaGa who also mixes original style with original music.

 

Stevie Nicks, the cool chick with an original voice and original song writing. 

Click on this photo to hear her song "Leather and Lace."

This was the beginning of the prairie invasion to go with the innocent Sweet Honesty perfume. Maybe wearing these softer pastel lace, satin trim, pearl buttons, and voile outfits we would be able to reveal our softer side. John Denver reinforced this country look with his cross over of country into pop music. We had never heard of "country" music before we heard "Sunshine on my Shoulders, Makes me Happy"which went to #1 in both the USA and Canada.  Yes it was played on all the major stations on the radio and it was OK to write a song about sunshine on your shoulders. His music was not country as we had known it, it was classy and a style all it's own. without the large ornate dress wear of singers on Hee Haw.  Hee Haw a popular show on Sunday nights next to Lawrence Welk.  It was funny and the singers were good on that show but always it was more funny than serious and it had nothing to do with this refined 70s prairie look.John Denver gave a classy take on country and he was a trailblazer merging the two music genres.

 

Click on this photo of John Denver to hear "Sunshine on my Shoulders" His #1 debut on both the USA and Canadian pop charts.  It was a song like no other we had ever heard and we loved it instantly.  Thank you John Denver for all of your original songs.

 

 

Let's not forget our trailblazer of folk music in not a hokey sense but a classy voice, guitar playing, all to add ease to our radio station.  James Taylor, who came into our lives in the 70s with his original sound carving his way into popular radio stations making folk music and singing stylish and popular.

 

 

James Taylor settled our souls with the voice of an angel. Click on this photo to hear "You've Got a Friend" his debut into #1 status. To this day people hear this song and intently listen as if he was singing to them directly.

 

 

James would not have his #1 hit "You've Got a Friend" without Carole King writing and composing it.  Her album Tapestry is the only one you need.  Every song is original.  "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Women" popular by Aretha Franklin was a Carole King original.  All songs on Tapestry were written by her with some help from Gerry Goffin.  James Taylor also makes a few appearances. The photo taken naturally, from a staff photographer without an entourage with all new clothes and professional lighting, overdone hair and make up.Who needs one when you are highly creative.   This photo like her voice allowed women to be strong contenders in the 70s classy hippy movement.  Look at the jeans with bare feet, the first hippychick album photo before we invented a moniker for a personal style she already had.

 

 

 

Carole King a trailblazer making our natural feel classy without having to over please anyone. Click on this photo to hear the entire  album "Tapestry" the longest #1 album ever written by a woman. Every song is classic perfection flavored by the era of the seventies.

 

 

 

 

 

Cat Stevens singer/songwriter also created an original sound with his folk songs.  He wrote about love, peace, children, growing up, relationships.  Who writes any such songs nowadays?

 

 

Tea for the Tillerman. Songs written and sung by Cat Stevens, album cover also designed by him showed that creativity when listened to keeps spilling from performing arts to visual arts.  Who else could draw the Tillerman created first in a song?  Click on this album cover to hear the entire album.

Joni Mitchell Singer/songwriter BBC concert 1970

 

Joni Mitchell singer/songwriter/artist here at the BBC concert 1970.  She sings all her own songs. plays three different instruments, flawlessly.  Here she is in all her wonder and talent, in a simple dress, no make-up, hair simply combed playing music that still leaves us in awe today. Click on this photo of her to listen to the entire BBC concert. 

Just like the Gunne Sax maxi dresses were not the kind we wore in the 60s.  This look was different than the hippie maxi skirts a reinterpretation of seventies, more quality more subdued, a definite look with styled hair and Frye boots. Here is a typical Frye boot ad.  We could only dream of owning a pair as they were pricey but to this day are the best boots for your money and they last for years.  When you had a chance to wear them you felt amazing and people could hear you walking confidently down the school hall by the sound of a solid heel owning the floor in front of it.  It was the sound of quality and confidence, you can never get this same gait of ease and confidence with these overly high heels.  The added bonus was they permitted a tomboy feel an approachability and quality that we meant business with this prairie look...even though we didn't have a horse. We did not yet add the hole in the jeans although a knee hole was perfectly acceptable.  That hole in the jeans was ripped with wear as opposed to putting holes in jeans intentionally.  BTW when wearing Frye boots in the 70s we ALWAYS tucked our jeans in the boot to show them off. Why Frye?   Why NOT Frye?

 

 

The entering of name brands into our interpretation of country or prairie. Gunne Sax would move in with beautiful voile and satin ribbon blouses, vests, quilted blazers, long dresses to settle us all down from the bright contrasting colors of typical 70s wear.  I loved this time, this whole look.  Gunne Sax led the way with 70s inspired prairie wear, still popular today in vintage shops.  The sleeves have 10 buttons on the cuff bringing in a billowing sleeve. To bring attention to this softer style the movie "The Great Gatsby" starring my favorite Robert Redford paired with Mia Farrow illustrated how beautiful the soft sheer style looked when the sunlight caught it just right.  If we dressed like that would Robert Redford look at me the way he did with Mia Farrow?

 

 

I loved this pause for softness in the seventies and I am hoping it makes it to our way once again.,  I would buy every Gunne Sax anything I could find.  These pieces, now vintage, are also timeless and well made.  A statement in softness.

Now I would love to post all the beautiful Gunne Sax I could find.  Look at the detail, the softness of color or contrast, the fullness of the skirts.