In yesterday’s Zippy, Zippy and Claude celebrate the 1970s as the pinnacle of men’s fashions. Disco Duck, high-heeled disco dancing shoes, Bob Newhart’s collars (and more), the Bee Gees, lots of John Travolta (in and out of jeans), and the ubiquity of ripped jeans (more recently turned into an art form by Johnny Edlind).
(#1)
Disco Duck. As in my 1/16/12 posting “Disco Duck”, about the 1976 satirical disco novelty song performed by Memphis disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots; from that posting, an earlier Zippy:
(#2)
Those dancing shoes. They are, to my surprise, still available, though I wonder who wears them, on what occasions. Two examples:
(#3) Ellie men’s 3″ platform disco shoes (from this site)
(#4) Funtasma Glamrock 3½″ platform men’s disco shoes (from this site)
Bob Newhart. The Bob Newhart Show, an amiable, often quirky, sitcom starring standup comedian Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette as psychologist Bob Hartley and his wife Emily, ran from 1972-78, and so provided many occasions for showcasing the fashions of the times, as here:
(#5)
The Travolta years. The iconic male body of the 1970s was John Travolta’s, as Tony Manero in the film Saturday Night Fever (1977) and as Danny Zuko in the 1978 film Grease (adapted from a 1971 musical). And it all came set to music — in the case of SNF, a Bee Gees score, involving Robin, Barry, and Maurice Gibb, who were stunningly hirsute in the glam 70s:
(#6)
Travolta on the cover of the SNF dvd:
(#7) The clothes, the moves, and (always with Travolta) the crotch
From my 11/7/11 posting “Disco”:
John Travolta, two female leads, the Bee Gees’ music, a complex plot with compelling but flawed characters, lots of extravagant disco dancing, lots of Brooklyn working-class English (whose authenticity I’m not capable of judging), lots of simulated sex (including a gangbang that turns into a rape), two vertiginous scenes on NYC bridges (the Brooklyn Bridge is virtually a character on its own), and tons of “coarse language” (taboo language and slurs, much noted at the time).
At one point in the movie, we even get JT displaying himself in his skivvies:
(#8)
Meanwhile, the man really knew how to wear a pair of jeans. Here he is in Bus Stop, at the Westchester Playhouse, Tuckahoe NY, in 1976:
(#9) You should also appreciate the boots; and, of course, his hair
Ripped jeans. Ripped, torn, or otherwise distressed jeans were certainly a thing in the 1970s — I wore them myself then — though they seem not to have become a fashion statement associated with specific musical genres (like punk and grunge) until the 80s. In any case, though JT was a major 70s jeans guy, I haven’t found pictures of him in ripped ones.
Instead, we had to wait until quite recently to find a man fully devoted to the display qualities of ripped jeans: Johnny Edlind. But there is a connection to JT. From Edlind’s Instagram site, this photo, which he bills as “My application photo for the new “Grease – back to the 70’s” movie🎞”:
(#10)
Edlind was born on 9/3/93 in Stockholm Sweden; he’s a model, singer, and artist; he acted on the reality series Paradise Hotel in 2015; and he writes on men’s fashions on his Instagram site. Where there are enough ripped jeans to satisfy any fan. Just one more:
(#10)
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