Flower Children of the Future

I remember the first time I saw a picture of my mother was taken forty years earlier, the year 1978, smiling her beauty queen smile from an old newspaper cutting of the Albany Times. Her curtain bangs and Farrah Fawcett curls, her eyes shining because she just won St. Patrick’s Day queen. I remember thinking how sweet that was, a St. Patrick’s Day queen making the newspaper. She recently sent me a picture from the summer of ‘79, poolside in Corpus Christi clad in a red band tee with a “summer tan courtesy of Coppertone.” These photos were a reminder that she lived an entire life before she was my mom. I appreciate getting a peek at who she was through saved polaroids and fading print photographs.

I remember the first time I watched That 70’s Show. I was a teen myself and I marveled at the high-waisted flare-legged pants, the band tees that would one day become expensive staples at vintage shops, and the sheer bravery in regards to patterns and plaid. I also remember the bonds each character made with each other. Having moved away from my hometown as a kid I pined after the childhood friendships grown into teenage friendships depicted on the show. I longed for the closeness of a neighborhood crush and the absence of cellphone notifications and began associating that seventies style with friendship, fun, and belonging.

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The seventies was a time of Woodstock and flower children, experimental drugs, and women's liberation if we are focusing on solely the positive aspects. Watching this show and seeing pictures of my own mother shining in the '70s produced profound feelings of longing and nostalgia for a decade I never experienced. A simpler time before the internet but after women won the right to vote… sign me up! Much of the fashion is indeed comical in hindsight, but the beauty of looking back is picking and choosing what you like and reincarnating it into the present. I have chosen to resurrect flare pants, crop tops, platform boots, fringe… as well as the liberation and freedom felt by the counterculture (with perhaps less acid).

https://images.app.goo.gl/VA7Uajd7cpnw5fZr8

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The seventies style, specifically the bohemian style, reflects a return to a more natural, earth-conscious way of life. I equate all hippy/bohemian fashion with a period in America when many people were focused on enjoying life, challenging societal and cultural norms, and questioning their very existence and the meaning of life. A time of expanded consciousness and pure, wild fun. For women, embracing one’s body hair along with the wide distribution of hormonal birth control and sexual liberation marked this decade as decidedly feminist. Tapping into one’s own natural, wild self was the main focus, one I see moving to the forefront here and now.

https://images.app.goo.gl/tD9SpXqx1at7h1VB8

I am very happy to see these themes, both stylistically and societally, reemerging in the present day. I see bell-bottoms and fringe jackets today and am reminded of the revolutionary introduction of disco and funk. I see long puffy sleeves and flower crowns and think of the universal message of peace and love. I see the Grateful Dead logo and muse on what it must have been like to be a groupie following their favorite band in the summer of ‘76. There isn't one single '70s fad that stands out the most to me, rather they all do. Seeing any one of them in passing triggers nostalgia. When I feel that sweet ache of longing for decades past I fire up the old YouTube and rewatch an episode or five of That 70’s Show and smile at the goofiness of plot and style, wondering if the creators knew they were inspiring many flower children, fierce feminists, and silly stoners of the future.