Stefanie and Arielle get together and model pre-disco early 1970's chic.
The early 70's was an absolute window of freedom for many social awareness issues and pop-culture fashion fronts, from Billie Jean King and her liberationist's tennis match with self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs, to Helen Reddy's top 40 hit "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar", leading the vanguard of women entering the work force in numbers to big to ignore, to busing, integration and interracial dating. The counter culture was claiming victory, ending the military draft and pulling troops from Vietnam.
Probably never again will young Americans have so much freedom in the fashion that they trademarked. Girls wore everything from granny dresses to hot pants, mini's to maxi's, high waisted pants with halter tops that started more than halted. Boys and men strutted in flared pants with large cuffs and brightly colored collared shirts and polyester leisure suits. Everybody seemed to have at least one pull-over burgundy sweater vest. Both sexes wore their hair long, but coiffed with a 70's flair.
I guess the fashion reflected the tempestuous times we were in: Nixon-Agnew, Watergate, gas shortages (50 is Thrifty), energy crisis, and streaking had become the national pastime. To this day, I still don't know what image is scarier: Linda Blair's portrayal of the devil in the movie "The Exorcist", or poor little rich girl Patty Hearst, armed with an assault rifle, robbing the Hibernia bank in San Francisco. You decide.
Society didn't adhere to the norms that came with structure any longer, we were optimistic and a little frightened about the possibilities of experiencing actual freedom, for the first time. Freedom to buy a foreign car, to go to a different college than your old man, new-age religions, enlightenment and the no-holds-barred sexual revolution.
We also had a sound track that co-conspired along with us: Alice Cooper telling us that "School's Out Forever", Steve Miller letting us know that he's a "Joker a Smoker and a Midnight Toker", Elton John saying goodbye to the "Yellow Brick Road" and Don McLean's American Pie asking us "Can Music Save Your Mortal Soul". It was all happening in the freedom-fest of the early 70's.
Before I go, I would like to quote a line from one of my favorite songs from that era, it's the 1973 classic "Free Ride" by The Edgar Winter Group, it goes like this: "The mountain is high, the valley is low, and your confused on which way to go. So I flew in to lend you a hand, and lead you into the promised land. So, go on and take a free ride".
