Trend Alert! It's a Seventies Comeback!



This Spring/Summer season has been all about a big seventies comeback … if you've been shopping lately, whether on the high street or at designer outlets, you can't have failed to notice that everywhere you go, there are seventies style flares, silk jumpsuits and retro print blouses hanging off rails and stacks upon stacks of seventies-inspired wedges and clogs. It's also a trend that will be here to stay in A/W '11.

Marc Jacobs' S/S '11 collection summarized the trend perfectly – rather than your typical hippie, bohemian-style seventies trend, this time around, it’s a more polished, sophisticated seventies look, inspired by 1970s New York and the glamour of Studio 54. As was the bold jewel coloured, block colour silk jumpsuits on the Gucci S/S '11 runway (and the Gucci A/W '11 collection is full of more seventies inspired, jewel coloured silhouettes). Your style icons here are Jerry Hall, Angelica Huston and Bianca Jagger.

While it was all high glamour and gold hot pants (not exactly under-your-abaya material) at Marc Jacobs, Etro presented more wearable daytime seventies looks.

So what are the key items you should be looking for when trying to nail the seventies trend, in particular under your abaya?

Flared trousers and jeans

Silk jumpsuits

Retro print blouses and tunics

Chevron/Missoni inspired stripes

Palazzo pants

Halter neck maxi dresses

Pussy-bow tie blouses

Peter Pan collar blouses

Pleated maxi skirts, tunics and dresses

Short tie-neck scarves

Satchels

Fringed bags

Wedges

Clogs

Retro sunglasses

Flower corsages

The typical seventies colour palette are nude and neutral colours mixed with browns, taupes, oranges, burgundy, honeysuckle, magenta and chocolate, but you can be experimental and mix things up with bolder colours to nail two trends-in-one with the current colour blocking trend.

For a seventies-inspired daytime look, opt for a retro print or Chevron striped top or tunic paired with flared jeans or trousers and wedges, or a summery halter-neck maxi dress or jumpsuit. A seventies look which is sophisticated (and perfect for work), is a pussy bow tie blouse and a pleated maxi skirt or flared trousers. Want to go seventies for the evening? Think disco, and go for a jewel toned silk jumpsuit, or metallic coloured tunic with leggings or tights in a complimentary colour. 

(I created these looks using a fun styling website called Looklet where you can create looks using designer and high street pieces using virtual models.)