fashions

A peasant fashion for eyelets with lacing, oversized ric rac braid with false bib parts of blouses became universal. Real blouses began to appear beneath short bell, or just above elbow knitwear. The lower sleeves became fuller and fuller so that by the late 1970 they were similar to Victorian engageantes. Sometimes they were left open and were known as an angel sleeve. The edging of the sleeve was often of the bordered fabric used in the main body of the garment.  Richly patterned, border print fabrics were perfect for some of the simple garment shapes of the fashion era.The ethnic influence was so strong that it revived craft skills from far flung places. Macramé bags and bikinis from the Greek Isles and crochet waistcoats and shawls from Spain were all high fashion. The poncho was short lived and soon became a children's style. Gypsy tops with drawn up necklines trimmed with bells and puffed sleeves were made in cheesecloth or light cottons. In the year of 1978, Broderie Anglaise made a brief appearance as trimmed petticoat hemlines designed to show beneath peasant style skirts. At about the same time, Tibetan and Chinese quilted jackets and square armhole waistcoats, in mix and match prints were teamed with softly pleated skirts.  Sometimes they had stylised patchwork print effects and were a very pretty feminine fashion. Indian imported cotton voile dresses overprinted in gold by Phool were often worn with quilted jackets. The colours were vivid and striking bright pinks, sea greens and wonderful shades of cornflower blues. Indian silk scarves of similar designs abounded.  It was only in the 1980 when it was widely reported in newspapers that the dresses were quickly flammable, that they lost favour.It was during the 1970 that friendship bracelets first became fashionable. These hand braided bracelets made from coloured yarns were initially made by teenagers. As the 1970s fashion for teaching friends how to do it flagged, street sellers started to make income from the craft by weaving bracelets to order, as customers waited. The bracelets started as fine strips no wider than 6mm, but by 2001 they were often as wide as 2cm.