1970's Childrens Denim The 70's example essay topic

1970's Childrens denim The 70's was a decade with many changes that most people won't forget, this was a time when making a fashion statement had reached it's peak. By the end of the 1960's denim was well established in the youth market, this paved the way, and the 70's saw the golden age for denim. During the early seventies fashions in hair styles, colours, materials, lines of clothes and footwear designs applied more to both men, women and children. The term unisex had been used since the mid sixties and by 1970; fashion was nearer to unisex than at any other time. Adults and children often had the same hairstyle cut by the same hairdresser - fashionably cut hair made a tremendous difference to many children. Designs and shapes of contemporary garments were very suitable for children, and many styles were scaled down to children's sizes.

Adults' clothes were beginning to influence childrens clothes in the 60's but jeans were not made available in small sizes until the 70's. Conventional school uniforms or clothes were still worn in many schools, but fashion conscious children gave it an 'up to date' look. Boys in grey flannel suits, white shirts and school ties had trendy long hair and boots with high wooden heels and platform soles under this trousers although not approved were often worn. Many girls got away with wearing a variety of very modern hair styles and like boys wherever possible clumped around in fashionably heavy shoes and boots.

For out of school hours the selection of childrens clothes was almost as great as the range of teenage and young adult fashions. The childrens market was growing in importance. Parents were more willing to buy the fast changing styles in childrens clothes than in previous generations. Children were also very fashion conscious and had definite ideas of what they liked. Trousers or bib fronted dungarees with flared hems in brightly coloured corduroy or blue denim, sometimes teamed with matching blouson jackets with zip fronts and pockets were also popular with children and teenagers. More people and age groups now wore jeans.

Blue denim jeans were the most universally worn garments of the century and the nearest men women and children have got to wearing uniform. During the 40's teenagers in the states started to wear them for everyday life. In the fifties they became popular in many more countries and in keeping with the fashionable curvy body fit of the time they were worn tight enough to show the shape of the bum and thighs. The popularity of jeans spread quickly in the sixties, children lived in jeans, they were practical and modern. Teenagers and young adults wore them as tight as possible to provocatively show off their figures. By the seventies jeans had become a way of life and their were few people under 40 who didn't posses at least one pair.

Apart from school uniforms, children and teenagers habitually wore jeans. The antiestablishment and anti fashion wore them deliberately shabby with ragged fringed hems over scuffed gym shoes. Jeans in better condition but not too new looking were worn with wide leather belts and over or tucked into western boots as part of the ever-popular style of the later 20th century urban cowboy. Neat jeans with well known designer brand names were worn by a wider than ever age group of style conscious men and women.

Denim and the jean influence developed into other kinds of garments. Dungarees and boiler suits became popular alternatives, especially for women and children. Shorts with jean styling took on with children and young adults and denim type fabrics with jean stitching were used for swimwear. In the 1976 Co longe fashion fair devoted to childrens wear, it was noted that in the previous year 17.1 million pairs of jeans had been sold in west Germany, a leader in young fashions to children under 15 yrs of age childrens denim shirts accounted for 70% of their clothes market while 30% of all girls skirts were made of denim, all of these being increases of previous scales.

Denim in the words of a writer on childrens fashions commenting on the phenomenon is now more a fashion... "it has practically become an extension of our skin. I can't remember anything else sweeping the whole world in the way denim has in the past decade, so there must be a reason for it". And the reason of course is obvious. It is practical hard wearing, especially for children, looks good in most cases and is easy and comfortable to wear. It's a great leveller in the way usually claimed for school uniforms. It is fine for unisex clothes, which aren't a bad thing for young children.

Children want comfort in what they wear. Children have always and will always like to wear gear that they see on older kids. They desire to look like those they see on tv shows and in the movies. Shows such as Charlies' angels were having an increasingly profound affect on children's fashion; every girl wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett often fighting crime in her two-piece denim attire For most teens dressing to shock was the idea, and following the punk and glam movements brought to light by artists such as Bowie with his infamous alter ego 'ziggy stardust' designers took platform shoes and sequins to new heights. Glitter and styling were applied to basic denim cuts, people were judged on the width of their flares, and personal ising ones jeans became a huge trend. Levis Strauss even sponsored a 'Denim art contest' inviting customers to send in pictures of their decorated denim.

The 1980's saw the start of designer children's wear. Gemma Owen.