Style Icons

My ultimate style icon is Bianca Jagger, the former wife of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. In the 1970's, she was the epitome of a sleek, sensual, sophisticated style that was expressed by designers like Halston, effortlessly chic yet ultra glamorous. The 1970's was a time when ethnic influences and an earthy, back to nature style was infused into fashion. A time of free your mind and your clothes will follow, flower power and psychedelia swept through popular culture. Hippie and folkloric fashion, including jeans, bloomed. People everywhere began to reject the Establishment. Hippies disregarded traditional society and morals and looked toward foreign cultures for inspiration and enlightenment. Society became more multi-cultural. Fashion rejected the geometric futurism of the 1960's for a longer length, romantic style. Fashion became more unisex. Retailer and designer Carole Austen was quoted in 1970 saying, "as far as we can see we will have a mixture of casualness,fluidity and fantasy." Designers were playing with global references, Kenzo with his native Japan and Yves Saint Laurent with Africa and China. Souvenirs from the hippie trails soon worked themselves into women's wardrobes, indian cheesecloth skirts, south american ponchos, patchwork gypsy skirts. The freedom that had taken root in the swinging sixties burst forth in the seventies. Women decked themselves out with a splendour to rival birds of paradise.......