From My Little Hole in the Wall: Time Warp to the 1970's for Grace and Dolly

I have mixed feelings about the 1970s. Anyone who knew me back then would understand why. Some points in history should remain where they are, and others, the brightest memories of those years are sometimes encouraged to shine another day.

I began high school in 1971 and these would be some of the most difficult years for me, as well as the years that established who I would become in the future. While I tried many different dresses on and wore many hats, I identify with the 70s more than any other decade. I've been watching members of Club Grace post photos of their dolls in the latest offering of the subscription, and there is no more defining determination of where these collectors were at in those days, than how they've created pieces to go with this costume or how they've photographed their doll.

A large part of what defined this decade for me was the music.

1974 debuted Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark and it was my favorite album that year. We were still spinning vinyl records and they were treasures. Tower Records made money hand over fist selling every kind of album imaginable, and if you were planning on going to a concert, Tower was the place to buy your tickets at their Ticket Master booth.

People who didn't live through these years will try to define them by what they've read from people who didn't live those years. And that is how history is written. If I were to tell you all I knew of the 1970s, we'd be here a week. But what I can tell you is that it was different for everyone. Fashion was all over the place, and not at all. As one person put it, "Today's passion for slow fashion and repurposing, has its roots in the 70s."

The people I hung out with went to arts and crafts fairs in Santa Cruz, where long haired guys in Renaissance clothing, sold mandalas, and feather and abalone jewelry, while the braless women dressed in lace and long skirts, sold handmade clothing like they wore. Heart's Little Queen album cover says it all. We dressed up in this and that and bought vintage clothing from the 20s-40s and paired it with jeans skirts and platform shoes. We dressed like gypsies and nouveau Renaissance maidens. We wore floppy hats and spent as much time barefoot as we did in clogs and granny boots.

We wore feathers and shells and leather pieces in our hair and ears that were now multi-pierced. We dabbed our skin with scented oils and learned to read the Tarot. We studied New Age.

One of my first real jobs was working at CreCol (Creative Colors), a company that made latigo leather tooled purses, like the one above. I learned the trade from the bottom up and could ruby edge tool with the best of them. I wish I remembered how to braid those purse straps, but I remember everything else about the processes from dying to air brush to gloss finishes. The man I dated at the time, strung the gussets to the flaps and this was how I got hired at the company.

At any rate, the 70s would have a defining impact on anyone who lived through them. As far a music goes, it was all over the place as much as our clothing was. It was a decade of great variety. Hard rock got harder, soft rock got softer, and artists frustrated with the standard musical forms, tossed them aside and started their own. For fans of such new forms as funk, this innovation was wonderful. Others simply hated the new music. Groups formed to express their hatred of disco, and some thought that punk culture was a sign of the downfall of

civilization. Music defined who we were and who we hung out with. We looked forward to going to rock concerts as they were a great social event. You'd spend the entire day going to one, being present, then leaving. San Fransico gave us Day on the Green concerts and I don't believe I missed any of them.

As for trying to define fashion in the 70's, several distinctions have been made. The 60s were full of bold colors, prints, and color blocking. Mini skirts were especially popular along with the psychedelic fashion and space age inspired looks.

The 70s casual attire consisted of a lot of wide and flowy designs in skirts and pants, particularly bell bottoms. Flare sleeves and maxi dresses and skirts were perfectly paired with platforms, clogs and granny boots. On the other hand, the later disco fashion was full of plunging v necks and lots of sequins and glitter.

For this month's Club Grace, I took a step back into what I believed the best way to time warp into that decade. Grace's dress was such a surprise to me. I liked it. It could be dressed up with vests or jewelry, boots or the great platforms that Rachel had made for the subscription. I chose to make Grace jewelry like I wore. Heishi beads and turquoise were very popular, so I found teeny tiny heishi and made her a necklace and bracelet.

For her hair, I made a leather thong that laced together with suede string. Dangling from the ends are a feather and a shell. Keeping these in thin hair was out of the question, so some women braided their hair and laced one of these around the braid.

Dolly dresses in a jeans skirt. This is what we called them. Not denim skirts. More typical was the split jeans skirt which was made from a pair of very old and worn-out jeans. The inner leg seams were cut out and filled with a variety of fabrics to create a v-shaped quilt. Lace and appliques and embroidery covered areas of these skirts as well. Pair it with a crop top or peasant top and you were set to go. I made Dolly a laced-up suede cropped shirt since it is November, and she would want to stay warm while she works on her macrame. Scarves were popular, whether wrapped around your torso as a skimpy top, or in your hair or around your head gypsy style.

Below are album covers of some of my favorite music of the day. I still listen to this music, but the 90s would issue in a new love of music with smooth jazz and new age. I've always loved music and at one time would only date musicians. I have to laugh because I ended up with an engineer with a degree from MIT and a business degree from Stanford. This was how many of us changed. Let's face it. The 70s were about rebellion and fun times. Like I said early on, it would take a week to describe all that I knew of the 70s but it is in the past and should remain there. We didn't call our style boho back then, but this is how I dress today with a bit more subtlety.

This month's Club Grace took my memory down many dusty roads like the one American sang about. But now it's time to think about Thanksgiving and the grand finale month, December. I'm working on something special for Cissy and hope to have it done this coming week.

Wishing you the best of the Thanksgiving holiday! Melissa