Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Laughter is the best medicine...

...and thanks to something Matt found, I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks and was gasping for breath.

Having been born about the same time as the Tet offensive, my tender years are thoroughly scarred by images like these. I have allergic reactions to terrycloth to this day. When the crew of the Enterprise took these sartorial cues into space it made me cheer for V'ger, because any planet with fashion sense that paralyzed deserves nothing less than sterilization from orbit.

(Do not click on this link if you are at work and not supposed to be websurfing; your boss will know that no spreadsheet ever generated by Excel is making you laugh like that.)

18 comments:

  1. '50s styles and '60s styles has already made a comeback.
    This stuff will all be in the stores again in a year or two.

    I wonder if I can grow my sideburns out all bushy again?

    The barrel furniture was the only good part. It was made from used whiskey barrels so, when new, every time you sat down you were enveloped in that wonderful perfume.

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  2. I can't wait for backwards, heel-down "Earth Shoes" to return. Gaak! If there was ever a reason to hate Jimmy Carter - or an excuse - he presided over this - but you have to remember, it was J.C. Penny and they were like two-years behind the times as it was.

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  3. I'd laugh, but my dad works for the JCP company and was working for them when that catalog was full of new and stylish crap.

    Chris

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  4. dirt's right; JC Penney fashions were laugh-out-loud even In The Day. My gosh, a lot of people wore that stuff, though. Precious few innocent cotton and wool fibers were tortured to produce those fabrics. It's hard to believe they didn't run short of fabric during the oil embargo.

    I think Lileks keeps an early-70's Frederick's of Hollywood catalogue tucked away in his archives. If you really want to join a nunnery, go and look. If not, no!
    Then again, on you it might look good.

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  5. If one never experienced "Saturday Night Fever", there is no way it could be explained. Bell bottoms and long collared shirts are just waiting in the wings with platform heels!

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  6. "in case of chest hair emergency..."

    There were tears.

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  7. Its almost as if at one time the world was populated by Herb Tarlek clones.

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  8. Between disco, the goofy fashions, and all the guys getting half-assed afros, I thought the country was going down the drain. I am so glad that shit didn't last.

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  9. I died.

    ...Well, okay, I didn't, but on a couple of examples my monitor flickered and went out as the picture scrolled up.

    The horrible thing is, there's a part of my mind that expects "grown-ups" to dress that way. It's no wonder I haven't any respect for authority!

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  10. Bob in Houston got that one right. Some of you others out there will recognize the pic of the gent showing off the Herbert R. Tarlek, Jr. Collection.

    Wasn't that other pic a couple modeling samples from the wardrobe from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?

    Fashion at its finest.

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  11. Dammit Tamara!

    By following your links and going down the wormhole that is Wikipedia, I have now learned that Persis Khambatta is dead.

    And now I'm sad.

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  12. Hmmmm, "half-assed afro", I hope I didn't resemble that remark! Normally, I just raked it enough to round it, as I had to get it into a helmet. A full rake-out took twenty minutes, and then I could use it like a cats whiskers to avoid objects like door frames! When I cut it in the latter '70s, my helmet size went from 7 3/8 to 6 7/8. Lot of hair! My Norton decade.

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  13. Yes, will, JC Penney riding apparel and a half-assro would go perfectly with a yellow-peanut-tank HiRider. With SS pipes.

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  14. Ieeeeeeeee! Suppressed... childhood... memories... returning...

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  15. comatus, bingo! on the yellow Hi-Rider ('71). No go on the high pipes, couldn't give them away at the shop I worked at. We swapped the S and SS pipes for the low pipes on all the bikes. Riding jacket turned out to be faux leather. Thought it was rather cheap!

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  16. true, zendo deb - I stayed up half the night about 5 years ago reading every jot and tiddle of Interior Desecrations. James Lileks is brilliant.

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  17. Lilek's review of "The Gobbler" is a do not miss.

    http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/index.html

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