Mass delusions gripped Montreal in the early 1970s as consumers were convinced that denim pants with extra, useless fabric dangling around the ankles were a good idea. The pants were counter intuitive, as they betrayed the human shape, wasted fabric and were quite possibly dangerous as that extra material would get caught up in your bike chain, necessitating an extra metal clip to clamp around your pants at the ankle to hopefully diminish the chance of your ugly pants getting ruined and causing a calamitous accident while bicycling.
So while the boomer generation has been targeted perhaps unfairly for their self-centered narcissism, they need to stand trial for fashion crimes that still reverberate today and possibly in eternity if you believe Russell Crowe back when he was a Roman General.
Pet peeve of mine: every movie or TV ad re-enacting the past shows people from the current generation dressed simply and sensibly in white t-shirts and then contrasts our simple styles with characters from earlier eras dressed as clownishly as possible. The insinuation is that, that fashion was once silly but is now perfectly rational. In this case, however, the clownishness is simply irrefutable, as demonstrated in this jeans-in-da-street fashion spread from the Montreal Star Sept. 3, 1973 entitled "Blue jeans: a fashion of the working force" written by Iona Monahan with photos by Gerry Davidson, demonstrates.
"Michele Boulva approves of feminist jeans, flower embroidered. These from Humperdink at Streeter & Quarles," reads the caption of a photo of a feminist showing off her backside. The greatest one-two-punch of that era: feminism and flare jeans, Muhammad Ali ain't go nothing on ya! Don't you just want to go back to 1973? Our second photo is of Johanne Robitaille "in studded jeans from S. Tabak."
Fashion criminal number two is shown hauling a nasty looking metal and vinyl briefcase. Robtaille who worked as a fashion reporter for Channel 2, the Bou Bou program, which was the "only television fashion regular in the country. She packs her tiny frame into studded jeans for work occasions, clings to her old black blue jeans when she rides." The Coolopolis pool of interns gives thumbs down to this apparel with newbie Jason Fortin noting that "the only thing riding is the fabric up her crotch region." Our third pants-in-the-wind flapping photo is of Claire Caron walking with her right arm stretched out as if she's romantically entwined with an invisible hippie wearing even larger clown flare pants. Caron "wears a streaked cotton suit which looks like faded denim. It will be available from Cuzzins 2, at The Smart Set and Koko in October." The world just couldn't wait!
Caron would surely be smiling less broadly, as Coolopolis intern Alex Cyzckowski notes, if she knew that she would be mocked for all the world to see 39 years later by smart aleks with a chip on their shoulder for not being hired at more prestigious operations.
Next time you're sitting around with-know-it-alls knocking globalization, point to blue jeans as your example of why free trade works. These made-in-North-America jeans cost about $40 way back then, which amounted to around one day's work.They had zero elastisticity, so if you came to your senses and hemmed them in at the ankles after you heard of the Sex Pistols, you would have to awkwardly wriggle out of them in front of your lover when it came time to copulate, thereby maybe killing the moment. Nowadays you can get jeans for $20 at Wal-Mart, the equivalent of an hour or two or your hard earned labour playing Jenga while the boss things you're punching data into spreadsheets.
John Warden manages to look not-too-idiotic on the left in this row. Warden, who was a fashion designer with his eponymous shops in Montreal from the late 60s, "bought jeans and jacket in San Francisco." One article I stumbled over about this guy suggests that he met his wife at La Licorne, a disco, said to be the first in Canada, which sat on Mackay Street. You can only imagine how disappointed she was on their wedding night, as part of a masquerade only young men related to prime ministers seem to keep doing nowadays.
Joan Aird, Nicola Pelley, doing her Annie Hall look, Donald Richer with a mink coat and booking agent Lise Chartrand, looking particularly ish-ish complete the row.
Next comes designing couple Toby Klein and Allan Goldin holding hands, as they surely still are doing today, surely steadying themselves in case they trip over their stupid fuggen pants.
Then two fashion buyers, Carolyn Wiener is seen striding purposefully as the wind blows up her thigh and Bev Lee fills out the list with her groovy look.
We will be forwarding these photos to the United Nations International Fashion Crimes Commission for further evaluation.