This is fantastic EGF. Thank you for it.

Great post egadfly!

This ain't trad, and it comes from a different place, but let me chuck in my (UK) tuppence worth then - for the sake of the whole picture. I think I'm about the same (late 60s) vintage.
Starting with the grown-ups: TUF shoes, later Clarks Polyveldts were the most often seen. Lots of suede footwear too. Traditional brogues for the older set. Towelling socks. Lots of cords and easy-care slacks - dad had a pair in lilac crimplene we gave him stick about for years. You would never see anyone over 50 in jeans.
Lots of chunky arran sweaters, lots of poloneck (=US: turtleneck) sweaters - Bullitt style - under sports jackets, which were most often a tweedy check. Ties if worn were often of the knitted variety.
I remember a lot of those checked 'western' shirts with press studs. Lots of rally style too: stripy anoraks, driving gloves, car coats.
As egadfly mentions, lots of Norwegian style knitwear about. Puffy down jackets, particularly the classic number by Mountain Equipment in dogshit brown with a bright yellow lining.
The old-boy look sported by our grandfathers: brogues, or sometimes slip-ons for slumming it, cords or flannels, lambswool or cashmere v-necks often in 'soft' colours, always a shirt and tie, tweed jackets in lighter shades. Overcoats, raincoats both long and short, and hats/caps very much in evidence. Nothing military-inspired, for obvious reasons. I think Fred Astaire was a huge style influence on this generation.
Youth style would be all about denim - jeans as well as jackets. Donkey jackets, lumberjackets and biker leathers. Thin, unlined nylon bomber jackets. Shoes: desert boots, Incontinence pants trainers in black leather, DMs, Dunlop Greenflash.
As kids we wore what we got given to wear: school uniforms, kilt and arran sweater on Sundays as a small boy, Clarks Commandos, canvas shoes with ridged bumper toes, perforated buckled sandals in tan leather, thin-soled trainers, wellies, shorts (Mum: 'trousers need to be patched, but your knees repair themselves'), stiff jeans, cords (preferably Wrangler), elasticated stripy 'snake' belts, hand-knitted sweaters (sweatshirts were for the well-off kids), duffel coats, diamond quilted anoraks, later cagoules and snorkel parkas. Lots of beige and brown. Occasional crazes swept through, like 'body-warmers' (i.e. 'down' vests) or lumberjackets. LED watches - you were nothing with a wind-up timex on a rally strap.
You would still be taken to a gents' outfitters to be kitted out. The rising supermarkets did not not stock clothes.

Last edited by Moose Maclennan (2008-03-14 04:19:12)

My ol' chum EGF hits the nail on the 'ead.  The ol' Bean turtleneck indeed had a place in the prep pantheon.  I for one, dressing as my sainted ones did of all ages, never noticed the 70's, but that's just me and me chums.

Last edited by longwing (2008-03-14 09:48:17)

Growing up in San Diego in the 70s there was a Surf Trad style, especially in Point Loma and La Jolla. There was also a larger Surf Hippy style going on.

We (the Trads) wore OCBDs, cords, chino’s Pendleton’s, Birdwell’s, Tennis Shoes, etc. This style really got it’s start in the early 60s. There was a tribal aspect to all this. Our look was, essentially conservative, and set us apart from the hippies. They wore Ocean Pacific, Hang Ten, Earth shoes, etc.

Point Loma/La Jolla are wealthy areas and many of my compatriots were from wealthy families. People with the time to sail and party.

My parent’s were scientists. My father threw out a great early 60s wardrobe and went for the full on leisure suit look.. So I did not learn to dress Surf Trad from dear old dad.

Not once did I hear any of us call ourselves Trad or Prep. Rich and poor went to the local public high school.

There was cross-pollination going on between the Surf Trads and the surfers. As we all surfed the same breaks and crashed each other’s parties. I started out with more of a surfer look in the early 70s and ended up more trad when I graduated high school in ’79 (Point Loma High).

Us college bound Trads went through a class distinction exercise upon graduation. Between those who went to Stanford/Ivy and those who went to UC/State.

Last edited by Voltaire's Bastard (2008-03-14 13:38:48)