The '70s - a golden era for menswear?

PAAR of Arizona. Ah, Men! Sexy time with the weird little ads in House Beautiful.

Logan's Run - now in Technicolor(tm)!

Perhaps all of the clothing designers fried their brains with psychedelic drugs in the late 60s, and this was the result. The ads make me smile though. I guess ponchos were what you wore when caftan season was over?

Daddy in the red satin pants and the black dude in plaid were hot as fuck ! I had one of those shirts that tied at the front,it was brown and red and perfectly ghastly,but I thought it the height of chic ! Ah,polyester .

What's fascinating about 70s fashion, is that (from a modern perspective) it manages to look incredibly archaic and futuristic at the same time.

You have to remember that the disco/SuperFly look was not the only style going on back then, there was also the preppy look that inspired the "The Preppy Handbook" (1980).

Everyone that I knew shopped at Brooks Brothers and wore Topsiders and such.

Agreed R4 some of those guy are pretty fucking hot!

What's funny is that at the time--if this was the fashion you enjoyed--guys really believed that clothing was some of the best looking fashion.

Platforms, flared pants, skin tight polyester shirts, big feathered hair, gold chains. Guys like my brother thought they were the shit.

I thought no-wrinkle polyester pants were the fucking bomb.

Caftans.

Earrings.

Snaps were a LOT better than buttons on shirts.

When plastic started replacing metal, that was the beginning of the decline in sartorial quality.

Belted knit menswear is long overdue for a comeback.

My skin is breaking out just thinking about it.

As much as I hate to admit it, some of those guys are hot, mostly in spite of their clothes.

It looks like fancy dress costumes. Even back then, who'd look at the silver disco outfit and think yup, that's for me. Or the guy in the feathered pimp hat, he looks like he's dressed up as Huggy Bear for a bet and is embarrassed about it.

I was a kid when this stuff was around but my dad and uncles would NEVER have been caught dead in any of that. It's a pity in a way, it seems to have been more acceptable to dress any way you want back then, now it's more hidebound. Every time you step out the door there's the chance that if you don't fit in you'll end up on some judgemental little fuckers tumblr labeled as "what the fuck was he thinking?".

The guy in red at #39 looks like Colt porn star Gordon Grant.

Maybe his granddad.

R16 it is!

Say what you will, but there was a sense of adventure and possibility in not only the clothing but every other aspect of culture in the '70s. Now we're so worried about being in lockstep that there is no fun left.

The 1970's were the last decade of true fashion originality.

Once the 80's hit everything was retro - looking to the past for inspiration.

I DON'T think so!

Even as awful as that is, R21, at least it showed a willingness to think outside the box and make an impression.

As shown in the JCrew thread, men's clothing now is coma-inducing and boring as fuck. Nobody wants to stand out.

Men's fashion really hasn't changed much in 20 years.

I can still wear the same cargos and tees that i bought 20 years ago and no one even notices.

But i tell you, let me wear one of those dog ear collared shirts and people would take notice!

I wore a plaid shirt, white painter's pants, and black patent leather shoes. That was my "look"

R10 wore Brittania jeans instead of Levi's.

I can remember elephant bell jeans with a madras patchwork shirt and worn work boots.

I loved the looks of the 70s and thought we all looked great.

I also can remember how physically great it felt to wear a tight pair of high waisted dress pants (flared of course) and a Huckapoo shirt.

You have to admit, the clothes may be tacky but they are much more sexy than anything you have now. It used to be okay to admit that both men and women, liked to look at good-looking men, and men dressed to be looked at. Bare chest, skin tight pants with bulge outlined, bikini underwear.

Anybody dressing like that now would be "trying too hard," if not accused of being outright ridiculous. They weren't trying too hard back then though. They were confident, not trying.

I think man-watching guys in red tight pants and plunging necklines would be a lot of fun.

At #31 they all look like they've been in a terrible accident and the reconstructive surgery didn't go so well.

Everything is so restrictive and conservative today that people easily laugh at this but at least it was colourful and original. I miss the era (I was a kid then and it was great eye candy everywhere)

Tattoos have replaced this kind of 'edginess' : today we have very conservative fashion for men along with trashy tattoos.

While the late 60s was the dawn of the new man with longer hair and more elaborate clothes, the 70s took it a step or two further.

I can remember shopping with my father around 71 or 72 and my Mom was transitioning him out of the 60s look and into the 70s wide ties and lapels, bell bottom pants.

He questioned her but he bought into it and looked great. He would have been around 31 or 32 at the time and was much happier in the 70s fashions.

I could remember my uncle for the first time wearing a pair of tight polyester dress pants to a family function everyone made fun of him because he wore his old fashioned boxers under them. He needed bikini briefs.

I was a teenager at the time. Butterfly collars were the rage at time. Leather coats too. Travolta (late 70s) and Roundtree (early 70s) were very popular.

70s fashion were SO gay! LOVED IT!

R31, bell bottoms were already a thing in 1967.

R29, "eye candy" wasn't a word yet in the '70s.

Well R33 not to my father!

The 70s. The decade the Fashion Industry lost its ever-lovin' mind!!

I remember the pimpware from the middle picture. I don't recall any bathing suits like that though. But, where I was raised, it might've been 30 days in jail for wearing something like that back then.

If I get the nerve I'll post a picture from my first communion party showing me, my brother and two uncles.

My brother is wearing his Mr. Roarke suit and one uncle is wearing a plaid suit with wide lapels and my other uncle is wearing a lime green leisure suit.

I'm wearing a beige three piece number with brown velour bow tie and the widest fucking lapels you've ever seen.

What I imagine typical DL'ers to look like :

I love the 70's/80's. Everything about those decades I miss. I hate growing up.

R38

You're probably right on the money.

I thought it was a golden era.

R2 she looks so damn proud of herself.

Isn't the guy in the middle in the pic on the right a pron star from the 80s?

He looks very familiar - something like Gordon Grant?

Menswear from the early '70s. Can anyone identify model Tom (starting at 11:11)?