Fashion on Film: The Disco Fever Style of the 1970s

As promised, we’re back with the disco edition of our Fashion on Film series. If you recall, our last FOF installment focused solely on the hippie and western fashion happening during the decade, which was an entirely different movement both in fashion and the film industry. And because the hippie/western movement was the complete opposite of what was going in terms of the world of disco, we decided to separate the 1970s decade into two different parts.

This segment is especially exciting to us because once we’re done exploring each decade in film from a fashion perspective, we’re gonna turn around and do an exact same decade by decade breakdown of the music industry style wise, and the 70s was one for the ages (stay tuned). We’ll get to that eventually, but for now let’s explore the style in 1970s films.

RELATED: Fashion on Film: Behind the 1970s Hippie and Western Movements

As you can imagine, disco fashion was all about the clubbing and party scenes, so the clothing was vibrant, glittery, and sometimes a little on the psychedelic bold side. Now you have to remember discotheques were oftentimes a show within itself, with actual disco balls, neon lights, and decorations. So if the goal was for your outfit to be seen, you had to go above and beyond. This meant loud sparkly outfits in equally loud colors that would come in the form of mini-dresses, jumpsuits, and shiny tops.

What were Gogo Girls? Gogo Girls were club dancers who sometimes wore outfits that were considered “scantily clad” for the time period. The definition of scantily clad back then was very short skirts and shorts, bikini tops, platform boots, etc. When you see actual pictures of how Gogo dancers dressed, the term scantily clad is actually quite laughable, but there was also very much a world where Gogo Girls didn’t wear “revealing” clothing at all.

So what did the fellas wear? The men matched the women’s energy for what we personally believe was the first time ever. If you look at the previous decades we covered, it was the women that would strike first when it came to breaking gender and fashion rules, and when the guys finally got with the program, it took them a little bit to become experimental. Up until the disco era, the guy's definition of “bold” was choosing not to wear a suit by rocking more laid back casual styles.

Well, that wraps up the 1970s edition of Fashion on Film, next up is the wild 1980s.