"Flowers in the bin"

This monograph by Konstantina Hlaváčková, an art historian specialising in 20th century textiles and fashion, with an introduction by Pavel Kosatík, recalls the most important events of the 1970s and their influence on fashion and lifestyle in Western countries and the former Czechoslovakia. Images of clothing and accessories of Czechoslovak and foreign production as well as products of domestic seamstresses are accompanied by photographs by Fred Kramer and Viktor Kolář. The 1970s were in many ways a turning point. The tendencies that had been born at the end of the 1960s and only fully developed in the following decade, following the ideas of the hippie movement, were fully manifested in fashion. Wardrobes were filled with denim and ethnic-inspired clothing. Alongside these trends, a romantic retro style developed, looking back mainly to the 1930s and 1940s. From the second half of the decade onwards, the phenomenon of aggression came into vogue alongside the punk movement. Traditional haute couture developed under the influence of the so-called anti-fashion. Feminism also had something to contribute to this development. All these clothing trends, which had their origins in Western Europe, found an echo in communist Czechoslovakia. However, they were accepted only formally, without an organic connection between form and content, by a society that developed unfree and isolated under conditions of political repression and unnaturally shaped social relations.