Retro Is In Eye of Beholder

Lately we’ve seen a lot of mentions of retro in the media. Generally it’s in reference to clothing styles, but other categories have also appeared. Here’s some framework for the term “retro.” It typically refers to items and styles that are between 20 and 40 years old or so. Using today as a benchmark, that means from 1983 to 2003.

 

You might be wondering what the difference is between “retro” and “vintage”.  As a rule, vintage items are authentic of the period in question. Retro items are derivative; they’re new items that imitate the vintage period. I’m going to keep this simple and just use retro, which in my opinion is in the eye of the beholder anyway. Despite what fashion magazines are saying, in my eyes styles from 1990 aren’t retro.

 

From my vantage point, the nineties were forward looking. One magazine described four “retro” pants styles, all “non-skinny.” They cited wide leg, flared, cargo, and straight leg denim and leather. You need to go back to the seventies to find my retro pants: bell bottoms!

 

If you really want retro, look at the first wave of tie-dyes (especially if you went to San Francisco or Woodstock). Tie-dye is a good example of a trend that is retro for younger folks when you look at styles from the nineties, but truly retro for me, from when the Beatles inspired authentic Indian tie-dye. My husband imported tie-dyed styles from India in the seventies for his company India Imports of Rhode Island.

 

A lot of the 70s fashion revolved around hippies. You had peasant blouses, ponchos, hippie sandals and maxi dresses. I had a Gunne Sax maxi (by Jessica McClintock) that I bought in San Francisco, and Olaf Daughters of Sweden clogs that I bought in the West Village in New York City. Gen Xer 90s retro includes shin-length slip dresses. Today’s “retro” clogs wouldn’t have cut the mustard in the seventies. Doc Martens are said to making a comeback. I bought mine in the forward-looking nineties; now they’re being called retro. Mine were red and I wore them to death.

 

I just saw a report that flip up eyeglasses from the seventies are coming back. I confess, I don’t even remember those from the first time around. The glasses I picture from the seventies are John Lennon’s little round wire frames. They never went away, so I guess I shouldn’t really call them retro.

 

Moving away from clothes, there are so many other iconic retro items. There’s the classic Volkswagon bus. My brother used his as a camper and I made him fancy curtains for it. The website rugs.com informs us: “Shag rugs have made a comeback in a huge way. What was once thought of as a casualty of the 70s are now popular again…” It’s still a risky floor covering for anyone with pets who are prone to throwing up. My brother’s camper didn’t have rugs, but it probably saw plenty of throw up.

 

Another 70s staple that can be found on EBay is the blue cornflower pattern of Corning Ware. We have a stash of them in our cabinet. It used to be a go-to gift for bridal showers before the big stores had registries. Fondue pots were another popular shower gift back then. Raise your hand if you received at least three of those and re-gifted one of them. Lava lamps were also all the rage in the 70s.

 

Moving away from the kitchen and decor, the seventies also saw the introduction of the VHS recorder. Today’s generation is into streaming; they probably think that DVD’s are retro. But VHS is the true retro. Blockbuster has announced plans to “Rewind” and open some new stores. You read it correctly: Blockbuster. There are even vintage Blockbuster items for sale on EBay. When it comes to fun and games from the seventies, let’s not forget Rubik’s Cube, the Nerf ball and the Pet Rock.

 

My retro options mentioned here might seem to have run the gamut, but I’ve barely scratched the surface. This seems like a good place to stop and let you mull over what you would add to this list. Keep in mind that retro is in the eye of the beholder. Your retro may be from a different decade than mine. If you’re not sure, just look at some old photos and see what style of legs are on the pants you’re wearing.

 

Copyright 2023 Business Theatre Unlimited

Another Age of Aquarius

 

In case you missed it, Mercury went into retrograde again from September 27 through October 17 and we’ve entered another Age of Aquarius. According to astrologers, this happens as a result of the “great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn,” which takes place every 20 years. However, only once every 800 years does this occur in the constellation Aquarius. Even though astrologically the name of the sign implies water and its symbol is water, Aquarius is an air sign. With one exception, it’s the first time in 200 years that the great convergence won’t happen in an earth sign.

 

I have no idea what this portends, but stay tuned to my blog. I might investigate it for next month, especially since noted astrologers tell us that Jupiter will remain in Aquarius for around a year, while Saturn will stay for two-and-a-half years. As a participant in the most celebrated Age of Aquarius (remember the 5^th Dimension?), I’m compelled to Let the Sunshine In on how this new age will compare to the one in 1969.

 

Instead of bell bottoms, we now have Spandex Under Armour that leaves nothing to the imagination. I speak from experience on this. Bell bottoms looked cool on women and men. Spandex, not so much. And instead of Jesus sandals and Daughters of Olaf clogs (I had both), we now wear flip flops and Crocs (I wear neither).

 

Thanks to the Beatles, in the sixties and seventies, we wore colorful, flowing Indian kurtas. Now we see mostly drab hoodies on the street. My husband opened his SPECTRUM-INIDIA store on Thayer Street in Providence in 1967. It still exists and you can find kurtas there to this day. Probably hoodies, too, but I’m not going to ask him about them. Those are so not Age of Aquarius fashion items.

 

True proponents of The Age wore flowers in their hair-down-to-there. Now hair is either thinning and falling out, or men shave their heads bald. I didn’t go to San Francisco until much later, but I had waist long hair for years. Today I’m in the thinning camp, so I keep it short.

 

Other notable changes in societal and cultural habits you may notice? Sitars have been replaced with electronic synthesizers. You don’t hear much Ravi Shankar music (he died in 2012); it’s Ed Sheeran in today’s news. Oh, and after a six-year hiatus, Adele came back November 19 with a new album. Ravi’s daughter Norah Jones is reasonably popular, but not because she makes us nostalgic for her father’s music. Like Adele, she has a beautiful voice.

 

Following up on Indian influence, we don’t hear much about ashrams anymore, those communal living locales for free spirits. Hippies from the seventies now live in condos or HOAs (Homeowner Associations). In our current location, my husband and I are severely restricted even with regard to what we can display in our windows and on our doors and how many pets we can have. I’m not talking just goats in the yard. Our HOA limits indoor cats to two per household.

 

As for food, there have been too many changes in diet to even begin to get into that here. But if the ads on TV are any indication, it does seem we’ve rediscovered Nutella. Can Ovaltine be far behind? And as for transportation, we’ve gone from that treasure, the VW camper bus, to electric Teslas and hybrids. Those might be more practical, but they can’t possibly be as colorful or as much fun.

 

I can’t leave my review of my first Age of Aquarius without visiting some of my favorite TV shows. We had Laugh In (Sock it to me!) and Star Trek (Live long and prosper). The crew of the Enterprise might have gone “where no man has gone before”, but you’d have to be a hermit to not know that Captain Kirk (William Shatner) went to space in October aboard one of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shepard flights. Sort of what goes around comes around. Now the hot TV property is some bizarre program from South Korea called The Squid Game. I keep reading about it, but I have no desire to investigate.

 

The seventies Age of Aquarius was known for peace, harmony and understanding. Words like trust and love were guiding principles. Sadly, today’s age is known for stress, anxiety and anger. Trust has taken flight. Let’s hope that the next Blue Origin expedition can find it again up near the edge of space.

 

Copyright 2021 Business Theatre Unlimited.

Rebel without a Cause

I’ve always featured myself to be a bit of a rebel. I’m not sure when or how this self-view started. The first example I remember is in picking the college I’d attend. My sister went to Douglass (then the women’s college of New Jersey). Seven years later, my brother enrolled at Rutgers (the men’s college). The next year, everyone assumed I’d go to Douglass, especially when I was early accepted, even though I didn’t apply for that. I played the rebel and picked Pembroke, the women’s college of Brown University.

By my senior year at Brown, my contrarian tendencies had fixated on motorcycles. I wanted to buy one when I had enough money. That would be a long time off, but it turned out it wouldn’t matter. I visited a store and discovered that I was too short for even the smallest machine that was available back then. My feet didn’t touch the ground when I straddled it as though stopped at a traffic light. When I leaned far enough to one side for my foot to reach the ground, the bike fell over.

While my family might have considered my next phase rebellious, my peers would have seen it as predictable. I became the family hippie. My hair was so long I could sit on it and I wore Jesus sandals that laced up to my knees. That wore thin after awhile. Besides, I was working in Manhattan for what was then a Big Eight accounting firm. CPAs didn’t approve of Jesus sandals.

Now that I’m retired, I’ve started to think fondly about becoming a rebel again. The problem is that I don’t have a cause to protest against. I don’t even have a flag to fly to advertise my rebellion. Let’s face it, when folks reach my age, there’s a fine line between rebelling and being an eccentric old coot.

One thing I’ve considered now and again is dying my hair a weird color. Not all of it. Just a big swath down the middle. Some older women can pull this off, especially if they have short hair, as I do. I never quite reach the point of doing this, because I can’t decide on the right color. Sometimes I think it’s purple; other times fuchsia. Maybe even orange. Then again, bright chartreuse could be an option. But never blue; that's an "old lady" tint. As you can see, crazy hair isn't likely to be my first foray into late-life rebel-hood.

I’ve also thought about getting a tattoo. This won’t seem rebellious to most people, since so many women who are otherwise traditional have tattoos these days. I’ve tried to make the case (to myself) that getting my first tattoo after age seventy would qualify as a contrarian act. That dog doesn’t seem to hunt. It may be because I’m not wild about the idea of getting poked by needles again now that I no longer need yearly blood work as part of my cancer follow up. But stick-on tattoos are a cop out.

The final idea I’ve come up with is to wear a long, dangly feather in one ear. This also fails to take flight when I remember that I have a short neck. And also now two cats who would almost certainly see this as one more toy for them to play with. For sure, a neck full of scratches and an earlobe stretched to within an inch of its life would push me over the edge into eccentric. If I’m going to wear that label, I’d rather do it because I’ve rescued six more cats. (Don’t panic, Jagdish; that’s not happening.)

It looks like I’m going to have to accept the fact that at this point in my life, I’m destined to be a rebel without a cause.