Being a teenager in the 70s. Music, fashion etc.

I left school in 1969 at 15,I couldn't get out of the place quick enough .Started work the monday after I left .
I never really had crushes on stars,certainly no pictures on my walls .I bought music because I liked the voices and the songs .
I loved clothes and still do,I had white oxford bags which I wore with a short blazer and very high heels which the trousers completely covered ,I remember falling up some stairs when a boyfriend came to collect me and having to go back into change and introduce him to my folks....not what I'd planned.
I loved the long jeans and trousers ,had red and white striped trousers with braces and wore them with red high heels with a spotted bow on the frontwee suede patchwork skirts fromchelsea girl ,,I think,with knee high boots ,skin tight jeans with over the knee boots tops that were cheese cloth and looked like something altar boys wore.
I remember lusting after a tweed suit with a midi skirt that was out of my price range and my boss ,lovely man,telling me to take the cash out of the till and work it off in overtime.I wore that suit and the beautiful green silk tie neck blouse for ages .
I had a paige boy haircut when I got married in 1975 but grew it out and by the time my daughter was born 3 years later had a waist length curly perm ....I thought it was beautiful ,my OH did too and my old hairdresser still talks about it and tells whoever he's with when I meet him in the town.

He did offer to replicate it after covid when my hair was nearly waist length, but I resisted.

Sometimes I wonder where the years went

The seventies was probably one of my most action packed decades, school was more or less over for me in 1970 and my working life had begun. In retrospect. I'd kind of reached the age of being able to do stuff, although a bit too young at 17 for the Isle of Wight concert of 1970, I did make up for it by going to many others. It was a time when I saw many of my favourite bands and artists which would include The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Faces, Bowie, Elton John off the top of my head. The band I really wanted to see when they came over to London was The Doors, but it wasn't to be. I wouldn't say Jim Morrison was a pin up, I'd moved on from those days, but he was a bit of a heart throb in a "mad, bad and dangerous to know" sort of a way, I still love "Riders on the Storm" to this day. I certainly can't imagine swooning over Cliff Richard and Donny Osmond good grief! My seventies guy would have been Al Pacino who I adored in The Godfathers he was my ultimate Italian man .

I was working up in London by the early 70s embracing all that had to offer, I was able to afford Biba by then and loved the few pieces I had from there including, dusky pink suede, over the knee boots and a couple of dresses in muted colours, very long cuffs with lots of tiny buttons. I remember having very flared trousers, platforms and blazer type jackets at the beginning of the 70s moving on to baggy leather, slouchy boots a few years later, with longer skirts, funny because I saw a pair just like the ones I had in a magazine recently, everything comes back eventually! Lots of different hairstyles, both long and briefly short and some varying colours too.

1973 my boyfriend and I took that summer to go round Europe, he, having finished his final exams, he took off to see his family in Germany, he was English born with German parents. He tried to persuade me to come with him, but I couldn't get that long off work, but did manage to wangle a month which to the annoyance of my boss turned into 6 weeks! As my train pulled out of London, Victoria I didn't wonder quite what I would do if said boyfriend hadn't been in the Rome terminal to meet me, but he was which is just as well as I didn't have a plan B. We spent the summer in much of Italy, France and Switzerland before the money ran out and I had to go home and explain myself to my irate boss who was simultaneously annoyed but grudgingly admiring of all the places we'd been to.

By '76 I'd met my husband to be, and moved into a different sphere altogether which included buying a house, an actual house! as opposed to renting a flat in a not very salubrious part of south east London we'd moved a few miles down the road to Surrey, courtesy of a favourable 3% mortgage husband had with the American bank he was employed with, we got a car and I passed my driving test. These were serious grown up years which included mooning over and eventually buying white goods, talking about interest rates over dinner with friends. The music scene at the time was very much Johnny Rotten and The Sex Pistols which kind of passed me by.

Towards the end of the decade, we married and when we came back from a honeymoon in Spain, Elvis had died, although I wasn't appreciative of him then, only long after his death did I realise what a great voice he had.

The end of the decade and the beginning of the 80s, we had a stint in Australia, having got our visas and husband having secured a transfer with his employers, but decided against a life there.

I was at secondary school in London the 70s. My favourite group was TRex, and Marc Bolan was my pin up. Cheese cloth was all the rage and I wore several smock type tops with jeans and a smellie sheepskin coat. I dyed my blonde hair red with henna. I used to go to Petticoat Lane a lot. My lovely boyfriend worked for a record company, we went to concerts like Knebworth, and Hammersmith Odeon and the Finsbury Park Rainbow were favourite venues. I also went to school in France for a while and weirdly fell in love with scarves as a must have accessory. Platform soles, tank tops and lots of eyeliner were also my thing.
Oh yes, and Nilsson's "Can't live".
In the late 70s I went to University, strangely my life there was quite tame boring in comparison.

Alas, I had graduated and was married in 1970, so not me!
We were more into the Proms, theatre, concerts and ballet anyway but I have fond memories of some of the fashions of the time. I thought I was the bees knees in some of my outfits. Thankfully, few pictures have survived.

Friends and I queued up around The Finsbury Park Rainbow for an entire day to get tickets for The Faces, funny because if Rod Stewart were on the telly now I wouldn't bother watching!, but thought he was a great front man then. Also saw Roxy Music there, Bryan Ferry another great performer. What a good venue it was!

My musical tastes gel with yours TerriBull I remember vividly being with my Mum and Auntie in Southsea seeing all the people going to the IoW festival, I was far too young to go, but it rubbed salt in the wound. I did see Floyd at Southampton Guildhall, but really didn’t appreciate until years later their part of musical history.
I wore crushed velvet loon trousers, long dresses, lace up the leg sandals and a headband, jeans were shrunk in the sea. I dabbled in various substances and became vegetarian (it didn’t last long!).
A heady few years before I started work at 18.

I was a teen in the 70s. It was a very exciting time to be young. I, too, loved David Essex, David Cassidy and Marc Bolan. But also Roxy Music and Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Genesis, Yes and Neil Young. I went to concerts at The Apollo in Glasgow, wore a second hand fur coat and platform clogs. The music changed to punk by 1977 which wasn't my kind of music. My boyfriend and I would travel to Glasgow by train to go to uni and stop at the Kardomah for coffee first. It was a precious time.

Like others music was the focus of my teenage years. I also saw The Faces as well as many other bands. By 1976 I was a committed punk though. I saw the Sex Pistols twice and The Clash many times.Green hair was a short lived phase though!

I left for college in 1970. I was fifteen, had hardly been out in the evenings, never drank, and was dressed like a twelve year old.
Oh the freedom, too much too soon, but it was absolute liberation, no one telling me what to do anymore.
We were all girls living together, we swapped clothes, ironed each other’s hair, I loved most of the music of the time, specially David Bowie.
But songs that really remind me of that period would be, My Sweet Lord, Maggie May, Nothing Rhymes, loads of others, happy days, weird and wonderful clothes, good music and fab friends.

All my teenage years were in the seventies, but my tastes changed so much during that time, it was a great era to be a teenager. Lying in a cold bath to shrink fit my Levi’s, platform shoes, dating angst, underage drinking (lager and lime, anybody?) camping holidays with my mates, concerts, fairs and festivals (of the low key type where a few bands played and we all sat about on the ground, sometimes outside our tents listening). I started the decade as a massive Motown fan, ended it as a rock fan, having loved glam rock in the middle. Happy days. .

Motown, Northern Soul and dance were my passions in the 70s. Mainstream music on the radio only. Like many, left school at 15 went on a family holiday, rented caravan, then first job. Happy days but wished I had the opportunity of further education.

I remember going into the car to listen to the chart show on Radio 1 when we visited my gran on a Sunday! In 1974 I went to university and learn that the pop charts were completely despised by anyone who was ‘serious’ about music. I had dusky pink jeans, and if I washed them too near the weekend, I had nothing casual to wear! (No tumble drier back in those days - my mum line- dried everything, even if she had to bring it in from the rain then peg it all out again). I went out in wet jeans at least once, and didn’t ‘catch my death of cold’ as my mum predicted!

11 at the start of the seventies.
My decade!
My purple years. 💜

Ah the 70s! I was 10 in 1970. Secondary school was great. I was going to marry Donny Osmond! Finished school in 1978 and was engaged that year too but that ended when I wrote off his car! I remember buying a black leather coat with my money from my Saturday job. Also love music of T Rex. It was a great time to be a teenager. 80s were even better with a career, marriage and two wonderful children.

I was in my 30s in the seventies, with two young children. I loved the fashions, and they suited me very well. I was never into pop music, so all of that passed me by. I think if I had to pick a favourite decade, it would be the seventies, in spite of the power cuts!

Not great when your flared jeans got wet, all that wet denim flapping around your legs!
Loved the bay city rollers!

Cherrytree
Oh I always loved purple, still do, my favourite colour

Just into my teens in 1970, so many changes in the following 10 years. Experienced first holiday abroad with school in 1970 in what was then Yugoslavia, followed by Austria, Switzerland and numerous trips to Paris. Went to see Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Cat Stevens and the Moody Blues whilst at school - loved them all but also enjoyed Northern Soul (my brothers favourite). Off to teacher training college mid '70's, a fantastic 3 years of college dances with some great dj's and bands, concerts to see the likes of Hall and Oates, Kiki Dee and numerous others. Oxford bags and crombie coats, wide legged jeans, denim skirts and platform shoes, we thought we were the bees knees!!

I turned 8 at the end of 1970. Was Osmond mad, still think I’m going to marry Donny! Mr J and me have been happily together for 43 years so I think I should stick with him!! Got a Saturday job at 15, in a record shop - the dream! Loved all the music, makeup and fashion of the seventies, they are still my favourite (updated!!) passions! Thank you for this thread, I’m loving it 💝

I left school in 1969 and cried "Freedom",I was a student in the Northeast for 3 years DH was a student for 5 years both were no longer teens Our lives revolved around our colleges and departments.
I remember the Levi 501's denim and cord. Lots of floaty cheesecloth clothes, burning bras a lot of droopy blossoms in those days.
The quest to get an invite to every college ball, swapping evening dresses and keeping clothes in the trunk cupboard that I dare not take home. Mini skirts coloured tights, hair as long as it would grow, putting blonde highlights in with a toothbrush.
Seeing Lindisfarne in concert and Cream.Watching College rowing races on the Wear.
We married early 70's and had no children so life went on really like a student. Sleeping in the hospital accommodation when DH had to be on call every other night and just joining in all the fun and pranks of the mess. Lots of balls and getting dressed up, special dinners at DH's senior's houses which were torture.Buying DH his Players untipped. Life was a gas as they said.

I became 13 in 1970, I had levi jeans, cords,and cheese cloth tops. I also wore huge platform boots. As the seventies wore on I shopped at Biba when I got my first job.
I got married aged 18 in 75 and had my first child in 76. That hot summer.
I loved the Sweet, and Bay
City Rollers.

Magazines were another defining feature of being a 70s teenager for me. At 13 I was reading Jackie, at 16 it was Cosmo, which remained my bible for years. There were quite a few clothes offers in there, I’ve still got my electric blue Lycra shiny trousers from circa 1978 somewhere, I couldn’t bear to throw them away.

I was 15 in 1970, and The Seventies were my happiest years. Loved all the clothes and we all had so much hair! I also went to the Apollo in Glasgow, saw Bowie, Wings, Elton John, Queen, Roxy Music etc. I used to bunk off school to queue up for the tickets! I smoked Consulate cigarettes and wore Mary Quant makeup. Learned to drive and borrowed Dad’s Singer Gazelle to cruise around looking for parties! Life was great back then, no social media, no mobile phones!

Ooh cheesecloth tops. I had a few all summery colours some tied at the naval. Big flared jeans till 1977 when straight leg drainpipes came into fashion. I was born in 1960 and loved the 70's and all the differing music from motown and soul through to rock and some punk. Went to gigs regularly. Those were the days.