They were regular jeans at the top, and were straight and wider after, especially from the knee down. No good google images - hardly any models standing in a normal pose.
There were flares and then....bell bottoms...... Not that I was really into what the ladies wore, ( ) but I believe that when bell bottoms came out, the side and back zippers on women’s jeans disappeared.
Yes indeed. It was during those times (the 60’s) that I first experienced the word “uni-sex”. New Orleans has only one blue law and that is that men’s clothing cannot be sold on Sunday hence the new craze had much more meaning than it would in other places. If the sign on the clothing shop said uni-sex, then what would normally be defined as men’s clothing prior to that time could be sold because women wore them too. Alas, when I was a lad I had no time for such things though. As far as wanting to be an adult, I was treated as an adult from very early on. There was a time though that I did lie about my age but since I looked like a 13 year old, I was hired as such and went to work. In those days and before, the French Quarter had it’s own way of doing things regarding age. If a male was big enough and tall enough and had their own money to put on the bar, he was old enough to be allowed into the club of adulthood.
I don't remember having ever been driven by any of that stuff. I grew my hair long before anyone else in my school began doing so, and I think that it was purely because I liked it that way, and still do. On the other hand, if no one else in the country were doing so, I might not have. But I don't think I was trying to emulate anyone. I suppose I dressed like a hippy but that term was embarrassing and if I had a patch on my pants, it was because there had been a hole there, and if they were faded, it was because I had worn them for a long time, and they had faded. People who took steps to fade their pants or to add patches where patches weren't needed were posers. It was years later when the stores started selling pre-faded and pre-shredded clothing, and that's just plain weird. It was a time when you didn't have to spend a lot of money in order to fit in, I suppose. I guess the closest I came was when I cut a slit down the seam of my pants and sewed some other material in to form bell bottoms, back before you could buy bell bottoms in the stores. Even then, it seemed that they were more comfortable that way. Although I looked young for my age, I don't think I ever really wanted to look older.
I'm pretty sure there are quite a lot of hard NOs for many men today. In retrospect they simply can't understand what made them dress the way they did in the 70s. My absolute low point was men wearing suit and shirt and the collar of the shirt turned outward like John Travolta. You know what I mean. Can't find a licence-free pic right now. I'm also relieved that styles keep changing.