Home › Anecdote › BRING BACK BELL BOTTOMS – Marilyn Armstrong

BRING BACK BELL BOTTOMS – Marilyn Armstrong

By on • ( 35 )

Mostly, I miss the pants. The big wide bell bottoms were the most flattering jeans I ever had. They made my legs look longer and my hips narrower.

From the year my son was born — 1969 — and for the next few years, fashion and I were simpatico.

It was the hippiest of times … and I was as much as a hippy as I would ever be.

I was young. I wore big bell bottoms. The  patchwork jeans were my favorites, although at the end of the day. I looked like I had been sitting on a waffle iron.

My shirts had fringes. Purple fringes.

96-BabyOandMe-HPI wore granny glasses with rose-tinted lenses. My hair was cut in a shag. I had my baby in a sling on my hip, a Leica on my shoulder and a song in my heart (probably the Beatles). That was a good as it got for me.

I miss the clothing. I really miss the Leica.

Mostly, I want my bell bottoms back!

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Categories: Anecdote, Daily Prompt, Humor

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35 replies

  1. judyt54
    05/04/2018 • 22:18

    we were so damn cool, lol. All that hair. All those jeans. I was even skinny then. (sobbing)

    Like

  2. anstalmi
    05/04/2018 • 19:52

    I miss my bell bottoms too!

    Like

  3. ampycom
    05/04/2018 • 19:52

    I had a pair that I bought in the Village… high waisted with impossibly wide bells. God, they were flattering! That was one helluva style… thanks for the reminder.

    Like

  4. Embeecee
    05/04/2018 • 16:30

    They’re making a come-back, did you know? Of course the new ones will NEVER live up to what we had in those days, but some things never go out of style apparently. And I’ve always loved ‘loose’ jeans, no skinny, tight ones for me!

    Like

  5. Martha Kennedy
    05/04/2018 • 12:46

    You don’t miss bell bottoms. You miss being young. ❤

    Like

  6. Kiki
    05/04/2018 • 12:33

    aaaawh…. all of it! Memories!

    Like

  7. swo8
    05/04/2018 • 12:30

    Wait long enough Marilyn and they’ll be back.
    Leslie

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  8. jcalberta
    05/04/2018 • 11:24

    i looked really hot in my bells and hip huggers. Long hair, tie dyed tank top, whistling San Fransisco (with no flowers in my hair) …
    Boy … that seems so long ago …

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  9. Covert Novelist
    05/04/2018 • 11:18

    I SO agree. I loved bell bottoms. They were fun times!

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  10. judyt54
    05/04/2018 • 07:43

    oh yeah. Bells, and hip huggers, and indian cotton tops, tie-dyed..we were so damn cool. And they did make you look taller, it was that line that did it. Yoga pants come close, but the drape is wrong on the bell, it wobbles. 😦

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      05/04/2018 • 10:50

      They haven’t quite gotten that drapery right. I know. The know ones have been either too big or too long or too … something. But the lines were great. Too bad I outgrew them 🙂

      Like

  11. ksbeth
    05/04/2018 • 02:50

    i love these pics, and loved my bell bottoms )

    Like

  12. angloswiss
    05/04/2018 • 02:30

    I remember the bell bottoms. they were OK. It was at the time when Mr. Swiss wore colourful shirts with flowers and big collars. I just went with it, but was too busy bringing up 3 kids to spend time on hippy stuff. I had nappies to change.

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  13. Fandango
    05/04/2018 • 02:09

    Back in the late 60s and early 70s, I worked in an office where I had interactions with the public. I had long hair, long muttonchop sideburns, a Fu Manchu mustache, wire-framed glasses, wide, colorful, artsy ties, and suits with bell-bottom trousers. I was told by some of my customers and clients that I looked like some sort of “Hippie Lawyer.”

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  14. Sue Vincent
    05/04/2018 • 01:40

    Oddly enough, I saw a hippy-style dress in a window yesterday almost identical to one I had way back when… I loved that dress, but I doubt I’d get away with it today 🙂

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      05/04/2018 • 10:47

      I think that’s the problem for all of us. It isn’t even the size of our bodies. Even if we are the same size, that clothing was for the young and when we wear it, it looks … well … silly.

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  15. omniclassic
    05/04/2018 • 01:04

    I recently found an old pair of perfectly preserved bell-bottom jeans in a drawer. Tie-dyed, of course, did them myself and loved them. I tried to put them on and got the shock of my life. I couldn’t get them beyond my knees. They sure are beautiful and a work of art, if I do say so myself. I should donate them to a museum. I’m embarrassed to say but I also found beads, Tie-dyed T-shirts, smoking paraphernalia and other stuff. As you imply it was a magic time in our lives.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. agapsikap
    05/04/2018 • 00:28

    Photos bring back memories. Beautiful!

    Like