Clara's 1975 Blouse and Pants

I was watching a 1970s movie, and even if I could have ignored the cheesy acting, the clothing was hilarious. The outrageous hairstyles and clothing made me wonder if any clothing from that decade could be worn today without everyone knowing it was a vintage outfit.

I looked for "timeless classics" for a while, but all of the clothing from the 70s is immediately identifiable and very dated. The huge collars, modern-art or floral fabric patterns, bell bottoms, platform shoes, wrap dresses, and fitted blazers are all iconic of the 70s.

I did find one design for a blouse that would make a really cute, stylish blouse today. The original had an outrageous modern art design inset with a red gingham print. In a different fabric, it could be worn today. The blouse has butterfly sleeves, and two triangular insets on the bodice.

Clara's pants are bell bottoms. Originally made of a nice thick rayon. Eek.

Clara has some hair in a feathered "wings" style, similar to Farrah Fawcett's hairstyle in Charlie's Angels. I tried to make the cutting lines as simple as possible, but the hair still turned out pretty tough to cut out. Apologies for that. The hair does look pretty cute when it is on Clara, and won a complement from my youngest daughter. Tuck the dotted line tabs behind Clara's neck, and leave the rest of the hair in front of her shoulders.

Clara's shoes are some cute espadrilles. The thick platform soles are similar to shoes in style now, but the actual styling of the shoes is classic 1970s.

To print Clara's outfit, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 37 (749k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will continue to be available on this blog as long as I post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (745k)