70s Fashion Fiascos: Studio 54 to Saturday Night Fever [Paperback]

Maureen Valdes Marsh (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Collectors Press; 1 edition (October 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933112263
• ISBN-13: 978-1933112268
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maureen Valdes Marsh grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula in the 1960s and 70s. She is a true product of the counterculture revolution that was taking place around her. Protest marches were the beat of the day and Maureen can recall the many times (as an 8-year-old) she and her sister Tina held their own protest rallies. Only their small protest signs generally read, 'We Want Popcorn,' and their 'demonstrations' were held in their mother's kitchen.

It was during her teens that Maureen discovered her love of vintage clothing. Her wardrobe contained everything from fabulous 1940s crepe dresses to funky and flashy men's ties. Nothing was taboo when it came to dressing as an individual.

In 1999, after working in the accounting field for far too long, and as a local newspaper reporter, Maureen once again returned to her love of vintage clothing. This time turning her passion into a career with the birth of Vintage Grace (http://www.vintagegrace.com), an on-line vintage clothing website. There she's able to combine her eye for the fabulous and funky, her off-beat sense of humor, and her all consuming love for vintage fashion magazines and catalogs, into a full-time career.

70s Fashion Fiascos is the resulting product.

Maureen Valdes Marsh currently lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California with her husband Barry, two American Pitbull Terrier clowns named Kid Rock and Tucker, and her beloved cat of 16 years, Atticus Finch.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it for the photos, June 4, 2007

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Tell It Like It Is (Stuck on Midgard) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: 70s Fashion Fiascos: Studio 54 to Saturday Night Fever (Paperback)

This book is much smaller than I expected it to be looking at it on the computer screen when I ordered it. However, it does have lots of great photos and resources and I'd say its worth getting for your collection or it would make a great gift. I wish it would have gone by year, rather than style. Also I hoped that by the name "fashion fiascos" we would see more extreme styles of platform boots and shoes and other stereotypically 70's styles. Don't get me wrong, there are some, but not nearly as many as I'd thought and most of the book focuses on the "Marsha Brady" era of clothes, more so than the later 70's when you had a totally different style that was more 80's than 60's. The style of hair worn by somebody like Pam Dawber on Mork and Mindy in 1979 was radically different than the hard, sculpted styles of the earlier 70's. Clothes changed as radically as music did in the 70's. Even the sound of disco between the early stuff like "That's the Way I like it" was radically different from the later Disco sounds, such as Donna Summer and that change took place within only 5 years. Perhaps the author would do a Fashion Fiascos Vol 2 to include the onset of Disco to the end of the 1970s. This book doesn't even feature a John Travolta white suit. Still, aside from everything, it is a nice book for my collection and reference for those who sew period clothing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Trip Down Memory Lane, October 25, 2006

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M. White (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 70s Fashion Fiascos: Studio 54 to Saturday Night Fever (Paperback)

What a cool book! It brought me back to the optimism of the 70's. Ms. Valdes Marsh really knows her stuff and has the ads to prove it. The book is well laid out with an incredible array of fashion photos from the 70's (when fashion don'ts were fashion do's). Sadly, I must admit I actually thought I spotted a couple of my own fashions from high school days...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Must Have The Night F*E*V*E*R...to dress like that!, September 10, 2008

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Alex Honda "onyx575" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 70s Fashion Fiascos: Studio 54 to Saturday Night Fever (Paperback)

All kidding aside, the 70s FASHION FIASCOS[sic]:STUDIO 54 TO SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is a fantastic book filled with color pictures of 70s fashion. But don't expect to see photos of either Studio 54 or the movie Saturday Night Fever in this little over 8 x 7 inch book. The wonderful pictures here are on the real people.

Mostly taken from department store catalogs like Sears, Montgomery Wards, JC Penny and others, the book shows you many of the hottest trends in the 70s. From platform shoes to the leisure suit--and everything in between--it's all in here. And both men and women are featured, which is a plus! Most fashion books only concentrate on women's clothes but in 70s FASHION..., much like the decade, men get to play too.

Author Maureen Valdes Marsh does a great job describing the time and provides little bits of trivia peppered throughout. She also gives descriptions of the clothes and provides the info as to which store featured them.

Another great section is the resource guide in the back. In it, Valdes-Marsh provides information on vintage stores that are online so readers can check out and buy some cool clothes if they get inspired by the book.

I loved it. Although some of the clothes were absolutely horrid, there were many pieces that looked ultra-chic and I would definitely love to wear some of them. Anyway, I recommend this book to budding fashion designers, fashionistas, cool people and anyone who remembers the 70s.