Bellbottoms

We all know those things, some hate them, some love them but everybody knows them. And that's thanks to Cher. Being the dutiful Cher fan I am I tried for the longest time to get a pair of real bellbottoms and finally yesterday I got them. They look great, and huge. I don't mean huge as in, wow they aren't skinny but holy crap they are like a skirt!

I love them! It's annoying to walk in them when there's wind outside but who cares? I have Cher-like bellbottoms. Later today I even got those sunglasses in an aweful brownish black color that were so hip during the 70s. They are kind of ike a traffic accident, horrific but one just can't look away. Having dark hair, bellbottoms and a lot of big earings and bling all over my clothes makes me feel a little bit like Cher!

It's just fun!
Cher (here with Sonny in the late 60s) made the former manwear unisex. If one looks into the history of bellbottoms they were THE thing to wear. If you were in the navy in the 19th century that is. And then a suddenly they became hip again in the 1960s with the arrival of Sonny and Cher!

Isn't it amazing how a trend a shy, sharp tongued girl from El Centro, CA could set a world wide trend like this one. That's just the miracle that is Cher. Back in the 60's she saw a girl wearing Bellbottoms on the street and just couldn't help but walk up to her and as where she got those unique pants. The answer: A friend of hers had sewn them for her. At this point Cher was hooked. She got the friend to sew her own creations for Sonny and her outlandish look.
By '62 they lived in a little loft above S&C's garage and sewed all of Cher's creations together. They would even be featured on the backside of the Sonny and Cher Album Look at us.

By the 1970s when many youngesters, even those who now labled the Bonos as square wore Bellbottoms it was Bob Mackie who took over. With the start of their own weekly variety show he started to really get into the business, he started dressing Sonny and Cher in the most outrageous yet classy clothes TV-land had seen till then. 3 years later even TVs most beautiful private detectives copied what Cher had already worn in the 60s, bellbottoms.

By the 1970s however Cher(here with daughter Chastity in '75) herself preferred to push the envelope to new heights and instead of hippyish unisex clothes she started wearing destinctavely female clothes, mid-riff baring tops, cropped tops, all sorts of low-cut and generally cut out tops and pants or skirts. Once general public caught on to the trend that she had set she simply choose to follow her own, new trend - at least on stage. Many 'private' or at least cassual pictures of that time still show Cher in bellbottoms.

During the 1980s however she abandoned the style completely. It was replaced with much wilder(did we even think that was possible after the Take me home cover?!) and much skimpy costumes. Like the seat belt she wore for her infamous Turn Back Time video or the racy sado-maso outfit in Save up all your tears.

By the late 1990s however she wore them again, her bellbottoms. The only recent interview I can think of however is the one with Jay Leno in 1998, but see for yourself:


'They are older than some of my boyfriends!' That's the kind of tongue in cheek humor Cher fans - including me - love so much.
Personally I'm absolutely in favor of a return of the Bellbottoms and that is not just for 1970s revival parties but forever. Heck if a trend can last 40 years - I'm talking about bellbottoms here not Cher though it does fit her too - then we are all ought to respect that! Now go get your old Gypsys Tramps and Thieves record, put on your bellbottoms and make love, not war.

Peace out!