Knitwear in Fashion from 1970

Abstract

Knitwear has a history almost as long as clothing and therefore is a familiar aspect of dress. Most frequently, knitted clothing is associated with women’s creative domestic practice, as it has been associated with thriftiness, philanthropy, and making do, especially during wartime, and thus seems to exist or be understood as outside of the dynamic world of fashion. Yet, most catwalk collections include some knitwear, and it is central to notions of fashion, embracing the Zeitgeist in relation to technological innovation (machinery, technique, yarns/fibers), and design and style (pattern, form, scale). Innovation in knitwear is discussed here in relation to shape, pattern, scale, and as a sign of the times, but also as a “classic” in relation to the (non) development of traditional styles that maintain a fashion presence from the 1970s onward. The examples included here consider innovation in pattern, shape, scale, perception, construction, and deconstruction (reveal/conceal), as well as considering the ways in which traditional forms have maintained a fashion presence. Ultimately, the themes outlined are recurrent, and trends set in the 1970s have been reworked and revisited into the early twenty-first century.

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