70s Costume Jewelry: Flowers, Geometric Shapes, and Colors
Dear Discolovers, today we are talking about costume jewelry. These items flourished in the 1970s, as did all fashion accessories of the time.
The recurring elements were constant: flowers (present practically everywhere in fashion during the first half of the decade), the direct heirs of a fading Flower Power that gave birth to the Hippie movement; geometric lines (highly frequent in fashion and beyond); and a fleeting reference to Indian culture, which lasted a few years between the late 60s and early 70s. Thus, we saw long, very long necklaces, even reaching the waist, and bracelets worn by both men and women; they could be crafted in metal with decorative floral elements, or composed of wire strands interspersed with beads, charms, or small plastic or metal flowers. Rings and pendant earrings also featured these 
motifs. Ultimately, this costume jewelry remains very relevant and appears to have returned to the height of fashion. In fact, so-called “freak” costume jewelry can still be found today exactly as it was 30 years ago, but for “geometric” jewelry, things have changed slightly. Finding triangular yellow and blue earrings, or round green ones with concentric circles, or rings with purple discs as large as a two-euro coin—perhaps matching a top made of similar material—is a rare occurrence.
Towards the middle of the decade, the prevailing Gypsy fashion trend introduced an accessory that has also made a major comeback: the flower hair clip. A large plastic or silk flower attached to a large clip, which was strictly worn on the side at the front, even with those curly hairstyles without a side part that were popular in the mid-70s. But then fashion began to change, flowers disappeared, and necklaces grew shorter; the more understated 1980s were arriving. Yet even if it vanished for a time, the new millennium has reintroduced costume jewelry very similar to that of the era featured in our posts, because the 1970s marked the history of fashion much more significantly than any other decade!
