When BOLD was new

There's a reason we're still fascinated with 70's style at MPB.  It truly was a "way out" era, one that now seems oh, so long ago -- not only in time, but in temperament.  Oh, sure, people can wear anything today, but it's usually with an ironic wink.  That wasn't the case back then.  The (admittedly brave) guy who wore those op art bell-bottom pants thought he epitomized cutting-edge style, not camp.

I love old 70's patterns and have sewn quite a few of them.  I'll admit, I straighten the pants legs so I don't look like Greg Brady, and avoid period double knits (and psychedelic prints).  There's still some wacky RTW (ready-to-wear) clothes out there in stores, but for the home sewer, it's slim pickins' when it comes to menswear patterns.  The vast majority are for boxy shirts cut with extra ease for expanding waistlines or high-waisted, baggy-thigh jeans whose RTW equivalent you'd find only at Kmart.

The big pattern makers have surrendered style to the bottom line.  The market for high fashion menswear patterns is too small to bother with.

Yes, I know, there's Burda.  But the Burda styles for men I see in print look like the kind of just-past-the-fashion-curve outfits I see in Bollywood movies: cute on Akshaye Khanna, perhaps, but not on me.

I'll stick with the Apache shirt -- and I might even try that neckerchief!

From male pattern boldness