My Three Sons Years: Your Clothes & Hair (or your parents')?

[biffbronson]

I thought I would start a catch-all type of thread talking about how the clothes and hairstyles seen on My Three Sons compared with your family members' in those years.

Fall 1971 (Season 12): In my school photo, I was wearing a yellow dress shirt with a gold/brown necktie, something like Don Grady would wear as Rob around Season 10 or so. Also had on a sweater-vest (which I probably wore solely for that photo!).

Fall 1969 - Spring 1971 (Seasons 10 & 11): Barbara & Katie routinely wear dresses and skirts that fall well short of the knees. I don't recall my mom ever wearing fashions quite that short; for church her clothes reached the knees or a bit longer, with pretty much the same for her housedresses. As far as the sleeveless (Barbara especially in S11) or shift dresses seen on M3S, I think only in hot summer weather did my mom go sleeveless -- at home only (though practically all of the housedresses she made herself had short sleeves).

[horizonbeach11]

Great topic!

I had a little quilted house coat like the one Dodie wears when she gets up and pesters Steve and Barbara in the middle of the night.

I had two sisters and we wore only dresses to school until about 1974, which is what most of the little girls did back then, at least in our small, conservative Midwestern town. My mother would have never let us walk out the door in dresses like Dodie wore in season 10 and, I think a little bit, season 11. Where I came from you didn't let your underwear show, you would have been the laughing stock of the playground. I always think that those dresses on Dodie inadvertently make it appear that the Douglas family couldn't afford to replace her dresses as she grew taller.

My mother also never wore those dresses above the knees like Barbara and Katie wear, hers were always at least knee length. She also never wore false eyelashes, she didn't even own any, they would have been so weird and conspicuous in our little town.

I never had any brothers and my dad died when I was very young, but before he died (in 1969) he wore horn rimmed glasses like Ernie's, in fact so did pretty much every man and boy that I knew until the wire rimmed and aviator frames became popular in the mid- to late '70s.

I can remember that a lot of girls wore their hair like Polly's, long and straight, in fact the straighter the better. I can remember the teenage daughters of the lady who babysat me after school would even iron their hair with a clothes iron and an ironing board to get it really straight.

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by horizonbeach11

I had two sisters and we wore only dresses to school until about 1974, which is what most of the little girls did back then, at least in our small, conservative Midwestern town. My mother would have never let us walk out the door in dresses like Dodie wore in season 10 and, I think a little bit, season 11. Where I came from you didn't let your underwear show, you would have been the laughing stock of the playground. I always think that those dresses on Dodie inadvertently make it appear that the Douglas family couldn't afford to replace her dresses as she grew taller.

When I was attending school in the very early '70s, dresses were pretty common for the girls. I was in the Midwest as well. I remember in particular about the Spring of '71, the girl who lived in the next block wore a white sort of party dress when I invited her for lunch and we walked over to school together. Another girl who was more of my steady girlfriend (I was quite the operator, ages 4-6) wore a red outfit with matching red stockings & shoes to my birthday around that time, as seen in a photo.

Seems that a lot of things did change in the mid-'70s; for example, I always wore hard shoes to school like you see commonly on M3S through about early '76, when I switched to sneakers. I don't think my parents allowed me to wear them prior to that, they were for gym only.

Originally Posted by horizonbeach11

My mother also never wore those dresses above the knees like Barbara and Katie wear, hers were always at least knee length. She also never wore false eyelashes, she didn't even own any, they would have been so weird and conspicuous in our little town.

No false eyelashes for my mom either. That's interesting regarding dresses, I never knew if my mom was just more conservative than most, or what.

Originally Posted by horizonbeach11

I never had any brothers and my dad died when I was very young, but before he died (in 1969) he wore horn rimmed glasses like Ernie's, in fact so did pretty much every man and boy that I knew until the wire rimmed and aviator frames became popular in the mid- to late '70s.

My brother got his wire-rimmed glasses around '74, and I think for young people by then the type Ernie wore were fading away -- however a new boy in my 1974-75 class was still wearing the older style and continued for quite some time. I had a Sunday school teacher circa 1969 who scared me somewhat with the look of her horn-rimmed specs.

Originally Posted by horizonbeach11

I can remember that a lot of girls wore their hair like Polly's, long and straight, in fact the straighter the better. I can remember the teenage daughters of the lady who babysat me after school would even iron their hair with a clothes iron and an ironing board to get it really straight.

I had a couple of older cousins who had done some ironing of theirs. They both also wore flip styles in the photos I saw from circa 1966-68, well past the shoulders. These were like styles we saw for Rob & Chip's dates.

I remember very well around 1972 a girl who sat in front of me with a leather barrette with a stick going through it, in the back to hold her side hair. I always found that interesting.

I never did get into longer hair for boys myself during school months, but my bangs could be long at times. I was wearing an odd middle-part in about 1969-70 (my idea), but otherwise it was no part - bangs, bangs. And never a side part like the M3S guys wore, though my mom wanted me to try one.

[AB]

I wore the bell-bottom pants that were in style in the last couple of years of the show. I also wore my dresses above the knees. I was too young for the false eye-lashes but I did wear my hair parted in the middle & long like Polly's. I also wore the wide hair-bands to keep my hair out of my face.

[stevea]

Yeah, I remember wearing the pants with the flared-bortoms. The whole look with the longer hair, sideburns down to the earlobes. Maybe around 1972, season 12, that permed hair look a la Mike Brady. Mustache, goatee...

Back then it was size 34 waist, now 40 or 42. UGH!

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by AB

I wore the bell-bottom pants that were in style in the last couple of years of the show. I also wore my dresses above the knees. I was too young for the false eye-lashes but I did wear my hair parted in the middle & long like Polly's. I also wore the wide hair-bands to keep my hair out of my face.

Bell-bottoms were prevalent in my early grade school classes; I remember one girl in particular in the 1973-74 year who had a pair that really flared out wide.

I was still wearing hand-me-down corduroy bell-bottoms as late as 1983. One pair even had a rainbow-type of stitching on the back pockets.

If I look at my old, early '70s school class photos, most of the girls had relatively long hair; the photographer made sure to place their hair over the front of one shoulder, to display the length. Boys and girls had straight styles for the most part.

From another thread, about the male actors:

Originally Posted by stevea

I see the guys are in those shirts with the horribly long collars. I remember those...glad that didn't last too long.

Once again, those popped up in my hand-me-downs, circa 1979 when I started high school. I was so concerned that a girl I liked would dismiss me due to my out-of-date clothes, although it was a mix of current with the oldies.

[Hazel Anyday]

Bell bottoms were my favorite, the object was to have the bell bottom completely cover your shoe, tight jeans, slim leg, but flared bell bottom ideally covering whole shoe. And I liked the big collars, same with big wide ties and of course boots with a high heel. Man, that was the look! Sylin' and profilin' that was the way.

[stevea]

Stylin' and profilin', huh? Are you Hazel Anyday or Ric Flair? Woo!

[biffbronson]

Oh, the wide neckties -- it's like on WKRP with Herb Tarlek wearing those loud jackets, way out of style by the '80s.

No hand-me-down boots or shoes for me, as I passed my brother's shoe size. I didn't like his Levi's shoes anyway. My dad had some decent boots, but once again too small for me.

My brother's old pants tended to be a little tight on me -- I had bigger thighs, due to my pedal-car obsession when I was really young. So I can relate to the tightness coupled with the bell-bottom. Even with my new straight-leg pants, I remember an incident in high school when two girls were behind me on the stairs -- one asked to tug a little at my thigh, as the other was skeptical of how I filled 'em out!

[Mr B]

Fall 1971 I was wearing Olive Drab with a GI haircut courtesy of Uncle Sam!