The Bell Bottoms Sighting

Frederick's Ad


Frederick's Ad

Here is a Frederick's of Hollywood advertisement from the January 1974 issue of Playgirl magazine featuring a drawing of bell bottom pants similar to the ones I saw at the University of Hawaii in 1971. I do not know when Frederick's began advertising these, because I was so preoccupied with school, and so broke, that I did not see very many issues of magazines that would have run such ads. I do know that Frederick's sold them for years, perhaps as late as 1981. The appearance of the flared section does not look the way the pants I like look, because the fabric I prefer is extremely fluid. When the woman wearing them is standing still they hardly flair out at all. It is when she walks that they come alive, expanding, contracting, swaying and swirling in frenzied motion. Capturing that in a still image is impossible, and even I resort to drawing the bottoms open up. I saw a pair of Frederik's pants when they opened their first store in Honolulu, at Pearl Ridge, and I was very disappointed because the fabric lacked the sensuous feel of the pants made by Funky, Rina, Manning Silver and other designers.