Nostalgia Mode: Fashion and Sentimentality in the 1970s
Throughout the “Bicentennial Era” (1971-1976), various local and national initiatives marked the two-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Whereas the centennial celebrations of 1876 were characterized by a forward-looking perspective, the Bicentennial observance spurred widespread interest in the past. In a decisive turn away from the utopian futurism associated with the 1950s and 1960s, popular culture of the Bicentennial Era put forth a romanticized and idealized image of American history. This wave of “new nostalgia” was evident in film and television, with titles including American Graffiti (1973), Little House on the Prairie (1974), and Roots (1977) debuting during the Bicentennial period. Cultural theorists have referred to this rose-tinted interpretation of the past as “nostalgia mode.”
“Nostalgia mode” was also prevalent in fashionable dress of the 1970s. Indeed, fashion, along with other material objects such as souvenirs and consumer goods, provided a tangible synthesis of past and present. Most associated with the fashionable label “Gunne Sax,” flowing dresses mixed nineteenth-century styles with picturesque ideals of prairie life. Bicentennial patriotism was reflected in red, white, and blue patterns bearing presidential portraits and symbols such as the American flag, the bald eagle, and the Liberty Bell. Amidst a revolution in synthetic materials, Bicentennial sentiment supported a return to natural fibers and the handmade that can be seen in garments featuring knitting, crocheting, quilting, patchwork, macramé, and embroidery. Such sartorial expressions of “nostalgia mode” illuminate an often-overlooked feature of fashionable dress in the 1970s which disrupts the dominance of polyester, disco, and the hippie movement in the popular imagination.
Following the United States’ withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, the Bicentennial period was also marked by disillusionment, political mistrust, and protest. Grassroots groups responded to the pervasive interest in the past by drawing attention to the contributions of racialized and Indigenous peoples to American history while highlighting the erasure of these groups in the mainstream coverage of the Bicentennial. Local initiatives, including the Black Women Oral History Project at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, both of which were established in 1976, challenged narrow and exclusionary historical narratives.
The collective nostalgia fostered by the Bicentennial encouraged a personal connection with the past through practices of collecting, researching, and archiving. This popular interest in history is reflected in the Avenir Museum’s accession records from the period. In 1976, approximately 700 pieces were donated to the Museum, which represents a significant increase from the approximately 150 pieces acquired in 1975. The surge in donations affirms that historical dress and textiles were central to the public’s relationship with the past.
