My Retailer - River Island

River Island History 


Here is a timeline of River Island's first appearances and how they have grown as a company.

River Island are one of the UK's biggest retailers, providing products for almost all age ranges and styles.

My Chosen Decade - 1970

Fashion in the 1970s changed drastically from the beginning to the end.

In the beginning of the decade, women’s styles were very extravagant.

Extreme, bright colours were very popular and long, flowing skirt and trousers were everywhere in the winter.

In the summer, women wore very short shorts and skin tight t-shirts.

With every year, trousers were flaring wider and wider.

It was common for a pair of women’s wide-flare slacks to have 32″ around the bottom of the leg hem.

Soon the flare exploded into bell-bottoms and it couldn’t go anywhere but smaller from there.

Another trend was emerging and soon took over the fashion world: suits.

Women were wearing pants in the sixties, but not all of them.

By the time the 70s rolled around, women were wearing pants in every walk of life.

Female executives were wearing business suits with pants, women at home were wearing jeans.

Women’s fashion in the mid-to-late 1970s was dominated by suits.

Leisure suits, pant suits, jump suits and track suits, were worn.

That’s not to say that dresses, blouses, skirts and other popular garments weren’t worn, it’s just that they weren’t as important to defining the style of the times.

Hats were not popular for everyday women anymore. Jewelry was nice, but not the main course.

Hair was long and natural.

Often women could do their hair in minutes instead of hours.

Above all, women could finally wear whatever they wanted. Gender roles still played a part in wardrobe choices, but compared to previous generations, women’s fashion in the 1970s was nothing short of revolutionary.