Every '70s Girl Wanted a Gunne Sax

By | August 13, 2018

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For teens and young women in the 1970s, there was one dress brand that was tops on their list….Gunne Sax! The dress line, owned by designer Jessica McClintock, opened in 1967 in San Francisco and featured formal and semi-formal dresses. The emphasis was on romantic, whimsical, prairie-style and the Gunne Sax name was an updated, sophisticated play on ‘gunnysacks’, a burlap feed bag that was recycled into dresses during the Great Depression. Throughout the seventies, every girl wanted a Gunne Sax. 

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Dress Designed Was Inspired By The Past

America’s Bicentennial occurred in 1976, but the whole decade was obsessed with America’s history. One of the biggest fascinations was the pioneer era or westward expansion, that took place in the middle decades of the 1800s. The hugely popular television series, “The Little House on the Prairie” helped to spur on this trend. Seventies people were nostalgic for the pioneer days and sought to mimic them, especially in the way they dressed. Gunne Sax, with their prairie design, and calico and gingham fabric, filled a niche.