FASHIONS CAUSE DEJA VU

Big shoes and bell bottoms are back in style.

Remember when ...

... you couldn't possibly wear jeans that didn't completely cover your shoes and touch the floor.

... you deliberately frayed the bottoms of your blue jeans.

... your favorite shirt was a shiny, floral bodyshirt with a butterfly collar.

... your tie was w-i-d-e and lapels were pointy.

... you actually wore a pastel polyester pantsuit or a leisure suit.

Take a look around. The fashions that help made the 1970s the disco decade are making a comeback -- platform shoes and all.

The 1970s began with hippies and ended with disco. The colors were bright. The patterns geometric, and fabrics synthetic.

"Oh yes it's back," said Debra Harris, manager of the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Cape Girardeau. "It's definitely coming back around again."

Shoppers are searching for double-knit pantsuits and flared-leg jeans.

"They want flowered tops and polka dots and old fashioned leisure suits," Harris said. "Yes, they are really buying leisure suits."

Mostly the retro style seems to be popular with high school and college age shoppers. But younger and younger people are getting in the groove, often to the amazement of their parents.

"I see daughters shopping with their mom or dad," Harris said. "The parents say `Do you really want to wear that?' They do."

Harris predicts the trend will continue. "Especially now that new stores are coming out with these styles."

It's true, said Misty Dannenmueller, assistant manager at Vanity. The store is filled with an updated 1970s look.

"We're selling several styles of flares," she said. "And the boot cut is a big seller for jeans."

Making a comeback are pants with the carpenter's look, hammer slings and big back pockets. Back in the 1970s, those were painter's pants.

"We have recently gotten in several 3/4 length sleeve styles and those are really hot," Dannenmueller said.

And floral prints are also popular, "especially for the more trendy people," Dannenmueller said.

This spring look for the prints to include butterflies and dragonflies, flowers and smiley faces.

"Moms come in with their kids and say `Oh my gosh! I remember when...' They're shocked.," Dannenmueller said.

"But I think this is a way the younger generation can kind of relate to their parents. Parents and teenagers are a lot alike or at least they are a lot when they were the same age."

The look is prevalent in children's fashions as well. "It's fun," said Judy Wilferth, owner of Children's Bazaar. "There seems to be a positive, upbeat attitude about these clothes. The kids really like it."

Those synthetic fabrics are back. "They're comfortable and they stretch," Wilferth said.

"The nice thing about fashion today is that you can do what you want to do, and it's OK," Wilferth said.

"All the looks are still out there. The college kids are all into swing music. They call it the swing. We called it the jitterbug."

Don't like these styles? Just wait a few more years. Those 1980s fashions -- skinny ties, oxford-cloth shirts and preppy monogrammed sweaters -- will be back.