Going with the flow

'Tales' chronicles floppy '70s fashion
Cynthia Robins, Chronicle Beauty Writer
Tuesday, May 1, 2001

When Armistead Maupin's "Tales" character Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco from Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1975, she was a vision of Midwest preppy comfort with her cute and pro-pah pearls, cable-knit crew neck and folkloric-patterned skirt. Square? You betcha. How much better to clock the sartorial progress of a Little Miss Milkmaid who first looked as if she just strolled off the campus at Ohio State?

Most of the clothes in the '70s, finding a huge revival these days, were much more romantic and outrageous than our Miss Singleton's. And what she probably saw, in the Castro, walking down Montgomery Street and even in the protected precincts of Mrs. Madrigal's Barbary Lane, was an education in idiosyncrasy.

Take Anna herself. She was the pot-growing, dope-smoking uber-hippie who would put colored lights in lamps and spread a lacy shawl over them for even more atmosphere. Her clothes, a riot of colors, prints and sheer materials, reflected the tail end of a time when ethnic clothes were diaphanous and figure-masking. That she would wrap her head, like black icons Cicely Tyson and Odetta, was a given. On Anna, however, it was haute bohemian.

Walking around in the Castro, Michael Tolliver had a smorgasbord of male pulchritude to ogle, cruise and imitate. The Castro clone looked as if he'd just stepped off the audition stage for "A Chorus Line" with his plaid shirts and short-shorts, ginchy little mustache and cropped hair. In fact, the day Michael moved into Barbary Lane, he was wearing a T-shirt with that famous Michael Bennett quote: "Dance 10, Looks 3."

As for the society belles, they would have worn Republican Red Adolfo suits but for fun, a soupcon of Edwardian dandy, a velvet pantsuit with a bit of highwayman ruffle at the throat. Well, we know that Prue Giroux, a.k.a. Pat Montandon, would have essayed a bit of Beau Brummel.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/05/01/DD221911.DTL&hw=%27Tales%27+chronicles+floppy+%2770s+fashion&sn=001&sc=1000