As you have probably gauged from this blog, I like a bit of vintage. This is inherited from my mother, who is an op shop and garage sale extraordinaire, and while I suffered though it as a child, in my later years I have come to love it and now enjoy going out with my mother and sister in law.

Quite often I’ll call into Mum and Dads to find Mum has found a treasure for me during the week. This weekend, I was presented with a copy of New Idea from 1971. A magazine that was produced LONG before I was even thought about – before my parents even knew each other – in fact, my mother was about 12 or 13 years old.

You might wonder why Mum thought I might like this old magazine, quite unlike today’s glossies and full of sewing patterns and recipes? For the articles of course, and one in particular; The Psychology of Fashion.

You might laugh that similar articles have been written today, it is of course the nature of magazine to repeat themselves over a cycle of a few years, but the views in 1971 are quite a bit different to those 40 years later. I’d like to share a few of these tidbits with you today.

‘Liking your body and wishing to adorn it is a healthy and positive feeling which is fundamental to establishing good relationships with the opposite sex. There are no rules.’

And this;

‘What you wear is an expression of conscious taste and preference and a telling sign of how you see yourself’ (Dr. Joyce Brown)

But wait, there’s more…

‘…although she may wish to attract men (by being a fashion plate head turner), she is always attracting the wrong kind. Those males who pursue her do so because they are not interested in her as a person but as a fashionable appendage (like a sports car) that evokes the envy of other men.’

Perhaps on second thought, not a lot has changed… there are plenty more pearls of wisdom in this article.

However, the brilliance of this magazine does not end with this article. The reader’s story, ‘How plastic surgery increased my bust’ is a must read, while ‘The question of petting – should young couples make love before marriage’ and ‘Where are we going – Is women’s lib opening the door to new slavery?’ makes the young women of 2010 seem positivity promiscuous.

But I think my personal favourite is the advertisement for Limmits – an orange cream biscuit sold as a diet meal. Just replace a normal meal with two orange cream biscuits (no more than 350 calories!) and you won’t feel hungry, plus you will be getting all the vitamins, minerals and protein that you would have in a good square meal. A simple and convenient way to control your weight.

If nothing else you have to laugh. The contradictions of 1971 are nothing short of hilarious.