By 1970 girls selected who they needed to be and if they felt like wearing a short mini skirt one day and a maxi dress, midi skirt or hot pants the next day – that is what they actually did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI955uTMZWo
For eveningwear girls frequently wore full length maxi dresses, evening trousers or glamorous halter neck catsuits. Some of the dresses oozed Motown glamour, others less so.
Left – 2 young women in their early twenties on vacation in the Canary Islands c1972. The short check flared skirt was very popular, as was the empire style of the diamond check pattern mini dress. Right – Halter neck catsuit pattern of 1971. Exotic and tropical prints were a mirrored image of designers gaining inspiration from overseas travel destinations.
For evening in the early seventies, either straight or flared Empire line dresses with a sequined fabric bodice and exotic sleeves were the style for a dressy occasion. Image of office girls wearing short mini dresses. Fashion history and costume history of the 1970s.
One frequently worn style was the Gramps dress with a high neck. Often the stand neck was pie-crust frilled, or lace trimmed. Often they were made from a floral print design in a warm brushed fabric or viscose rayon crepe which draped and gathered well into empire line styles.
Right – Typical short and mini dresses worn at an office party in 1972 / three. At the front a young girl wears a long floral granny dress that covers her knees.
Another very successful evening form of the 1970s was the halter neck dress, either maxi or above knee.
Left – Black halter neck dress pattern of 1971.
At a disco, 1970s girls might don hot pants. In sharp relief to the reveal all mini, a lady would all of a sudden confound men by fully covering her legs and retort that mini dresses were an exploitation, instead of a liberation of women.