Are you ready for a 1970s-style comeback?

Midway through the second episode of Daisy Jones & The Six – the new Amazon Prime series which chronicles the spectacular rise and implosion of a fictional 1970s rock band – the star of the show takes to the stage at the Troubadour club for the first time.

While Daisy, played by Riley Keough, sings a folk song in plaits, hoop earrings, a filmy silk top and high-rise denim flares, two thoughts occur: One, Keough can sing (she is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter). And two: I need those jeans.

Daisy Jones & The Six, adapted from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel, is about the music scene in 1970s Los Angeles; it is about relationships, tortured genius, creative graft and people who have the elusive “it”.

It is also, not secondarily, about the clothes. And it’s the latest entry in a long list of reasons the 1970s remain fashion’s favourite decade.

“From the beginning, we knew it was important that the clothes looked realistic,” says Denise Wingate, the show’s costume designer. Wingate remembers reading the book in one sitting, thinking as she turned the pages that designing costumes for the inevitable screen adaptation would be a dream job.

It helped that she understood the characters’ world. “I grew up in LA, I snuck into clubs, I toured with a band as a stylist… I knew the period,” she says.

Creating costumes that established Daisy as a plausible rock legend without hewing too closely to any single real-world figure was a delicate balance. Wingate negotiated it by drawing from everyone and everywhere. “Obviously Fleetwood Mac was a huge influence on Daisy,” says Wingate who incorporates plenty of Stevie Nicks-ish kimonos and silk scarves into the stage wear.

But she also looked at photographs of unknowns from Laurel Canyon, the young Brigitte Bardot and Linda Ronstadt, who performed at some of the same clubs as Daisy wearing short shorts and halter tops. “There was something about her that was so innocent yet so rock star,” she says.

References for the other female characters read like a roll call of 1970s icons. Keyboardist Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse) is “a little more glam”, with a look inspired by the late Christine McVie (also from Fleetwood Mac), Patti Smith and Suzi Quatro.

Camila Dunne, the photographer, played by Camila Morrone, moves from Ali MacGraw boho into a sleeker, Bianca Jagger and Lauren Hutton-inspired direction.

Disco singer Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be) is a bit Diana Ross. There’s a character for every style inclination.
“There’s something about the 1970s which was a little more carefree.

“It was an anything-goes decade,” Wingate says. “If you think about it, there were so many different genres: boho, psychedelic, rock’n’roll, the very classy Bianca Jagger type of upscale. It’s this wonderful mix of different styles.

Lucy Bishop, a specialist at Kerry Taylor Auctions agrees. “If the 1950s were the golden age of haute couture, then the 1970s were the golden age of the high street, with brands such as Biba gaining an almost fanatical following,” she says. Her London salesroom handles pieces from the likes of Ossie Clark, Thea Porter and Zandra Rhodes. “It was a time when great design was becoming increasingly more accessible to the wider public,” she says.

No wonder the decade remains a touchstone for so many designers.

On the spring-summer 2023 runways alone, Ulla Johnson gave boho style an uptown makeover, Celine brought in the rock star swagger via leather waistcoats (worn over a striped button-down shirt not unlike the one Daisy wears to her first studio session with The Six), and Chloe – a label that had its heyday under Karl Lagerfeld in the 1970s – committed to the crochet dress.

In fact the runways have been so awash with 1970s references that some of the female characters’ outfits end up looking very 2023. The lilac crochet halter top, vintage silk jacket, patchwork suede hot pants and Western boots Daisy wears for one concert look cool, sure.

They also look like strong options for Sienna Miller’s Glastonbury wardrobe this summer.

“It’s definitely a very festival vibe,” Wingate laughs. “I can 100 per cent see people wearing a lot of these looks on the street today or at any party.”

Her shortcuts to achieving Daisy’s look? Boots (stacked knee-high boots or vintage-look Western styles), high-rise flared jeans and Penny Lane-style fur-trimmed coats. (Oh, and short shorts with long lace dusters, if you dare.)

Daisy’s jeans, by the way, are just as often contemporary Levi’s as vintage. Along with the stacks of vintage Chemin de Fer, Ditto and Rag City Blues jeans Wingate sourced from LA markets, boutiques and swap meets (“I was a mercenary about it”), she used lots of current-day Levi’s.

She also pulled pieces from Free People – so many that the boho brand will launch a “Daisy Jones” capsule collection later this month with Keough modelling the edit of embroidered waistcoats, moto jackets and silky dresses.

“I didn’t care if a piece was contemporary or vintage; I just wanted the right mix,” Wingate says, noting that she needed “thousands” of outfits across the 10-episode series – Camila had 56 changes in one episode alone.

“I needed to get stuff from everywhere I could, but I was very selective and conscientious about how everything looked together.”

If you don’t have these pieces tucked away in a trunk from the first time around, there are plenty of 1970s-inflected styles on the high street. The decade’s midi dresses and knee-high boots are staples at Sezane and D?en season after season.

For high-rise flared jeans, button into styles from Me+Em, Jigsaw, Hush or Frame. If Daisy’s incredible wardrobe of fur-trimmed coats has infiltrated your brain, try similar designs from Charlotte Simone (Dua Lipa has worn the designer’s Strawberry Puff coat), Shrimps, Kitri or Urban Outfitters.

Or look to the vintage market for original 1970s pieces. “You can acquire a plain moss crepe dress by Ossie Clark at auction from about ￡200 upwards,” Bishop says, noting that pieces from Scottish-born Bill Gibb are also good value. “Considering the prices of ready-to-wear today, it really is quite shocking that more people don’t shop vintage at auction,” she says.

You may prefer to handle gems from the era more gently than Wingate did, however. For Daisy’s final concert, Keough rang Wingate and told her she’d been listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman.

“She said, ‘I think we should do that.’ So I looked high and low for gold pieces,” she says. A seamstress on Wingate’s team sourced a vintage gold Halston kaftan. “But we tried it on Riley and it just hung like a tent.” They decided to cut it into a cape. “Right down the middle. I’m not going to lie, that was scary. We cut it down the middle and put a little snap on the top.”

Riley wore the improvised cape over a 1930s vintage gold crochet metallic dress from a costume house.

“We were worried because it was so fragile and she had to wear it so many nights in a row.

“But it ended up being perfect for the finale. She was like a butterfly moving around on stage, ethereal and spinning. It was just right.”

Get the look

From left: Quilted dress, ￡149, dilligrey.com; Cotton broderie blouse, ￡145, wraplondon.co.uk; Suede cowboy boots, ￡329, penelopechilvers.com; Denim skirt, ￡49.99, mango.com

From left: Vinyl coat with faux fur trim, ￡245, kitristudio.com; Split seam flare jeans, ￡195, meandem.com; Suede jacket, ￡399, whistles.com