You know what wasn’t cool about the 70′s? Nothing, jack. Heavy metal, punk, glam, what a decade. But just because I was still a kid during the 70′s, doesn’t mean that I didn’t get in on the awesomeness of it all. I loved Kiss, lived for Iron-on’s, and was always sending away for some garbage I couldn’t live without by way of some magazine or a box of cereal.
Recently, I was doing some “research” for a column I write for Destroy the Brain, and got pulled through an Internet rabbit hole full of vintage “Rock Star” belt buckles made by Pacifica Manufacturing in Los Angeles. Three hours later, I’m still in awe of these things, and you will be too. It appears that Pacifica started making belt buckles sometime in mid-70′s, were partial to sparkly laminate, and kept cranking out their classic oval buckle designs through 1978. To this day people are still making some pretty great fake-outs of Pacifica’s original designs.
This guy put together a pretty nice gallery of Pacifica’s amazing fashion relics – like their line of sport and historical event themed buckles, as well as his own massive personal collection.
What follow are images that blew my mind, one by one today. So strap on your belts, and set your Wayback machine for 1976 – it’s going to be a trippy ride…
