Gear up! The disco returns to stay alive

The ’70s leisure suits, bell-bottom trousers and sequined halters could electrify a disco ball. Now they’re back and ready to party like it’s 1979. Just like those status-label jeans, so popular during the heyday of Gloria Vanderbilt, Sergio Valente and Jordache.

So are Fiorucci jeans. Pair ’em with Candie’s stiltlike sandals (yup, they’re back, too). Skinny and sequined is the name of the fashion game, says designer Betsey Johnson. “I like the sleazy, trashy extreme of it. And the pumping energy. So I’ve put the `look’ out there.”

The `look’? Skintight pants gleaming in stretch metallics and hologram patterns.

Johnson has also revived the original satin spandex that was used when it was disco time. “For the past year, I’ve popped into my collection those crazy, shiny sexy pants, and we’ve been doing great with them.”

Still, while it may be great fun, it’s just one of those things, Johnson admits. “It’s a novelty statement, a fun little perk,” she says. “It isn’t anything to me (that) you base a whole collection on”. “What’s fueling the fad thanks to improved technology is public acceptance of synthetic fabrics,” says designer Todd Oldham. In the ’70s, synthetics were mimicking finer fabrics, but now they’ve taken on their own life”.

“Qiana and ultrasuede from that time were totally revolutionary fabrics,” Oldham says. “Now they’ve evolved into really delicious synthetics.”

One thing no one will miss: those hold-your-breath, suck-in-your-stomach, don’t-you-dare-sit-down skintight jeans. Everyone used to have to lie on their bed and zip up their very, very skinny jeans,” says Darren Greenblatt, creative co-director for Fiorucci jeans, which will relaunch next spring. Now it’s all that stretch that gives mobility and body. We don’t have to have zippers at the ankles to make jeans tight anymore.”

Just what exactly are designers saying about disco? It’s probably best not to dress like a Donna Summer double. In 1979, Richard Tyler created a fully sequined purple jumpsuit with pink feather boa for singer Diana Ross. Now, “I don’t like it so literal,” Tyler says, although he does like disco as accent. Instead of a white shirt, you put a sequined tube top under a classic gray menswear suit to make it modern and with a flash of color.”

So, unless you’re starring in the upcoming film, Jackie Brown, when you party down, wear disco with a ’90s twist. Play that funky music. Just not too loud.