I vaguely remember a friend of mine back in the 70's banging on about buying a tabard and me not knowing what the hell she was on about. She was quite fashion forward for her age, mainly because her father used to spoil her rotten after her parents separated. She'd get piles of stuff for Christmas/birthdays and quite a lot of stuff "just because". I do remember her tabard being a rather non descript slip over that she wore over a skinny rib polo neck with a belt around it. Tbh it looked like she was off to work in a hairdressing salon! She was always the leader in fashion, but to be fair, she was on her own with this one! She was the first to get a grandad shirt (stripy with white collar), a bomber jacket, Wedge heel black patent toeposts with gold bar around the back of the heel. I did eventually get the shirt, the bomber jacket and the sandals but I had to wait until my birthday in November when it was too cold to wear most of them!
Back to the earlier 70's and what my mum wore, apart from the tunics, there were smocks and pinafore dresses - now they're a blast from the past!
I'm sure everybody had that friend who had it all, or maybe you were that friend. I was raised in a fairly well to do area, but we weren't well to do by any means, my mum struggled with money and my dad was just downright mean careful with his money. He refused to have a mail order catalogue in the house which would've helped for sure. Clothing was bought when absolutely necessary, fashion items were strictly for birthdays and Christmas, but things improved greatly on that front when my dad shipped out. I wasn't spoiled but my mum recognised that for a young teenager clothing is more than something that keeps you "decent" warm and dry. A Marshall Ward catalogue landed and my mum used to give me the child benefit money to spend on clothes and make up bless her! Happy days!