For Disco fans, this past week was difficult as we lost two of the great voices of the disco era. First, Donna Summer, then Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. Two disco greats are gone, but their global appeal and historical significance will live on. And so we take a minute to reflect on the dance-floor craze of yesteryear and the celebrities who made discotheques the “ground zero” for fashion, as they tripped the light fantastic to Donna Summer’s thunderous belts and the Bee Gees’ harmonic voices.

The Bee Gees hit "Stayin' Alive" is living up to its name, Photo GETTY

Disco music is one of the most infectious music styles, and one of the most universally liked. This early electro-pop mixed all the excesses music and technology could help bring into a single discotheque’s arena; the dance floor was not only for dancing, it became a place for self-expression and sartorial independence. Disco became a cultural phenomenon, reflected in a unique fashion perspective and distinct lifestyle patterns.

Donna Summer

The Village People's Y.M.C.A. video, 1978

Disco and roller skates

Liz Taylor, Halston, Bianca Jagger

If you were to simplify and distill the disco era to two venues, Studio 54 and Chez Régine were the center of the disco world.   If you were to simplify and distill the disco era to two cult icons, they would be John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and paparazzo-photographer Ron Galella. While Studio 54 and Chez Régine set a template for the Discotheque the world over, Saturday Night Fever and Ron Galella helped propagate and commemorate the style and era for posterity.

John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" (1977)

Liza Minelli with Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger

Régine’s NYC entrance: Warhol’s Cartier-cased membership card

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin at Chez Régine in 1974

Elton John and Rod Stewart

Getting ready for a night out at the clubs was an event of its own. Dress to impress was the mantra and it translated into glitter and sequins, bold color and animal prints and, of course, fur and feathers. If you had the body (and, unfortunately too often for some that didn’t) you showed it off in stretch fabrics, tight cuts and short shorts. If you had the money you showed it off too, in jaw-dropping black tie and sexy designer gowns. Nineteen-seventies fashion gets a bad rap in general – and unfairly so!

Grace Jones was an iconic figure of the disco era and a frequent visitor to Studio 54

Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger arriving at Studio 54 dressed in their finery.

Bianca Jagger arriving at Studio 54 ready for a night of "whatever".

Bianca, Liza and Michael Jackson at Studio 54 which was the meeting place for all of the movers and shakers in the 70s.

Ursula Andress with Harry Hamlin dine together at Chez Regine in 1980.

Betsey Johnson and Fran Lebowitz in 1988 at Chez Regines.

Among the sartorial “horrors” were the jaw dropping masterpieces of Madame Grès and Valentino, Halston and Yves Saint Laurent, to name a few, and then came Qiana and jumpsuits! Seriously, could the current fashion trends be anymore disco inferno? Currently, you could see some pretty young things sporting quasi-identical looks to what their grandmothers had worn 35 years earlier. Isn’t anything sacred? Not with fashion!

Willie Woo and Lauren Hutton

Suzanne Somers

Diane von Fürstenberg at Studio 54

Disco was and still is as much a state of mind as it is a music style and fashion moment.

In the words of the Bee Gees, it is still and will always be “Stayin’ Alive”!

Régine kicks up her heels in 1978