There was a time, before the shoulder-padded conspicuous wealth of the 80s and the high-octane slick of the 90s, when flaxen-haired folk singers walked side by side with glittering disco queens on the streets of London, Paris and New York and this time was called the 70s.

It was a decade of liberation, both sexual and racial, that made an indelible mark on the way that women looked. From the first black lead actresses in television and film, to porn stars who crossed over from a previously murky subculture to the mainstream, it was all happening.

Whether you hankered after the androgynous punk look championed by a young bohemian poet by the name of Patti Smith or a more traditional, all-american beach babe aesthetic that Farah Fawcett and Cybil Shepherd owned simultaneously, there was certainly no shortage of beguiling, arresting and wholly original female role models to aspire to.

Click through our gallery above for an eclectic edit of the most-inspirational beauty icons of the 70s.