22 September marked exactly fifty years since the premiere of "Charlie's Angels". The series ran five seasons on ABC, starting in the autumn of 1976 after a pilot in March. What survives of it is not a single plot - what survives is the clothes.

The costume designer was Nolan Miller, the man who later dressed "Dynasty". He did something rarely done in television production at the time: he used the wardrobe to separate the three characters, instead of dressing them identically as a team. Up to eight costume changes per character, per episode. That is not television, that is a fashion desk with a script.

Sabrina, Kate Jackson's character, wore trousers, turtlenecks and comfortable shirts - practical, almost androgynous. Jackson openly resisted the more feminised dress codes. Jill, Farrah Fawcett's character, was the sporty and sensual version: trainers, California aesthetics, layered volume hair that became one of the most recognisable images of the decade. Kelly, Jaclyn Smith's character, was the most sophisticated part of the trio - from jeans to elegant dresses and gabardine suits.

The common denominator was high-waisted, wide-leg jeans, described within the production itself as the real Angel uniform. Plus sequinned jumpsuits, disco pieces, flannel shirts, halter necklines. All of it has returned to shop windows several times since - most recently this season, under the label "seventies".

And here is the thing the industry does not say out loud. This was not fashion somebody designed as a collection - this was television costume work, made under deadline and budget pressure. Fifty years later it is resold as a reference. Which means the camera created the effect, not the runway.

And what survives besides the jeans? A show in which three women solve cases while their boss is a voice on a speaker who never appears. If that looked progressive at the time, it is worth asking how progressive an arrangement is in which the man paying them does not even have to show his face.