Have you ever wondered what happened in the 80's? Why it was so0o0 important?
WEll, since my personal project is on the 80's fashion, I thought it would be good to tell, what year every year in the 80's was all about, to see if this affected the fashion trends...
1980 (The year of Dallas)
1981 (The year of the Pac-Man)
1982 (The year of the Thriller)
1983 (The year of the Cabbage Patch doll)
1984 (The year of the Cosby Show)
1985 (The year of the benefit concerts)
1986 (The year of disasters)
1987 (The year of the baby)
1988 (The year of the CD)
1989 (The year of the Fall of the Wall)
1980 fashion hits
Kickers
Everyone was wearing Kickers shoes in the early 80s. Not only trendy young kids but also their geography teachers.
These chunky, colourful shoes from Belgium caused chaos in shoe shops in 1980. The manufacturers just couldn't make them quickly enough.
They came with a little flower-shaped leather logo attached to the laces. Daring kids tried on the shoes without buying them, and managed to 'remove' the leather flower.
The more of the logos you had on your shoes, the cooler you looked - or so everyone thought!
Horrible jeans
Nasty jeans were in - as long as they weren't flared anything went. In fact, the straighter the better. Jeans were often so tight at the ankles that wearing any sort of boot under them was quite tricky.
There were drainpipe jeans, straight jeans, jeans with paint splattered on them, jeans with sparkly bits, stonewashed jeans. And if you were very, very cool, you had a jeans jacket to go with them!-But now they are known as "skinny leg jeans". See, the 80's do come back in fashion, but maybe the skinny leg jeans now aren't as tight perhaps? Hmm...you might just have to find some.
1981 fashion hits!
Pixie boots
These were huge. It was every young girl's dream to own a pair of these hideous, wrinkly-ankled pull-on boots.
Mums loved them because they were practical and kept your feet warm.
Boys loved them too, of course. Especially the long ones that tarty girls wore nearly up to their knees.Total turn on!
Next
The Next fashion chain was born when a family of tailors from Leeds bought up dozens of Kendall's stores out of which to sell womenswear.
Soon Next's 70 shops became the only place to go for that lovely pastel top or a nice pair of court shoes.
Men, however, would have to wait another three years before they could indulge in the joy of Next!
1982 fashion hits!
Bad hair
This included the three-in-one hairstyle that was better known as the mullet - short and spiky on the top, longer at the back of the head and then depending on how much patience you had, long down the back. This was favoured by many sports stars. Some pop stars took the silly hair cut to the extreme. The lead singer (and ex-hairdresser) of A Flock Of Seagulls had a ski slope on his head.
Afro-Caribbean hair got the wet look, whilst white women contributed to the hole in the ozone layer by using gallons of hair spray to get the Bonnie Tyler look.
Deelyboppers
Glittery, wobbly antennae which kids wore to discos thinking they were really cool.
Let's face it, they just weren't. They were one of the silliest fashion accessories yet seen - even worse than odd coloured luminous socks.
The safest place for the bonce bouncers was in the school disco hall where girls were on one side and boys were on the other, eating cheese and onion chips.
However some foolish youngsters insisted on wearing them out shopping, walking the dog or even to the cinema - which was unfortunate for the people in the seats behind.
Ra-ra skirts and legwarmers
Ra-ra skirts were worn with innocence by young girls but they were actually quite racey. They were good-time skirts, not church-going skirts.
The best thing about them was spinning round pretending to be a UFO as the many layers formed a flying saucer round you!
Legwarmers were converted from a functional garment into a fashion statement by the kids from Fame. These socks without the feet were part of a dancer's outfit, but soon became every day school wear for girls.
They were usually worn scrunched around the calf. Handily, they covered that exposed bit of flesh left at the ankle by even less flattering leggings.
1983 fashion hits!
Shoulder pads
Shoulder Pads were the epitome of Eighties chic - and possibly one of the worst fashion statements ever. Shoulder pads rank alongside mutton chop sideburns and shell suits as one of the great fashion disasters.
But women loved them. Was it some sort of Freudian shoulder-envy obsession, did it keep you warm, or was it peer pressure from Dynasty stars like Joan Collins or Dallas that created the demand?
Who knows, but they became big - in all senses of the word - in the 1980s.
Snoods
Snood was a silly name for a kind of metallic or - usually - crocheted hairnet which was tragically in vogue in 1983.
Often worn by hippychicks with long flowing tresses and bead necklaces, the aim was to make every girl look like a fairytale princess or peasant maid. In fact, most looked like they had got caught in a trawlerman's net while swimming.
Not sexy.
Sweat Bands
Many people blame Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits for encouraging people into the misguided belief that wearing sweat bands made you look athletic and sporty.
It was, however, the evil influence of Jane Fonda and her brain-bouncing workout that did much of the damage.
And so, in 1983, men and women who wouldn’t recognise the inside of a gym even if it was labelled "Gym: Inside" wore furry fluorescent elastic on their wrists and foreheads and walked shamelessly through the streets of their neighbourhood.
1984 fashion hits!
Roller Skates
Instead of sipping panda pops and eating cheese and onion crisps whilst stationary, kids were now snacking on wheels!
Roller skates had yet another revival in 1984 - it might have had something to do with the film Rollerboogie being shown on summer-holiday telly.
The roller disco very quickly became incredibly popular. It gave the girls the excitement of being chased and the boys a chance to accidentally-on-purpose land on top of the girl they fancied.
For some reason roller boots were always blue and yellow in 1984, and had leatherette go-faster stripes on the sides. Except, of course, the ones you rented at the rink, which were white and scuffed.
1985 fashion hits!
Fingerless gloves
Suddenly, fingerless gloves were no longer an embarrassing Christmas gift from granny. In 1985 girls everywhere were wearing them.
Made popular by Madonna and other sexy pop idols, they came in lace, suede, leather and silk, and scored a perfect ten in the fashion stakes.
Body-builders also wore them, but that’s a different story.
Goths
There were always a few of these strange pale creatures around, but in 1985 chart action from Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and the Sisters of Mercy pushed them out of the darkness and into the mainstream for a short while.
Sporting dyed black hair, white makeup, leather and lace clothing and a permanently miserable expression, they swayed along the catwalks.
But soon they were banished once again to drift around the bus stops and shopping precincts of suburbia.
1986 fashion hits!
Big Glasses
Suddenly in 1986, TV presenters realised they could make complete fools of themselves and get away without damaging their reputation! Big glasses went beyond functional and became fashion accessories.
Even serious weather presenters wore ridiculous frames.
But most outrageous of all must have been children's presenter Timmy Mallett whose frames took full advantage of progress in the manufacture of light and flexible plastics.
1987 fashion Hits!
Nike Air Trainers
They didn't exactly let you leap tall buildings in a single bound, but Air Max trainers certainly put a spring in your step.
The heels contained a revolutionary plastic bubble filled with gas - which school bullies enjoyed puncturing with penknives and/or compasses.
The trainers became such a popular fashion accessory that wearers were regularly mugged, and victims could be spotted hobbling tearfully home dressed only in their socks.
Smileys
Not to be confused with the :-) symbol used in modern text messaging, Smiley adorned jeans, T-shirts, caps, badges, pencil cases and even vans in 1987.
Its overuse led to a world shortage of the colour yellow and the resulting United Nations Yellow Ban Treaty. By law, even daffodils had to be purple until June 1994.
Smiley was borrowed from the psychedelia of the Sixties underground music scene.
The story goes that DJ Danny Rampling, freshly returned from Ibiza, used the face on a flyer for dance music club Shoom. From there it became the internationally recognised symbol of Acid House.
Cycling shorts
They were designed to reduce wind resistance and chafing during cycle races.
Cycle racing has always been regarded as a rather nerdy occupation, so how they became fashionable is beyond comprehension.
Some regarded cycling shorts as a huge turn-on, as they revealed even more than the hotpants of the Seventies.
But that was until even the hugest, most cellulite-riddled backside was squeezed into neon-coloured skin tight lycra.
For 1988, we could not find the information necessary.
1989 fashion hits!
Bodies
Like a gym slip, only with poppers at the crotch.
In 1989 every woman pulled on a Lycra body before going out to pull a bloke.
They promised to reveal every curve without ever falling out of place. And they solved the problem of what to do if you needed the toilet.
The Lambada Look
Lambada fashion was launched by a dance craze that was launched by a film, that was launched by a song, that was launched by a fashion. Confused?
Anyway, in the summer of 1989, women confident of their legs pulled on tiny ra-ra style skirts to dance the Lambada with men in tight Chino pants and garish open shirts.
Lambada fashion was a night-time antidote to the power suits worn during the day, in the same way throwing up is an antidote to a hangover. The two were visually similar too.
And that's the 80's Fashion!
posted by Henry JOhn. @ Tuesday, October 10, 2006
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