The 80’s were a time when nearly all of the fashion trends that people love to hate were created. Hair was teased and permed to get that nice Afro style, make up was more alike to fence paint, and unplucked eyebrows were trendy. “The time that fashion forgot” is the phrase usually used for the 80’s, as nearly all common laws of fashion were broken & torn into pieces. MTV was a major influence for 80s fashion, as well as TV shows like ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’?. People wanted to push boundaries, and expressed themselves through their clothing with bold colours, excessive makeup & accessories and funky patterns. It was an era of rebellion and independence that our era seems to consistently reminisce upon for fashion inspiration
Punk was a trend that started in the mid 1970s, however, it evolved right into the early 80’s. The average 80’s punk changed in style a heap from the 1970’s punk look. Hair was a huge thing for punks – they were a lot like the ‘scenes’ of today when it comes to hair, however, a lot more eccentric. Crazy colours, mohawks, bleached, spiked, teased, all of it was done. Vyvyan, a punk character from an 80’s TV show ‘The Young Ones’ is an exaggerated depiction of an 80’s punk. Generally, punk would have ripped clothing, usually a studded accessory, a vest or a leather jacket. 80’s punk fashion is considered by some to be the ‘wannabee’ stage of punk fashion, as it was when everyone adopted the style, with barely any being ‘true punks’.
Neon, which is a fashion trend most consider to be hideous (although it seems to make a re-appearance often), originated in the 80’s. Teenage guys & girls jumped on the fluoro bandwagon, with fluoro t-shirts, fluoro socks, fluoro fanny packs, whatever they could get their hands on that was coloured appropriately for a road safety device would work. The trend for fluoro quietly died down around 1992 – 1995, and we’re hoping that after its comebacks in the 2000’s it will cease to re-occur so that we can pretend as if it never happened and go on with our lives.
The 80’s also created the hip hop trend, which was copied straight from the famous rap artists of that time. No matter how hideous some clothing would be, if the famous rapper wore it, you could almost guarantee that the youth would wear it also. ‘Bling’ Jewellery was common, with large gold chains being worn by famous rappers such as LL Cool J, Eric B and Rakim, etc. Adidas nike shoes were worn with a matching jumpsuit, creating a super fashionable look when worn by a white person. Three finger rings were a necessary gangster accessory, as well as Kangol hats and name belts. The term ‘wangsta’ could applied to nearly everyone in the 80’s at one point.
80’s Yuppie fashion was a dominant trend throughout the 80’s. Yuppie stands for Young Urban Professionals, and the stereotypical yuppie would be an ambitious minded young career person who worked an immense amount and spent their money without a care in the world. Often, the case was that they over-spent for the income they made, just to show people that they had oh so much money and could afford to throw it around. The 80’s woman yuppie would wear a power suit, with a straight knee-length skirt and big shoulder pads. They would wear brand name bags, and chunky looking jewellery. Men would wear a basic business suit, similar to those of today. They’d wear a plain shirt, with some black suspenders. They’d carry a large briefcase, and a brick sized phone to top off the business look. Their hair would be slicked back, to give them a more ‘professional’ look.
Off the shoulder t-shirts, shoulder pads, jean jackets, tshirt clips and puffy shirts were some of the major 80s fashion trends for the top half of your body. Off the shoulder t-shirts were inspired a lot by the movie Flashdance, released in 1983. This trend was fairly popular, and has had a revival once or twice. Shoulder pads were the ‘powerful business woman’ look. T-shirts, sweaters and jackets all had built in shoulder pads, or they had pieces of velcro sewn in so that you could put in should pads of any size with ease. Jean jackets were worn in light, dark and white denim. They were often graffitied on with things such as a person’s favourite band, favourite quotes, names, badges and buttons, etc. Oversized t-shirts were a huge look in the 80’s, and I guess that some people got sick of the trend – hence; t-shirt clips! A piece of plastic shaped like a circle with a bar in the middle was used to bunch up a bit of your shirt, making it a tighter fit / baring your midriff.
On your legs, you would wear tight leather pants, stonewashed jeans, anything spandex, legwarmers, tight skirts, etc. Guys of the 80’s often wore leather pants in attempt to achieve the 80’s rocker look. Stonewashed jeans were usually skin tight, with rips and holes in them. Spandex was part of the big ‘workout’ 80’s look, and came in all sort of colours – the most popular being neon. Legwarmers, how could anyone forget this fashion fad? The 1980’s must have been strangely cold, because legwarmers were massive. People wore them over jeans, spandex tights, boots, everything. The 80’s tight mini skirt was common. The shorter they were, the better you looked. They came in denim (Dry Heave? Anyone?), leather, knit, neon, whatever the 80’s hearts desired. Mini skirts were often paired with the ¾ leggings, which also came in a range of patterns and materials.
Top 80’s Style Icons
Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Pat Benatar, Deborah Foreman, Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields
And, the dress that I fell in love with. It looks sort of like something that Gary Pepper (Nicole Warne), my girl crush / fashion icon, would wear. I would kill for her wardrobe!
