Vintage 1980’s Fashion

Clothing of 1980s'

The 80s was the decade of excess. Everything was bigger, and everyone wanted more more more! More was better….wasn’t it? Shoulder pads were de riguer for both men and women, the more accessories the better. And hair; well, again BIG was IT! Before “Friends” ruled television, “The Cosby Show” and “Family Ties” gave us a reason to tune in on Thursday nights; Gary Coleman asked Willis what he was talking about and every girl wanted Don Johnson from Miami Vice (not to mention, every guy wanted his outfits). The video revolution changed everything as well. Coinciding with the new wave movement, music television and MTV added a whole new dimension to music as an artform. The visuals that these videos presented to their audiences was intoxicating and added to their mystery, rather than dispelling it. The fashion, the make-up, the narrative of videos made even the most insignificant of bands look larger-than-life and had the fashion world in a frenzy.
The 80s music scene instantly brings to mind the decade’s two icons: Michael Jackson and Madonna, the Material Girl. Jackson had nine No. 1 singles in the 80s which totalled 31 weeks at the top spot.

Madonna was Michael Jackson’s female counterpart of the decade. Though not able to boast as many No. 1 singles as Jackson – Madonna charted seven No. 1s in the 80s, topping the charts overall for 15 weeks – her influence changed a generation, and arguably, the music industry forever.

From her wildly teased and colored hair to the return of lace and fishnet stockings, Madonna WAS The Material Girl and bragged about it to no end. Her accessories were over the top chic, and girls around the world were Madonna-wannabes even going so far as to add her trademark mole to their cheeks.
But Madonna’s wasn’t the only hairstyle that was copied. Hair styles of the 80s are the most diverse and humorous characteristics of this decade. In the early 80s, the New Romantic fashions kicked off the decade with great hair experimentation. For a while there seemed to be a competition to see who could build the tallest hair, have the strangest angles, or see much plastic, metal and mousse you could fit into your hair and still keep your head upright.
By 1984 the trends had settled and focused on one simple concept – volume. More hair was better. Bananarama had some of best examples of 80s hair, reflecting the fashions of the decade from cut style to volume. The ‘Hair Bands’ of the 1980s applied this style in a big way, strongest around 1987-88. Bands like Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Def Leppard and Poison truly epitomized the ‘bigger is better’ adage.

By 87-88, the 70s started to return and it was suddenly OK to have a retro look. You could even have short hair provided it was bleached, dyed a bright color or spiked in an unusual way with hair gel. The synthpop band Flock of Seagulls showed just how unique this trend was.
Asymmetrical haircuts were the most popular around 1985-1988. Hair was cut short beginning with the bangs and increasing in length around the head until it came to somewhat of a diagonal point on the other side. (See England’s popular band The Human League for a great example)

And who could forget the mullet? Guys the world round wore a similar style to the asymmetrical haircut, except that the top and sides were short (and usually cut around the ears), then dropped off in the back to a longer ’shag’ style.
In or around 1984, guys discovered the parachute pant. Parachute pants were fairly tight nylon pants with zippered patch pockets, the usual 2 front + 2 back, plus one or two on each leg with zippered ankles. Rapper MC Hammer took this pants style to the extreme with his loose, long crotch, and ultra baggy pants in a wild range of materials and colors. Like the popular harem pants, Hammer pants were worn by few but admired by many.
By 1987 both sexes were wearing the all important acid washed jeans and if you were truly fashionable, you also had an acid washed denim jacket that matched said jeans. While blue was the most popular color of acid wash, in the late 80s denim manufacturers also experimented with red styles and black (black and gold acid wash was truly jaw dropping!)
More on 80s Music
New Wave’s older siblings, Punk and Power Pop, surfaced during the latter half of the 70’s and helped ignite what was to become one of the biggest musical explosions of the last 25 years, certainly in terms of creativity and diversity. Disco and early electropop pioneers made their mark on new wave as well. While disco revolutionized dance music, widespread backlash forced it into the underground by the dawn of the eighties, leaving New Wave to keep dance music afloat and the airwaves and club scene bristling with unheard of energy.
New wave proved to be breathtaking in its scope – at the core of most new wave was an infectious dance beat and energy galore. Mainstream artists like Joe Jackson, and even David Bowie and The Kinks brushed the fringes of this musical tapestry. Similar in style (and confusing to some) were the Synthpop groups i.e. Depeche Mode, Human League, Soft Cell; and the New Romantics, Ultravox, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet. New romanticism, however, never managed much of an impression in the US; it remained very much a European (and Canadian) movement. Despite the general inadequacy of pigeonholing, there were the other requisite, defining styles from the era: Goth (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure), Ska/post punk (Madness, The English Beat), Rockabilly (Dave Edmunds, Stray Cats, The Cramps), and Power Pop (The Vapors, The Producers). And that’s only scratching the surface.

Australia enjoyed a brief and lively renaissance (at least from an American perspective) ushered in by Men At Work in ‘82, who made it clear to the world in their homeland homage “Down Under.” INXS broke through this very same year and maintained a huge following worldwide until the unfortunate death of Michael Hutchence in the 90s. Many Aussie popular artists made the big jump across the pond including Split Enz, Midnight Oil, Icehouse, Divinyls, and Crowded House.

Leg warmers started with dancers of course, years before – and are still worn by many today. But by around 1982 they began to make an appearance in wider society thanks to the movie Flashdance. Leg warmers were no longer black either. Now they were speckled, fluoro and some were worn so low that they would have been better known as ankle warmers. The hard core would wear them to a sweaty nightclub – even in summer and layer them, wearing 2 and 3 pairs at a time. Strangely, leg warmers managed to hang around a little longer than many other 80’s fashions and they didn’t meet their fate until late 1984. By 85, they were extinct.

Speaking of shoes, while some women wore the highest heels possible (and in the loudest colors available such as hot pink, purple and teal) others were rebelling and wanted flat, comfy shoes. Jelly shoes were born. The best part though was how cheap jellies were! Your local Kmart or Walmart had them for as low as $4.00 and $5.00 a pair!
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Vintage 1970’s Fashion

Clothing of 1970s'

The 1970s were literally the “anything goes” decade. For some, the uglier and clunkier the fashion, the better. For others, soft and feminine was the answer. No matter what you “dug” though, making a fashion statement reached its apex in the 1970s.
The 1970s were an intensely tumultuous time, with various cultures and subcultures coming out into the open at once. Cynicism abounded as militant feminism, Civil Rights, the Watergate scandal, and the Vietnam War brought gritty reality to the forefront. These influences gave designers new ammunition, and the public was eager for the latest fashion wave.
The idealism of the 1960s had long since disappeared into the wind. There were increasing anxieties about global pollution and the exhaustion of the earth’s natural resources. The 1970s had seen war in the Middle East, the war in Vietnam had ended, there was corruption in the highest levels of American government with Watergate and Nixon’s resignation, an oil crisis, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia had turned its fertile land into killing fields. There was a daily diet of the world’s troubles brought into the homes of the West through television.

Movies and television shows such as Charlie’s Angels were having an increasingly profound affect on fashion. Cultural icons such as Wonder Woman created a lust for interesting boots-often teamed with hot pants or short skirts. Boots might be shiny, textured, bejeweled, or covered with psychedelic or floral designs, but they were seldom boring.
Dressing to shock was popular, and the Punk and Glam movements took it to an extreme. Designers pushed the envelope by decorating shoes for adoring-and outrageous-customers such as Elton John, David Bowie, and Cher. Designers took platform shoes to new heights, building 7- to 8-inch stacked heels and covering them in rhinestones, sequins, and other adornments.

This era’s fashions are also frequently marked by designers such as Givenchy, Norell, and Oscar de la Renta. The 1960s trend of mini skirts, bell bottoms, and long hair, lasted through this decade. Polyster knitted fabrics broke the ground to expand the continuing look. If you didn’t wear polyster, the preferred textile was denim blue jeans. Skirts came in three lengths in the 1970s, mini, midi, and maxi. Television and film reflected the way people dressed such as Annie Hall and Saturday Night Fever. The latter half of the decade’s fashions were heavily influenced by glam Rock ‘n’ Roll and Disco music.
Speaking of shoes, Nike debuted in 1972; the result of a fateful bit of ingenuity meeting a waffle iron. Running became a popular pastime, and running shoes were a functional necessity, especially for men (and Farrah Fawcett – see ‘Charlie’s Angels’!) The athletic craze was only just beginning though (see the 80s).
Not only did Nike hit the scene in 1972, but David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust came out…..in a big way. According to Bowie, the name “Ziggy” came primarily from the title of a London tailor’s shop (called “Ziggy’s”) that Bowie observed from a train one day. In an interview he said that it was his private joke that because Ziggy Stardust was going to be largely about clothes, he had named him “Ziggy”. But I digress….with a wham, bam thank you ma’am, GLAM was suddenly all the rage, on both sides of the pond. Boys borrowed girls’ boas, blouses, slinky shirts and sometimes even their makeup. Bands like the New York Dolls had followings bigger than Elvis and it was hard to tell the girls from the boys! Fashion was all over the place by this point and in 1975 there was the natural romantics (think Gunne Sax), the earth mothers (think earth shoes and chukka boots), and now it was the girls turn to try out the boys’ style.

Diane Keaton, Woody Allen’s chanteuse in the neurotic 1977 venture movie ‘Annie Hall‘, was very much unlike other leading ladies in one all-important area-this lady looked like a man (fashion-wise only of course). Men’s shirts, ties, fedoras you name it. In the late 70’s, women’s lib was breaking free from the chains of old-fashioned female constrictions. There was a collective gasp in the late 60’s when girls donned ‘boys clothes’ and wore pantsuits outside the house, but this&ldots; this was outright stealing from their father’s closet! That wacky Annie wore men’s blazers, baggy pants, vests, oversized shirts, ties and floppy hats-sometimes all at once, or sometimes just a men’s jacket was an accessory.

Popular 70s Trademarks: Feathered hair, bell bottoms, short shorts, mopeds, disco and glam, roller skating, 8-track tapes, puka beads, – mini, midi and maxi skirt lengths, movie Thank God It’s Friday, movie Roller Boogie, movie Saturday Night Fever, movie Grease, chukka boots, STUDIO 54, Pet Rocks, Star Wars, Wacky Packs (trading cards), KC & the Sunshine Band, ABBA, arena rock, David Bowie, Boston, Kansas, Styx, fringe, angel flights (pants), Happy Days & Laverne and Shirley (TV shows)

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Vintage 1960s' fashion

Clothing of 1960s'

Youth predominated the culture of the 1960’s. The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country. Barbie dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G.I. Joe, 12 inches tall and the first action figure for boys.

In fashion, the 1960’s began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men’s casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By mid-decade though, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs and women’s hair was either very short or long and lanky. Men’s hair became longer and wider along with beards and moustaches. Menswear too had a much needed renaissance; bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue.

By 1964 the teenage influence caused the hemlines to creep up, and most teenagers were wearing mid-thigh length shifts as daywear. The sweater-dress was also very popular with young girls from 1961 onwards, until the mid-60s when other innovative designs were introduced. 1965 saw the premiere of culotte dresses in op-art or vibrant coloured patters (think Peter Max or Pucci) and these were most popular as evening or party wear; culottes had the freedom of trousers but the look of a full skirt. 1966’s dress was the tent, or “baby doll dress”, sometimes in transparent chiffon, worn over a contrasting slip, and often sewn-in.

1966 was the year of the mini-skirt! Widely acknowledged as the brainchild of designer Mary Quant, within a year anybody who had the body to pull it off was wearing a mini, many of whose hemlines were 4-5 inches above the knee in New York and 7-8 inches above the knee in London! Throughout this time skirts were often paired with a matching sweater and matching set of tights for a uniform look. 1965 and 66 also saw the mini-coat, perfectly straight and virtually shapeless; also the pop-inspired dyed furs and PVC designs. By 1967 capes were popular, and were often made with matching deerstalker hats.

In ladies’ tops or blouses, from 1960 onwards the turtleneck, or polo neck, sweater was common, especially under a collarless jacket, and in 1966 Aran sweaters, with their thick knit, became trendy. Sleeve length was usually ¾ length, with long sleeves often pushed partway up the arms for a ¾ look (think Jackie O style suits and jackets). Sleeveless tops did not become popular until the mid 1960s.

By the end of the decade, men’s ties, when worn, were up to 5″ wide; most were patterned even when worn with stripes. Women wore peasant skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing was very popular, featuring the bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their hair in an afro; whites of both genders wore their hair either big and frizzy or long and straight.

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Men in the 1960s:

Men’s suits finally became more fitting. Tailored jackets and narrow lapels worn with narrow collared shirts and skinny ties became popular thanks to Italian designers’ influence. Men’s fashion palettes expanded, which was not surprising, considering that clothing choices for men during the 1950s could hardly have become more conservative. The result is sleek and modern suits that we can see on tv series Mad Men. Popular shoes for men at the time were winkle pickers, an exaggerated pointy toe shoe.