Square-End Ties
It Was Hip to Be Square Lest we think that all 80s fashions trends of note were for the ladies, let’s not forget the guys and their totally 80s fashion trends. It wasn’t just us girls and our shoulder pads and leg warmers that screamed THE EIGHTIES. Men had their own 80s fashion moments and one not to be ignored is certainly the knit, square-bottomed tie. These ties were ubiquitous and available in every imaginable color....
Jelly Shoes aka Jellies
If you haven’t ever owned a pair of jelly shoes, here’s the lowdown. They are easy and comfortable to wear. They are made from PVC plastic, allowing them to be made into any color. They can even be infused with glitter. And, the fact that they are made out of plastic makes them great for anything water related. In the 80s, I had them in a wide range of colors and styles, some casual and some dress jellies (that’s right, I just...
List of Eighties Fashions
This great list of 80s fashion trends was submitted by one of our readers. Thanks, Celeste for the great recap of 80s fashions!! We’d love to see a list of all the 80s fashions you remember wearing back in the day. To email us your list, email us. Or, you can post your list as a note on our Facebook page. Normandy rose jeans they were the thing when I was young Cotler pants jeans that had snap pockets that would fold over...
The Banana Clip
As if 80s hair wasn’t crazy enough on its own, the banana clip added that little extra something to take your feathered bangs and layered tresses just a little further. In the unlikely event that you don’t know what a banana clip is, allow us to enlighten. Given its name for its shape, the banana clip is a hair accessory made popular in the 80s that allowed you to pull your hair back from each side, with the clip (in its...
Wayfarer Sunglasses by Ray-Ban
Wayfarers are Back UPDATE April 12, 2011: It’s official, Wayfarers are back in a big way for the Spring/Summer of 2011. A recent trip to the beach confirmed it. We are loving the return of the contrast temple version of this classic style. Shown here with blue contrast temples. These are a must have accessory for the upcoming sun season. Grab a pair, and you’ll be walking on sunshine. What did Tom Cruise, The Blues Brothers and Don...
Add-a-Bead Necklace
Eighties fashion for women included jewelry – lots of jewelry. One such trend for women and girls was the Add-a-Bead necklace. It is actually one of the nicer (or should we say enduringly tasteful) trends of the 80s and continues to a much lesser extent today. The Add-a-Bead Craze Add-a-Bead necklaces came in several different forms. They were most popular in the early 80s and were favored by the slightly preppier crowd, owing...
Hairstyles in the 1980s
Funky 80s Hairstyles: Back and Bigger Than Ever Update: Oct 25, 2009 – We ran across this great blog post, “That 80’s Hair!” chock full of 80s-inspired hairstyles (with pictures) as they appear from designers and in magazines now. These give a great perspective on how we are re-inventing the looks of 80s hairstyles. Time to get back out the crimping iron! For those of us who were there, 80s hairstyles make us cringe with...
Swatch Watches
Swatch Watches to the Max Unless you were a complete loser, you had at least two or three Swatch watches when growing up in the 80s. If you were really cool, you had a dozen or more and you wore two or three at the same time. I mean, if one is totally rad, then two must be, like, tripendicular, right? Swatch launched its first watches in March of 1983; this Spring marks their 30th anniversary. The name, created by Nichole Lopez (so...
Layered Slouch Socks
Why stop with only one pair of socks when two or even three looked so good? Layered slouch socks, as a fashion style of the 80s, was a stand out among some pretty outrageous fads. If you had multiple colors on (and who didn’t?), you layered on multiple colors of slouch socks to match. This trend started near the time that anklet socks came back into fashion. No other decade spent so much fashion energy in the hosiery department. NOTE:...
Ankle Socks
“She’s Got Legs . . . She Knows How to Use Them.” – ZZ Top One of the more unusual eighties fashion for women has to be ankle socks. Usually reserved for little girls, these socks were called anklets. To be more mature for the big girls wearing them, they became known as ankle socks. Ankle socks were worn by models, actresses and most importantly, in MTV videos. How many times did we see a leggy model, wearing skin tight jeans, lacy...
What Did People Wear in the Eighties?
What did girls and guys wear in the 80s? Eighties fashion for women taught us terms like jelly bracelets, jelly shoes, neon clothing, leg warmers, shoulder pads, and Guess jeans. They also brought back polka dots, Preppie clothes and wedgies – which used to be shoes and not an underwear malfunction. Oversized sweatshirts that could fit a truck inside over tight leggings were the norm. 1980s clothing styles for men included acid washed...
80s Makeup to the Max
Every decade has its own style, and the 80s really had its own. From miniskirts to parachute pants and everything in between, the 80s saw a branching out to make things bigger and brighter. Makeup was no exception. A Case Study, Cyndi Lauper First and foremost there was just a lot of it. The girls of the 80s literally “painted” their faces on. The two defining makeup elements in the 80s face were bold eyes and blush meant to...
80s Sunglasses
I Wear My Sunglasses at Night Nothing can make your totally rad 80s look like the right pair of sunglasses. Here is a partial summary of the bodacious eyewear options favored in the 1980s. MARCH 2014: The totally awesome gals at stylebriefs.com are giving away a pair of Ray Ban Aviators this month!! This classic look can be yours for spring. So, click on over there and follow them to enter to win. Sah-weet!! Wayfarers These ubiquitous...
Oversized Shirts in the 80s – The Bigger the Better
Remember Flashdance? Ahhh, yes. Good memories of Jennifer Beals welding by day and dancing by night. Besides being a wildly popular movie and soundtrack of the 80s, the movie sparked a range of fashion styles we now associate with the 80s. Leg warmers, high heels with spandex and oversized sweatshirts just to name a few. The Oversized Sweatshirt On the cover of every cassette player was a picture of Jennifer’s character in an...
Top 10 80s Fashion Trends
As far as fashion goes, no decade is quite as no-no-notorious as the 80s. After all, in what other decade could you get away with wearing skin-tight pants one day and baggy “MC Hammer” pants the next? During what other time period could you wear leg warmers, a sweater and a miniskirt all at the same time (and in electric neon colors)? Take a walk down memory lane. Here are the top 10 80s fashion fads we used to love. In all of these...
