Sun-In: Sun-Kissed 80s Hair
It wasn’t enough to have a deep, dark tan in the 1980s. Especially in the summer, we wanted our hair to look sun-ravaged as well. Sure, there were professional highlights you could get at a beauty salon, but it was a lot cheaper to go the DIY route. Plus, it was fun to know that while you were bronzing your skin, you were getting natural, beautiful highlights in your hair. It was like MAGIC! The most popular product was Sun-In. It was...
2011 Spring Break – 80s Beach Fashions
We are just back from a trip to the beach, and one thing is clear: the 80s have hit the sand this Spring/Summer season. While we saw many 80s themes ranging from paint splatter to ruffles, there were two stand out trends that were everywhere and SO 80s—Neon and Wayfarers. So, as you are planning your summer wardrobe and getting ready for your own trip to the beach, be sure to pack these 80s essentials. You will be totally rad and...
Bronze and Beautiful: Tanning, 80s Style
DISCLAIMER: Getting a Tan = Sun Damage. Regular tanning, from the sun or from a tanning bed/booth, is a cancer risk. We all know that nowadays, right? The following article describes how we tanned in the 80’s when we were younger and foolish-er. It is NOT meant to instruct you to actually run out and do it today. Like, if I told you to jump off a twenty-story building, would you do it? I DIDN’T THINK SO. Anyway! It’s almost...
Ribbon Barrettes
By Julie Anderson If you were a crafty girl of the early 80s, you might have produced some ribbon barrettes. Or perhaps you were the lucky recipient of a set, fashioned for you with love by someone with nimble fingers and a little free time. Maybe they were in your school colors. Maybe they were embellished with beads at the bottom. If you had them, I’m betting you wore them with pride. Like me, you probably loved the way the ribbons...
Popped Collars: Poppin’ Out All Over
By Julie Anderson It’s 1983. You want to look preppy or rebellious or young. You want to look modern. You want to show the world that you’re trendy. What’s the easiest way to do this? Pop your collar, baby! Though I was wildly unaware of it at the time (although I certainly knew the word “preppy” in the eighties) there was a book that got the whole upturned-collar-on-the-polo-shirt ball rolling. It was Lisa Birnbach’s satirical The...
4 Great Ideas for Perfect 80s Hair
The 80s was a decade known for its style. Fashion was fun, playful, big, bold, and wild, and the hairstyles were no different. If you’re interested in capturing the whimsy and fun of 80s style for yourself, then there’s no better way to do it than with your hair. Whether you want to make a total change or just go all out for a costume party or an event, it’s easy to capture the spirit of the 80s by experimenting with your hair. Go to...
Fierce Fashion and Mad Max
By Julie Anderson In Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek TV shows and movies and George Lucas’s Star Wars films, we saw one version of futuristic style. They offered us future fashions that were sleek, clean, bold, and colorful. Picture Captain Kirk’s gold and black V-neck and Princess Leia’s pristine white gown. Even Han Solo, that scoundrel, had shiny black boots and fresh-looking attire. No holes, patches, or frays on that dashing young...
Oooh, Shiny! Rockin’ Metallics in the Eighties and Today
By Julie Anderson We loved candy bright pastels, fluorescent eye-poppers, and gritty-tough black clothes in the eighties. Soft, subdued, natural shades: not so much. Perhaps it’s easiest to say we liked colors that didn’t appear in nature all that often. It follows, then, that metallic clothes and accessories were a futuristic trend that we snatched right up in our lace-gloved little hands. Shiny! Eye catching! Judy Jetson-esque! We...
Top 5 80s Summer Fashions
By Ryan Zimmerman Ryan here! Back again with the Top 5 Countdown. This time it is Top 5 80s Summer Fashions. As Buster Poindexter would say, it’s “Hot, Hot, Hot!” and so are these summertime fashion trends. 5. Members Only Jackets Yes, I know these aren’t too summer-ish. But hey, sometimes there are cool summer nights, and if the night chill gives you the need to be ill, you can slip on the M.O. You know how you...
Original Jams
Those mid-length surfer shorts in outrageously bright colors and patterns are actually a brand, the way Band-Aid is used to refer to all wound-covers (probably because the alternative is “wound-cover”). Anyway, Jams is whole line of surfer-styled clothing, but it’s the shorts that really captured our fashion imagination in the mid-80s (their zenith was the summer of 1986). Their popularity in the 80s was a resurgence of their...
80s Fashions Return With 21st Century Corrections
By Nicki Elson, author of 1980s novel, “Three Daves” As I sit here in my newly-purchased bright pink Tee, plaid walking shorts, and giant hoop earrings, I find myself wondering—what ever happened to 80s fashion? It was so vibrant, so fun, almost as if every day was a costume party. Then I think back to that blog I recently typed up about this year’s spring and summer fashions, and I flip through a few articles here on Like Totally...
Baja Hoodies
Baja hoodies have an image problem. For those who have forgotten, or for those Midwesterners like me who called them “mop tops,” Bajas are roomy pullovers, slit on each side, with a hood, a huge front center pocket, and 2 thick ropes at the neck that were of no real practical use. Still can’t remember the Baja? Here you go: Jeff Spicoli, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Now you got it, right? And therein lies the problem. These shirts...
Jumpsuits – In the 80s and Today
Jumpsuits in the 80s Talk of jumpsuits makes me go “oh yeah,” slowly and with eyes squinted, like I can’t quite remember them. It’s a lie. I totally remember them. I just don’t want to. My own 80s jumpsuit was white, zipped up the back, and had super-tapered ankles and batwing sleeves that started at the waist. When I spread my arms I looked like a human triangle. It was undeniably cringe-worthy; I see that now. But I loved that white...
80s Hip Hop Fashion Memories
By Rawle Harris I remember the hip hop fashion I was wearing back in the mid-80s. Whatever the rappers during that time were wearing, we would wear. Most of the rappers were wearing shelltoe adidas sneakers with the jump suit to match. My mother bought me my first multi-colored suit from Spiegel, and I was sure as hell glad for it. My aunt got me my blue on white Adidas to match earlier, and I thought I was the man. Every Labor Day my...
Making Up Is Hard to Do
Winter 2009/2010: 80s Makeup Trends Now, I love the 80s as much as any other girl who lived them. (Okay, I’m lying—I love them way more than most.) Even so, this resurgence of 80s makeup makes me nervous. Yellow eyelids? Bright blue lashes? Some things fall out of fashion for a reason. (And some things never do—NPR recently reported on new-found evidence that Neanderthals—the real ones, not the ones at the back of your junior-high...
