Press-on Nails
By Julie Anderson It’s 1987. You need to be full-on glamorous (for, like, prom or homecoming) which means shoes dyed to match your gown, pantyhose, a labor-intensive hairdo involving LOTS of styling products, and long, polished nails. However, back in the eighties we didn’t have a Star Nails in every strip mall. Sure, fancy salons had manicurists who could give you acrylic tips, but after springing for our Dyeables and our dates’...
80s Blue Jeans: The B-list
Sadly, we couldn’t all afford Gloria Vanderbilt or Guess jeans in the 80s. Even if we did boast a pair or two or three, we still needed some other jeans to fill out our casual-wear wardrobes. Enter the second-tier designer jeans. Like B-list (and C-list) actors, these jeans were probably just as good as the A-list varieties, they just didn’t manage to luck into the big time and didn’t command the big bucks. Just because they aren’t...
Bermuda Bags
By Julie Anderson Q: What’s reversible, preppy, utilitarian, and totally 1980s cute? A: Bermuda bags! They were totally perfect for girls and young ladies in the 80s. Not exactly go-to-work “professional” in style, but very nicely tailored. Each came with a fabric cover that buttoned on to wooden handles. You could reverse that canvas or corduroy cover easily, and also switch it up with entirely different covers. Navy, pink, green,...
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...
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...
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 Dresses Show the 80s at Their Most . . . Well, 80s
It is easy to see in the shape, cut and style of these examples of 80s dresses just what makes 80s fashion unique. The draping, the shoulder pads, the extra layer of ruffles, the bright patterns (polka dots and loud florals) all typify the look that is so uniquely associated with the 1980s. The extravagance that marks the decade of greed is well interpreted in its dresses. From power dressing and casual wear for day to cocktail and...
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...
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...
