Fashion of the 1980s was characterized by a rejection of 1970s fashion. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade. [2] The first half of the decade was relatively tame in comparison to the second half, which was when apparel became very bright and vivid in appearance.
One of the features of fashion in the second half of the 1980s was the interest in alternative forms. In the 1980s, alternative trends became widespread. [3] This phenomenon has been associated with such phenomena as street style, punk and post-punk. [4]
During the 1980s, shoulder pads, which also inspired "power dressing," became common among the growing number of career-driven women. [5] [6]
Hair in the 1980s was typically big, curly, bouffant and heavily styled. Television shows such as Dynasty helped popularize the high volume bouffant and glamorous image associated with it. [7] [8] Women in the 1980s wore bright, heavy makeup. Everyday fashion in the 1980s consisted of light-colored lips, dark and thick eyelashes, and pink or red rouge (otherwise known as blush). [9] [10]
Some of the top fashion models of the 1980s were Brooke Shields, Christie Brinkley, Gia Carangi, Joan Severance, Kim Alexis, Carol Alt, Yasmin Le Bon, Renée Simonsen, Kelly Emberg, Inès de La Fressange, Tatjana Patitz, Elle Macpherson, and Paulina Porizkova.[ citation needed ]
Parachute pants are a style of trousers characterized by the use of ripstop nylon or extremely baggy cuts. In the original tight-fitting, extraneously zippered style of the late 1970s and early 1980s, "parachute" referred to the pants' synthetic nylon material. In the later 1980s, "parachute" may have referred to the extreme bagginess of the pant. These are also referred to as "Hammer" pants, due to rapper MC Hammer's signature style. Hammer pants differ from the parachute pants of the 1970s and early 1980s. They are typically worn as menswear and are often brightly colored. Parachute pants became a fad in US culture in the 1980s as part of an increased mainstream popularity of breakdancing. [106]
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Robert Smith of the Cure based his gothic look from Siouxsie Sioux's and being a guitarist in her band.
Although straight hair was the norm at the beginning of the decade, as many late-1970s styles were still relevant, the perm had come into fashion by 1980.
Big and eccentric hair styles were popularized by film and music stars, in particular among teenagers but also adults. These hairstyles became iconic during the mid-1980s and include big bangs worn by girls from upper elementary, middle school, high school, college and adult women. There was generally an excessive amount of mousse used in styling an individual's hair, which resulted in the popular, shiny look and greater volume. Some mousse even contained glitter.
Beginning in the late 80s, high ponytails, side ponytails, and high side ponytails with a scrunchie or headband became common among girls from upper elementary, middle school, high school, college and adult women.
By 1983, short hair had made a comeback for men, in reaction to the shag and mod haircuts of the mid- to late '70s. The sideburns of the 1960s and 1970s saw a massive decline in fashion, and many guys wore regular haircuts and quiffs. Beards went out of style due to their association with hippies, but moustaches remained common among blue collar men.
From the mid-1980s until the early 1990s, mullets were popular in suburban and rural areas among working-class men. This contrasted with a conservative look preferred by business professionals, with neatly groomed short hair for men and sIeek, straight hair for women. Some men also wore bangs in styles such as regular frontal or side swept bangs but they were not as big as women or girls bangs. Hairsprays such as Aqua Net were also used in excess by fans of glam metal bands such as Poison.
During the late 80s, trends in men's facial hair included designer stubble. Teenagers and young men with medium length hair often parted it down the middle or sides.
As of the 21st century, there is nostalgia for 1980s fashions, [150] some of which have been revived. [151]
It doesn't take a social historian to observe that fewer people are wearing jeans than, say, a few years ago. There are fewer jeans worn to the Kennedy Center, fewer in Georgetown on Saturday afternoon, fewer jeans in high schools. Stores have reported a decline in sales, particularly the designer-label jeans.
Attempts to revive the dying jeans business included the promotion of black as the 'new' jeans color and the introduction of stone-washed and overdyed jeans.
...[In] 1980, the most celebrated trend was toward pants. In every shape, length, and width, pants eclipsed skirts in major...collections.
[Perry Ellis's] cropped pants...have been copied by many of the smart manufacturers...
Knickers are hardly a new idea. But not since the Twenties and Thirties, when young boys wore corduroy knickerbockers, have they been so popular.
In the early fall, trousers, jeans, bermudas, and divided skirts were all swept aside in favour of knickers.
Did you love the way your mother looked in the 1940s? If you did, you are in luck - because Yves Saint Laurent, clearly the strongest influence out of Paris, has designed a collection of haute glamour clothes for fall with roots in the Joan Crawford, grand-entrance era.
It is back to the history books if you care to comprehend what the Paris fashion designers are up to...[T]here is a heavy dose of the 1940s in the fall designs, with broad-shouldered suits with fitted bodices, tightly nipped waistlines, and peplums, plus a heavy injection of the early 1900s...
Dressy was in and gypsies, peasants, and hippies were definitely out.
Last season [designers] took a decidedly different route: very sophisticated, very dressy, 'grown-up' styles reminiscent of the ones mothers and grandmothers of the fashion crowd had worn in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Peplums, skinny tight skirts, stiletto heels, hats and gloves. A lot of the designers showed that kind of fashion and a lot of stores put it on the racks.
'People are dressing up again and wearing dresses rather than jeans or sportswear,' says...[dressmaker] Stanley Love, the head of Joseph Love Inc.
The Reagan influence wafted through the major cities like heavy perfume. Where the young had once been the apple of the fashion eye, the elders took over, wearing expensive suits and ball gowns. And youth followed the example. In its way, nothing said more about fashion than all those 15-year-olds in wing collars and black ties swimming like well-bred minnows in the wake of stately taffeta.
[A] more refined, ladylike look is the mood of many of the clothes...In the spirit of being very dignified, designers have revived the jacket and dress ensemble.
Oldtime Hollywood glamour provided the inspiration for another fashion trend, a body-clinging form with hips draped, wrapped, and bowed.
Designers...have a predilection for hats...More surprising was the appearance of...rather formal leather gloves...
...[M]any of the clothes this season...came complete with hat and gloves...
...[G]loves were the number one design accent and the most colorful....[G]auntlets in red, yellow, blue, or green set off...sedately colored fashions...[T]he finishing touch was the hat.
...[T]his new spirit harks back to the glamour and dressed-up correctness of the 1950s, but now tuned to the women of the 1980s. It makes accessories such as hats, high-heeled pumps, perhaps even gloves and red lipstick, desirable once more.
The daytime scene became very somber, with all black...predominating. There was glossy black leather for miniskirts...the all-black look for evening...above-the-elbow black gloves....[B]asically it was black – black lace, black silk, black jet for earrings, black stockings, and black shoes.
The wearing of all black has reached epidemic proportions.
...[B]lack is a major theme throughout all the Paris collections...
...[A]mongst British youth...by the late seventies...there was a dramatic shift...to sinister, black rubber dresses, oversized crosses,...black leather corsetry, death-symbolist accessories and white, caked make-up....Gradually, in response, black dominated the international collections.
By the mid eighties...black was the only fashionable colour. Women in black sweaters, tight black pants and flat black ballet slippers climbed into small black cars and drove home to minimal black and chrome apartments. They...put on black dresses to dance to black music in black clubs...
...'This is the way I dress all the time,' said Lisa Lin, who was wearing black velvet and lace to the Siouxsie and the Banshees concert...Most of the clothes were black...Michelle Hammond...dressed extravagantly in belted black lace and pleated chiffon skirt. 'I dress this way all the time.'...Erica Hoffman...was wearing spider-web gloves with her black outfit...[T]he predominant scheme was black – black clothes, black shoes, black hair.
Despite...colourful designer collections..., the street look in the springtime was black from head to toe.
The second main influence on French fashion was the imagination and anarchic style of London youth. Street style was synthesized into high fashion...
Helen Robinson of PX, Stephen Jones, Steve Linard,...Demob, Melissa Caplan, and...Body Map all emerged as innovative designers between 1978 and 1983. Most...were involved in the pop-music scene, designing clothes for such stars as Steve Strange of Visage,...Culture Club, Adam Ant, Hayzi Fantayzee and Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics.
At the Body Map booth at Olympia, Stevie Stewart, who designs the collection with David Holah, was checking off the names of clients, including Gimbel's, Charivari, Bergdorf, Bendel's, in her date book.
...[T]he international retail fashion world seems to have caught on to young British fashion and has accepted the idiosyncracies of the British.
...Gaultier fused the showmanship of a couture training...with the design anarchy borrowed from London's streets, which he visited regularly....Gaultier...invited [UK milliner Stephen] Jones to design...hats.
...[T]heir sub-culture styles quickly became mainstream fashion, as uninspired official designers looked to these young innovators for inspiration.
London sub-culture cornered the international market....International buyers rushed to London to place their orders.
...[I]n London...were long skirts that stop below the calf, best in body-hugging stretch fabrics, like Helen Robinson's skirts with a single stripe down the side found at her store PX in Covent Garden.
...Body Map...models wear...tight, stretchy tube skirts...
...[O]ver a year ago [1984],...London designers Scott Crolla and Georgina Godley began making clothes with chintzes and tapestry fabrics that were meant to furnish homes.
Crolla, a shop on Dover Street, was often the fashion crowd's first stop for beautiful chintz shirts, brocade Nehru jackets and crushed-velvet pants, an opulent look sought out equally by men and women. In fact, these clothes are so popular that they are carried by other shops in London, and are sold on a limited basis to American stores so that there will be enough to go around.
Early in 1984, Crolla, an English fashion design team, showed a collection of flamboyant tapestry-like floral-print clothes....That March, Jean-Paul Gaultier, the French designer, showed an oversized, hand-embroidered sweater decorated with Crolla-like cabbage roses and geometric borders on the hemline and sleeves....[T]his single design...ascended from the streets of London to a Paris runway, then descended to American mall-quality acrylic...
...[T]he highly publicized chintzes shown this season by Ralph Lauren and Bill Blass are merely confirmations of a trend begun by Crolla...
...[D]esigner Katharine Hamnett created slogan T-shirts...and the streets were instantly beaming out messages like 'Protest and Survive,' 'Frankie Say Arm the Unemployed,' and 'Save the Whales'.
Designer Katharine Hamnett made headlines in March 1984 when she wore one of her '58% Don't Want Pershing' T-shirts to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's fashion reception at No. 10 Downing Street.
As for Claude Montana, who is to big shoulders what Alexander Graham Bell is to the telephone, fashion is simple: 'Shoulders forever,' he says.
Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler both structured their jackets with their signature exaggerated shoulder padding.
The Reagan influence wafted through the major cities like heavy perfume. Where the young had once been the apple of the fashion eye, the elders took over, wearing expensive suits and ball gowns. And youth followed the example. In its way, nothing said more about fashion than all those 15-year-olds in wing collars and black ties swimming like well-bred minnows in the wake of stately taffeta.