What is more no-no-notorious then the 1980s when it comes to fashion? When could you wear baggy MC Hammer pants one day and skin tight pants the next? When were you ever able to create a full outfit out of leg warmers, miniskirts and a sweater, preferably in various neon colours? Some people say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I say what happened in the 80s should stay in the 80s. However, it seems that some of the terrible and downright insane fashion choices we made in those days are coming back to haunt us. Probably because anything from the 80s is now classed as vintage, and vintage is once again super cool. Best not tell your children that “cool” is also a word we invented in the 80s. If you don’t remember the 80s, it was all about big colours mixed together in ways that colours should never be mixed. Let’s take a look at some of the things we used to do in those days.
Shoulder Pads
No 80s outfit is complete without massive shoulder pads. An overwhelming majority of people agrees that this was the biggest fashion faux-pas of the decade. In fact, although many of the weird things we wore in those days have now come back, shoulder pads have stayed firmly locked away in the cupboard. It isn’t quite clear why we were all so obsessed with having bigger looking shoulders. Some people say it’s because of the women’s liberation movement, making women look stronger in the workplace. Whether or not this is true is debatable, but if you were around in the 80s, you will have worn shoulder pads.
Miniskirts and Leg Warmers
We also wore a whole lot of miniskirts, preferably as short as possible. The best miniskirts were made from denim, but leather and knit were also acceptable. They could be as short as this because we used to pair them up with leggings. Interestingly, this is one of those fashion styles that have come back in recent years. Everybody in the 80s wore miniskirts, with the exception of most men and older women. Naturally, to make these skirts look even greater, we also wore leg warmers. Whether this was because our legs were cold since we didn’t cover them up, or whether we thought they looked really awesome, they were a staple part of our wardrobes. And they’ve made a comeback as well. The legwarmers had to be in the most ghastly neon colours, green, pink, yellow, blue and so on.
Other Clothes
When we weren’t walking around in miniskirts, leggings and legwarmers, we wore a myriad of other strange things. First, there were the parachute pants, also known as the MC Hammer pants. These pants were so baggy that about five elephants could fit in them. To make them look even strangers, they would have very tight cuffs at the bottom for some reason. And they came in the brightest designs, of course.
We also wore Members Only jackets, and these were one of the items of clothing that absolutely had to be branded. If you didn’t have a Members Only jacket, you were classed as a dork (another term from the 80s).
Accessories
No outfit is complete without accessories, of course. Hence, we chose to wear huge earrings (they’ve made a comeback too), preferably big enough to normally go on a Christmas tree. They had to be plastic and they had to be in neon colours. As a rule of thumb, your earrings had to touch your shoulders to be big enough. This is why many women nowadays have stretched earlobes.
We also wore fingerless gloves. Not the warm knitted ones you get today, but lace ones. Punk rockers still wear them today, but they seem to go with the whole punk outfit. Neon legwarmers, neon earrings, knitted miniskirts, leggings and black lace fingerless gloves don’t seem to match as well.
Naturally, all women also had hotpants in their wardrobes. This is yet another item that is once again very fashionable.
