Kids in Donkey Jackets...

Fashion '83: this ad, which I found in the local newspaper archive, stirred fond memories - although my donkey jacket was not tartan-lined.

You can't have it all.

Donkey jackets were for boys AND girls - beginning around 1982 and continuing into 1983. This is a 1983 snap of two dedicated followers of fashion.

Remember the girls'-only trend for having their names printed on the back of their donkey jackets?

1982: Shop Into Boots - Deodorants For Men

A lovely array of deodorants for men - an advertisement for Boots, May, 1982. Included are Pagan Man, Tabac, Turbo, Brut 33 and Denim. A little later, my own favourite was Mandate.

1982: Invasion Of The Deelybobbers/Deelyboppers/Beeny Boppers/Bonce Boppers/Space Boppers...

June 1982 - Deelyboppers, or Bonce Boppers, or Deelybobbers, or Space Boppers, or... [insert own name for this exciting early 1980s headgear] ran rampant in New York and were about to arrive here...

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From the Rock column by Robin Eggar, Daily Mirror, 29/6/1982:

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The young lady with the strange growths on her head is not an alien. She's just sporting the trendiest fashion accessory in New York - The Bonce Bopper.

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New Yorkers have suddenly started to sprout spring-mounted bobbles, hearts, stars and windmills.

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If you want to be one of the first bobble-headers in Britain, I've just had 25 sets flown in.

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To win one, tell me who first recorded the Rolling Stones' current hit "Going To A Go Go" in 1966. The first 25 answers drawn from the bag on Monday, July 5, will receive a bonce bopper.

*

Sadly, Going To A Go Go really wasn't much of a hit - stalling at No. 26, but deelybobbers/deelyboppers/bonce boppers etc, etc, were a wow!

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The Sun, 23 July, 1982 - the "Bonce Bouncers" are here!

We've had head-hunters and head-bangers. Now it's the turn of the bonce boppers.

In fact, it's the latest craze to bounce into Britain from America. And it's going to everyone's head.

So, hang up your hoola-hoop, scrap your skateboard and get a head start by wearing a bopper on your bonce.

It's a headband supporting two spiral wire antenna topped with hearts, bobbing balls or windmills.

When we took to the streets with luscious Linda Lusardi wearing a pair of boppers, headstrong young men came rushing up to look at her...

Page three lovely Linda gets bopping...

In August 1982, an article entitled Parting The Forest Of Headbanger Antennae appeared in my local rag (or newspaper!):
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It is the latest craze and it has really gone to people's heads...

What is it? Well, here we encounter a slight problem. What are those things protruding from the heads of everyone under 13 years (not to mention a few people over 13 years)?
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The answer is not easy. There seem to be as many names for these glittering balls, hearts, stars, feathers and windmills, as there are designs.
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"What do you call those headbands with things on?" I asked a girl in one Cambridge fashion shop.
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"I don't know," she mused... "Headbands with things on, I suppose."
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Round the corner, the street trader who was undercutting the shop by 39p, displayed no such hesitation.
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"Beeny (or should it be beany?) Boppers," he said.
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Along the street another itinerant salesman had a sign saying "Bouncers," or was it "Boncers"?
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In Green Street, Cambridge, a shop named Games and Puzzles calls them Headbanger Antennae. They are also known as Space Boppers and Bonce Boppers.
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"The kids seem to make up their own names," said Games and Puzzles proprietor Mr Lester Saunders.
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Whatever they are called, they are the biggest thing since the Rubik Cube. Since the start of the school holidays they have proliferated in Cambridge to almost epidemic proportions.
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Let's quickly recap on what we learned in the main 1982 blurb:

The oddball headgear was registered in the USA, its homeland, as "Deely-bobbers" (according to 20th Century Words by John Ayto) in 1982, with claim of usage of the name since 1981.

The name (deely-bobbers, I believe) had previously been applied to a children's toy - a type of inter-connecting building block.

Did you remember all that? If so, pop on your deely-bobbers or deelyboppers (or whatever you like to call them), and reward yourself with a quick boogie to your Kids From Fame LP - you deserve it!

Did we like looking like space aliens? But of course! I remember wearing a lovely pair of deelyboppers (as I referred to them) just before Christmas 1982 at my firm's Christmas "do".

What a night! My mother discovered me at one o' clock the next morning, tinsel round neck, deelyboppers bobbing, standing underneath a lamp post and serenading the family home: "Save your love my darling, save your love..."

She's never let me forget it.

The little cherub above, pictured in the "Daily Mirror" in August 1982, won a baby of the year show. Was she wearing the headgear at the time?

An unusual way of wearing deelyboppers - the "Sun", September 1982.

See a 1982 Atari magazine advertisement featuring deelyboppers - here.

1982 - Aerobics, Leg Warmers, Deelyboppers, Ra Ra Skirts, Pretty Colours, Zippy Shorts And Skimpy Undies...

A whistle-stop tour of 1982 fashions and cosmetics... beginning with three ads from Cosmopolitan, May 1982...

Boots No 7 - May, 1982 - "Announcing the arrival of the hottest Spring we've ever seen".

Trendy specs from Silhouette - they look lovely with shoulder pads.

Here's Jane Fonda, flashing her leg warmers about on her famous Workout video, which began the home video fitness trend. Aerobics Rules?

Little underwear - from the Daily Mirror, March 1982. Even today, I wouldn't be seen dead in a pair of boxers - although they are supposed to be much healthier for we members of the ... er... unfairer sex.


From The Sun, 4/5/1982:

It's no sweat to keep in trim these days.

Especially with the sort of exercise clothes that reveal loads of style.

Girls are taking to the tennis courts, running tracks and dance classes to keep their curves in shape.

There's no need to sweat it out in sticky vests, baggy shorts and nylon sox. There's enough fashionable gear around for sporting action to turn any girl into a surefire winner.

Zippy shorts and matching tops will give you a good run for your money.

And the latest mini ra-ra skirts will put your legs ahead of other girls.

If you want to take to the tracks in a serious way, choose a body-revealing leotard and fashionable tracksuit bottoms.

You don't have to be a record breaker to look like a champ, but you'll gladden the heart of every fella who likes to play the game.

Remember zippy shorts? Remember those horrible black lycra leggings, ending around the knee, under your ra-ra skirt? And what about these?

The Sun, 23 July, 1982 - the "Bonce Bouncers" are here!

We've had head-hunters and head-bangers. Now it's the turn of the bonce boppers.

In fact, it's the latest craze to bounce into Britain from America. And it's going to everyone's head.

So, hang up your hoola-hoop, scrap your skateboard and get a head start by wearing a bopper on your bonce.

It's a headband supporting two spiral wire antenna topped with hearts, bobbing balls or windmills.

When we took to the streets with luscious Linda Lusardi wearing a pair of boppers, headstrong young men came rushing up to look at her...

Page Three girl Linda Lusardi enjoys the boppers. Read our full deelyboppers feature here.