Fashions Of The 1980s - Jelly Shoes...

Sue writes:

I recall having a pair of jelly shoes when they were a brand new trend and I was about 7 years old in the late 1980s. I loved them. They were a lovely pink colour, and they came from a range called 'Jelly Brights'. Do you recall them? And do you have any good pics or articles about the '80s jelly shoes fashion? It's so funny to see them back in fashion over the last few years. I was there first time around in the '80s.

I do recall them, Sue, and I have a pic from the 1989 Look Again catalogue showing the very range, "Jellybrights", that you remember! I hope you like it.

The Shutter Shades Of The 1980s...

Geeky slatted shades of the 1950s (no, they didn't make a major fashion splash!) and the super sci-fi style design of the 1980s.

Shutter Shades, louvered sunglasses in a range of tempting colours, have become very popular in recent years. Many of the colours seem reminiscent of the 1980s, but that's appropriate because the sunglasses are somewhat akin to a type of fashion eye wear from that decade. These were futuristic looking, streamlined sunglasses, slatted, which slowly made inroads into the fashion psyche after making an appearance in the Glittering Prize Simple Minds pop video of 1982. Then Astrid Plane, of Animotion wore a pair in that band's video for Obsession midway through the decade, and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys also donned a pair a bit later in that ten year span. A very different design of slatted sunglasses had appeared in America the 1950s, but do not seem to have been adopted by the great and the cool. The futuristic 1980s design, probably largely thanks to the wonder of the pop video, made great waves.

I never wore them in the '80s (they were apparently nicknamed "Venetian Blinders", according to some sources, but I never heard them referred to them as such back then). I just never got round to buying a pair and they would have clashed with my Miami Vice/casuals/sportswear style dress sense anyway. But I liked them and I so love the modern version. They remind me of the good old '80s days (sigh)!

1980s Fashions... Suitable Trends For Today?

1986 - posing overdrive for women...

 Looking around, I see many 1980s-influenced fashions around me. The leggings. The deelyboppers. The blonde hair streaks. The gelled or moussed look. '80s sportswear-influenced designs on outdoor coats and modern sportswear. Stone and acid washed jeans. The turned back/pushed up jacket sleeve look. I've even seen jelly shoes! And lots more... 

Clearly (although many hate to admit it) the '80s are now highly influential in the modern fashion world. Here's a few tips from a few UK mail order catalogues of the 1980s for those who want to get the look just right... 

Male posing for the 1980s... the trouble with the pushed up sleeve effect is that they keep coming down. The '80s look is very high maintenance indeed. Try walking with your arms close to your side, or buying a jacket with a nice contrasting inner lining so that you can solve the problem by turning back your sleeves instead of pushing them up.

Where Jane Fonda first flew in 1982 with her Workout video, others soon followed. Aerobics woz 'ere. In fact, as the '80s went on, sport and fitness became a positive mania, and sportswear became ever more colourful and expensive as we entered the era of designer sports fashions. Fit for business. Fit for life.

"It's my broker!" grins the geezer on the chunky phone, seeking to impress. Looks like a right yuppie, doesn't he? Love the suit. So very stylish... And by the mid-1980s, style was what it was all about. Well, the '80s idea of style, that  was.

 Some great mid-1980s winter warmth jackets. I had the one on the left!

 Lustre look sheen fabric... the '80s shiny suit... brill! I've still got one of mine, a grey one with over large shoulders, and recall sliding down the wall at Tracy's Nite Spot in it after quaffing back a bit too much of the Reassuringly Expensive Stella Artois, circa 1987. I'd been leaning against the wall nonchalantly, eyeing up the talent, glass in hand, when I felt my descent begin.  I managed not to spill a drop.

"Hello, is Giles there please? It's his broker calling."

"Giles, it's your broker!"

"Tell him I'm in the bog, would you purlease, mateyboots?"

Something for 1986 kids. I'm absolutely positive that the lad on the left is (then) future pop star Chesney Hawkes (remember that rascally early 1990s hit The One And Only? We do. But we wish we didn't).

Late 1980s - terrific designs for posey male sportswear, hugely influential on the 1990s, and still influencing today's sports fashions.

1989...

Making a splash in '89...

Black leggings, ending around the knee, swept into fashion around 1982. And were still up there in 1989.

More from 1989. That belt looks really industrial, doesn't it? What did it mean? Search me...

And a last blast from 1989... Hot off the beach... WOW!

But suppose you've seen all these delights, you've thought it all through, and you don't want to adopt ANY of these swingorilliant  '80s trends?

Well, suit yourself.

There's no accounting for taste...

Fashion Trends Of The 1980s: Doorknocker Ear-Rings - Modelled Here By Neneh Cherry...

Here's Neneh Cherry giving us her BRILLIANT Buffalo Stance and sporting a pair of 1980s doorknocker ear- rings.

'80s ear-rings were often a nightmare - there was the putrid, coloured plastic variety; the axe head variety (looked very brutal indeed) and the studded doughnut (often black, but appeared to be studded with metal- went well with studded black lycra).

And then there was the doorknocker.

Who's looking good today?
Who's looking good in every way?

Er, Neneh, I hate to tell you...

But back in 1988 Neneh looked very, very trendy indeed.

1980s Autumn/Winter Wear For Men - Get Some Knitwear!

Les has written:

I'm having an 80s fashion revival, and am seeking inspiration for autumn/winter wear. I know jackets with pushed up sleeves were all year rounders, and I've been experimenting with some shell suit inspired stuff too, but what to wear if autumn/winter are cold?

Well, Les, go for knitwear. The 1980s adored knitwear.

Look at on-line auctions for distinctive 1980s designs - there are bargains available, all of which could only come from one decade! There are also loads of '80s inspired fashion items in the shops and on-line. Since last year, I've been wearing a splendid array of wonderful short sleeved tops, often grey with colourful trims, usually with different coloured lapel and sleeve trims (take a look at the sleeves on the jumper pictured!). I've been loving the return to my youth. Well, if only I COULD return to my youth, but it's good to feel in-tune with fashion again!

Great to see so many young women in 1980s style smart jackets with turned back sleeves, so many '80s-inspired hairdos, stubble beards, colourful trainers, mirror sun glasses, stone washed and acid washed jeans and even jelly shoes. And, of course, black '80s style leggings have been back for around ten years...

For your '80s autumn wardrobe think dressy, think striking, think colourful meets grey or black. Get the knitwear, continue to push up those jacket sleeves (oh, and men often wore turn back sleeves too), Gel that hair and strike that pose and you'll definitely be evoking the spirit of the "style decade". Enjoy and have fun.

1988 - Wicked! Gel 'N' Mousse, Designer Stubble, Ripped Jeans, Party People And Boxer Shorts...

Let's take a look elsewhere... Ah, here's Blue Jeans, April 1988. Imagine coming across this girly in an English country garden - or anywhere!! She looks mighty daft by today's standards. In 1988, she looked pretty OK.

More from Blue Jeans - and Star Trek - The Next Generation is available on video. And then there's 30 things you didn't know about Curiosity Killed The Cat. What are you waiting for?

Ooh, those clothes! As I recall, they were very much of the era, and would not have looked at all out of place, but nowadays those girlies would be far more likely to be laughed off the rink because of their clothes than for any lack of skating skills. Mind you, maybe not. I've seen a lot of '80s gear in the last ten years or so worn by the young and the trendy: foul ra ra skirt and black leggings combinations, lovely jackets with pushed up or turned back sleeves (the turned back sleeves having the inner striped or other patterned material), permed and scrunched hair, bulldog clips, blonde streaks/highlights, shutter shades, jelly shoes, colourful trainers, wonderful clothing colour schemes - and more... 

Makes me feel old to see it back again.

A glimpse of two fabulous Blue Jeans photo stories - one of them called I Should Be So Lucky. There's novel.

I loved the droll irony contained within '80s teen mags, probably started by Smash Hits earlier in the decade. There's a fine example in this 1988 Blue Jeans reader's letter and editor's reply featured on the page above:

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In Carly Simon's song "Coming Around Again" what is Mummy doing when Daddy "breezes in" and also why did the baby sneeze?

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Curious BJ Fan, Bucks.

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"Baby sneezes, Mommy PLEASES, Daddy breezes in." I've really no idea why the baby sneezes, perhaps it was sitting in a draught or it had just had a very cold drink of Pepsi or it had been for a brisk walk in the bracing air. Just use your imagination. Please!

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Magic. And don't miss Freeda The Frog declaring her undying love for Gordon the Gopher.

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"Bright and cheery" nail varnishes tested by Blue Jeans...

Kylie squashed a 1988 silly season rumour: word was floating around that if you played her records at 33 RPM (vinyl was still pretty "in" in 1988, as were cassettes, CD players cost a packet) it revealed that Rick Astley was actually singing, not Kylie. SCANDAL! Not true, said tongue-in-cheek Kylie, SHE was actually the singer on her own AND Rick Astley's records.

And here IS Rick. What's to look forward to in the next 1988 edition of Blue Jeans? A feature on stars in suits? Hands To Heaven Breathe? A Phillip Schofield pin-up? Oh come on. Is this a joke? Have I been sold a spoof mag?

No?

Flamin' Nora...

I liked Sinitta's camp, hi-N-R-G pop. Here she is (with her toyboy?), revealing that sometimes he's a trendy boxer shorts man. What was all this with boxer shorts? Well, for years, medics had been fussing over we men's personal bits, claiming that they got a little too overcrowded and overheated in briefs and Y-fronts and that they really weren't good for our fertility.

Underwear had become very brief in the 1960s, but in the mid-to-late 1980s, made acceptable by the likes of Nick Kamen, boxers were on the rise again. A healthier, "stylish" alternative. Yes, probably, as regards the former, but as regards the latter - PURLEASE!! Compare this 1988 trend with skimpy 1982 - here.

Nick Berry - a Blue Jeans pin up in 1988, complete with designer stubble.

Were these "trusty 501's" ready for the dustbin? Are you kidding?

The label on that top recommended hand washing in luke warm water with Dreft. But would the girly listen? Would she heck - she was too busy moussing her hair up.

My mother was a "child of the '60s" and sported a huge beehive hairdo back then which took about eighteen cans of hair spray to create. Even in the 1970s, she would gas us with hair spray fumes, creating a more modest hair style, before going to the local Labour Club for bingo on Friday and Saturday nights.

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In the 1980s, as concern for the ozone layer took hold, we youngsters gleefully grasped hold of new kind-to-ozone products like hair gel and mousse so that we could perform evil experiments on our own crowning glories.

Lovely.

Stars out and about in July 1988 - from the News of the World Sunday Magazine. Prince Charles shows off his chest, "Loadsamoney" Harry Enfield does his Stavros bit, being all caring and sharing over a kebab, Samantha Fox hitches a ride with Simon Climie of Climie Fisher and Ben Vol-au-Vent (as we always called him) of Curiosity Killed The Cat wears weird footwear with band mate Migi.

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Meanwhile, Linda Gray takes a break from Sue Ellen, Jim Davidson's still about, and Arnold Schwarzeneggar takes a stroll with Danny DeVito.

In youth terminology, "wicked" was suddenly a very excellent thing to be. But what was "gnarly"?

Er...

"Tubular"?

Double er... 

By 1988 I was getting a mite raddled, and wasn't as "with it" as I once had been... Oh for the days of Toto Coelo!

Miami Vice

Debuting in the States in 1984 and in England in early 1985, Miami Vice was an instant hit.

Duran Duran in the 1982 Rio video - note the prototype Miami Vice gear. Jacket sleeves had begun to be pushed up as a fashion trend around the turn of the decade - and the trend grew more and more prevalant as the decade got underway. Shoulder pads began to grow (courtesy of the likes of Joan Collins and, judging by this picture, John Taylor) and everyday men began to wear bright colours.

Miami Vice had pushed-up sleeves, pastel shaded clothing and obvious shoulder pads, but it also had designer stubble, docksiders with no socks, pastel painted buildings, two stylish cops called Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), a soundtrack of top-notch rock music and an alligator called Elvis...

The show's groundbreaking and highly distinctive look was created by its executive producer, Michael Mann.

Tubbs advises Crockett to cool it...

Crockett and Tubbs battled against evil Miami villains. The show had a hard edge.

And it also had some weird quirks - like Elvis, the aforementioned alligator, who shared Crockett's houseboat.

The guys worked hard, often finding their lives in danger...

... but occasionally found time for romance - and once even marriage. Crockett got hitched to a British pop star - the lovely Scot Sheena Easton.

Unfortunately, her character was quickly bumped off.

Serious about crime. Serious about style.

Crockett and Tubbs look-a-likes featured in the "Sun", July, 1985.

Here in England, Crockett and Tubbs clones abounded. Including me. Designer stubble made me look distinctly seedy - like an associate of Arthur Daley or Gilbert the alien. I was well into the "no socks" routine. Never try it with canvas shoes. Take my word for it - it's agony, rubs all the skin off your feet.

I was already into the pushed up sleeve look - and the colourful jackets were a delight, as were the exaggerated shoulders!

Miami Vice is remembered as one of the most iconic television shows of the 1980s. I'll certainly never forget the show's ultra-stylish presentation - nor the impact it had on my fashion sense! 

The "Miami Vice" theme by Jan Hammer charted here in December 1985.

A 1986 advertisement for a "Miami Vice" computer game produced by Ocean Software, Manchester, England.

"Crockett and Tubbs, the only cops to have Pierre Cardin warrant cards..."

A review of the "Miami Vice" game from "Your Computer" magazine, October 1986 and, below, a further advertisement.

1980s Shoulder Pads

Jason Donovan of Neighbours and Stock, Aitken and Waterman fame sports some very big and lovely shoulder pads. And a mullet.

Ah, shoulder pads! Ah, the 1980s! So where's the link? As if we didn't know! Studying fashion via vintage mail order catalogues and fashion shop ads in my local newspaper archive is where I began my work of learning the realities about popular clothing of various decades.

By this, I don't mean the ultra sophisticated garb of the super rich, as seen on the posh fashion show catwalks (very Jan Howard!).

No, I mean what Sharon and Gary (or you and me) were wearing down at the "local", and which pop or TV stars they (or us) had been inspired by.

So, what about those shoulder pads? Well, '80s shoulder pads actually began as a chic retro revival. They were first around in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Of course, the 1980s had bigger ones!

If you watch a TV programme from 1980, you will note the very ordinary-looking shoulders of the good folk on-screen. Shortly after this, small shoulder pads became prevalent. But, by the mid-1980s, COLOSSAL shoulder pads were everywhere. Nowadays, they make very amusing viewing.

It's tremendous fun to view several seasons of an '80s era American soap and watch those shoulders grow over the years!

Joan Collins of Dynasty fame was partly responsible, and where Dynasty flew, the rival American soaps followed as the female cast members howled for higher costume budgets and more "stylish" gear!

Shoulder pads became a required part of the power dressing image for women, and men also cottoned on to the trend. Well, those kindly pads tended to detract from a beer belly!

1940s shoulder pads had often been big. 1980s shoulder pads were usually bigger.

Sometimes absurdly so.

The era of the truly massive shoulder pad began around 1982/1983 and stretched on into the early 1990s.

Personally, I used to like them in a nice pastel linen jacket, with the sleeves pushed up.

Unashamedly an '80s fashion victim!

And why not?

The '80s are sometimes called "The Style Decade". But the trouble was the styles were often too brash, too "in your face". A lot of us were "dead common" back then. And a lot of the styles - like those oh-so-stylish shoulder pads were horrendously OTT!

Fun, though...

Kate (Susan St James) of the American sit com Kate And Allie wears very clearly defined and MASSIVE shoulder pads. Very smart indeed!