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...

Designer Stubble

FACTORY BOYS BRISTLE OVER STUBBLE BAN,

From the Sun, October 4, 1986.

Workers were bristling yesterday over their bosses' ban... on trendy stubble beards.

The firm's younger fellas - who copy Wham! star George Michael's hairy style - have had to take the decision on the chin.

Some have been handed razors or sent home when they arrived at the Goodson lampshade factory in Hixon, Stafford.

Management claim five-o-clock shadows give a bad impression to visitors from customers like Marks and Spencer.

Managing director Phillip Goodson said yesterday: "We have high standards. It's disrespectful."

Some of the lads called in their factory inspector to see if the razor ruling was legal.

But they were told management was entitled to expect workers to look smart.

One employee, who did not want to be named, complained: "You can still look smart with a bit of shadow. It's trendy."

It was, in fact, very trendy indeed to look slightly unshaven in the mid-to-late 1980s. This look came to be known as "designer stubble" and was actually a cultivated style designed to make the stubbled-one look wonderfully macho. It was a look that was popularised by George Michael in Wham and Don Johnson in Miami Vice. I tried it, but ended up looking like a seedy villain.

My mate Steve tried it, and looked absolutely great (or so he said), but he came unstuck at work at Sainsbury's. Dazzling all the housewives as a front-of-house check-out operator, Steve was one day spotted by the evil store manager, who took him straight off the till and sent him to work in the store's warehouse for the rest of the day. That was the end of Steve's stubbled phase. Humping boxes and crates around simply was not his style.

20th Century Words by John Ayto, describes designer stubble thus:

noun (1987): a short bristly growth of stubble on a man's unshaven face, worn for a carefully groomed yet rugged and masculine appearance...

The book quotes a Guardian article from 1989:

Designer stubble of the George Michael ilk has also run its bristly course.

Shame!

Mind you, it's back in fashion now!

Smells Like JR Ewing...

From Titbits, April 4, 1981. It was a interesting time for men, the 1980s. Did you aspire to be an '80s Man (or New Man)? Or did you want to go round smelling like JR Ewing of Dallas fame? The choice was yours. The "JR" range was launched in 1980.

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.

Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins: EastEnders Stars In The Pop Charts 2

Here's Nick Berry, EastEnders Simon Wicks (or "Wicksy"), all togged up in his 1980s gear with a very classy motor.

Simon was, apparently, the son of Pete Beale (Peter Dean) and dad doted on son, until Simon's mother, wicked witch Pat (Pam St Clement), turned up in 1986. She couldn't resist spilling the beans to Simon's proud dad that he wasn't Simon's dad at all. The storyline puzzled me as I always thought that Nick Berry bore something of a resemblance to Peter Dean, and assumed that was partly the reason he'd been chosen for the role.

Simon worked in the Vic, yuppie pub the Dagmar, played the piano, and had a very busy (and, of course, fraught) love life.

Actor Nick Berry became a TV heart-throb overnight. This was one lucky man: he'd been involved in a car crash a few years before EastEnders and, not wearing a seat belt, had been thrown through the windscreen.

Despite suffering a fractured skull, he made a complete recovery.

Here's Nick, complete with designer stubble, on the cover of that record. Every Loser Wins was number one in the pop charts on the day I got the key to the door - my 21st birthday. Actually, I'd had my own key to my own door for several years, but 21 was still special. And this was number one.

I'm very fond of much that went to make up the 1980s, although sometimes I wonder why... Karma Chameleon was at number one on my 18th birthday, and this on my 21st. There were times when the decade was just too, too cruel!

Speaking of Every Loser Wins, Nick Berry was good enough to admit later: "My singing on it was awful."

Oddly enough, back in 1986, I recall actually liking the song.

But I would never admit that to anybody who knows me. Not that I'm a snob, of course.

Perish the thought!

Duran Duran - Were YOU A Duranie?

Duran Duran - New Romantic moments in 1981 and 1982.

The pop group Duran Duran was formed by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor in 1978, however the classic line-up did not come together until 1980.

In early 1980, the owners of the Rum Runner Club, Birmingham, England - brothers Paul and Michael Berrow - took the band (at that point, after several changes in line-up, consisting of John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes) under their wings, paying the lads to work as doormen, disc jockeys and glass collectors when they were not rehearsing, and providing them with rehearsal space.

In April 1980, Andy Taylor answered an ad for a "live wire guitarist" with Duran Duran.

In May 1980, Simon Le Bon met the band, introduced by his ex-girlfriend, Rum Runner barmaid Fiona Kemp, who recommended him as a potential vocalist. Apparently, Simon attended his audition clad in pink leopard print trousers.

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.

In June 1980, the Berrow brothers formed a company, Tritec Music. Duran Duran signed a production contract with Tritec and the Berrow brothers became the band's managers.

The band's classic line-up of Simon Le Bon (vocals), John Taylor (bass), Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar), and Nick Rhodes (synthesizers) played their first show together at the Rum Runner on July 9 1980.

In December 1980, Duran Duran landed a deal with EMI Records.

In 1981 the Durans were futuristic dandies (remember Planet Earth?), taking over the charts, their every movement eagerly followed by a growing band of dedicated Duranies.

John Taylor gets touched up for a mid-80s photo shoot.

A 1984 book chronicling the history of the group. Cue hysterical Duranies: "Oh, Simon, Oh Simon, I love you, I love you!"

Duran Duran became one of THE pop groups of the 1980s. In 1981, they'd been New Romantics, flouncing around in out sized frillies, but they outlived that scene well and truly.

1982: all aboard - another "Rio" shot.

Influencing fashion, movers and shakers in the pop video market (remember Girls on Film?!), and purveyors of some highly distinctive and polished '80s pop music, Duran Duran became legends.

And as instantly evocative of the 1980s in the years since as Rubik's Cube, the ZX Spectrum and shoulder pads!

"Cherry ice cream smile..."

Heart throb John discovers something interesting on the beach.

These Duran Duran wrist bands were ideal for sport, or nipping out for a packet of ciggies.

Power Dressing For Men...

My, what big shoulders you have, Mr Robinson. Sorry, I mean Donovan. 

Shoulder pads were part of the "Power Dressing" image. The phrase was first recorded in 1980, according to the Twentieth Century Book of Words by John Ayto (Oxford, 1999). Back then, it meant a smart, efficient look for executive women. But as the 1980s continued the shoulders grew and grew. And some men (like me) got in on the act. The pads had to be large. We wanted BIG, BIG shoulders.

Us men who got the padded look thought we looked great - and our gigantic shoulders made our beer bellies (not that Jason Donovan had one!) look much smaller.

Bliss.
Men's fashion as featured in a 1987 advertisement... I loved it all... why are you laughing?!
- More absolutely gorgeous 1987 clobber!

The Sun Page 7 Fella

A Sun newspaper "Page 7 Fella" from February 1985. Note the 1980s bouffant mullet hairdo! 

The Sun Page 7 Fella caused a stir when he arrived in the early 1980s. Was this equality at last? No! said some - a male torso was in no way as revealing as a woman's breasts - many of which were to be seen on Page 3 over the years. But then 95% of workplace deaths being male and feminists' constant looking at a 'Glass Ceiling' and never a 'Glass Cellar' isn't equality either. And neither is the fact that domestic violence by women gets such scant attention. And sexual harassment. I've had some of that myself. 

The trouble is, in my 'Ever so 'Umble' opinion, both men and women are amazingly stupid: women for believing feminist ideology, which involves massive amounts of narcissism, misandry and self delusion, and men for immediately siding with anything the 'ladeez' say and dashing forward to be chivalrous white knights, while throwing their own sex under the bus.

But the human race is so funny - for all our posturings and belief in our greatness. Me included.

By 1988, the Sun had its own women's section - Sun Woman - and so at last there was a male Page 3, rather than a page 7. This particular "fella" dates from September '88. But, some complained, it wasn't really equality. A male torso was in no way as revealing as a woman's breasts. But then what is equality? The gender workplace death gap? The 'glass cellar' jobs gap? The gender custodial sentencing gap - massively skewed against males? The fact that until recently women retired five years earlier than men? Life is a lot more complex than the constant misandry spewed by the so-called equality movement, which has been so long accepted by the vast majority of people. I recommend a look at Janice Fiamengo and Karen Straughan's videos on YouTube for anybody who might like to investigate further.