I remember seeing brands like Benetton, Ton Sur Ton, Guess?, Jordache (“designer” jeans) , Sergio Valente (“designer” jeans), Sassoon (“designer” jeans), Gloria Vanderbilt (“designer” jeans), and of course the ones that are still around today as others have mentioned (Calvin Klein, etc.). Shoes: I just remember getting mine at a store called “The Wild Pair.” There were also other stores that were in fashion and all of their clothes were labled as their own brand: Contempo Casuals, Judy’s, 5 7 9. People were really into Swatch watches. Also Z Cavaricci for guys.
Leg warmers are one of the things people think of when thinking about the 80s. I think it came from the movie “Flashdance” in 1983 and also from a singer named Pat Bentar (look on youtube for Love is a Battlefield.) They showed women wearing leotards and wearing leg warmers and the next thing you knew, they were everywhere and the kids at school had them. Oh! The biggest thing: Jane Fonda’s Workout. It was this exercise craze, and Jame Fonda was on the cover of the workout video wearing leg warmers. That was another big one.
Then there was the whole rock chick thing. I would say it really came in with Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, Poison and Motley Crue, because the 80s chicks watched the bands’ music videos on MTV and then tried to copy the style of the girls in the videos. I remember trying to copy Tawny Kitean’s look from the Whitesnake video (white heels, crazy big hair, white dress) and many of the Motley Crue girls from the videos. In real life, the girls who were actual fans wore the band t-shirts and some levi’s. The crazy rocker chick look came from those videos, where the women were overly styled. As far as it going out of style, it went out when the hair band music became played out. When grunge started really gaining momentum in 1993 was when the look went totally out.
There was a goth sort of fashion back then, as you probably know. From what I recall, the shoes were either: Creepers (low) Doc Martens (high) or black converse. Skinny black jeans or Dickies on some kids. Red lips on girls, lots of black eye liner on the girls, but no one knew how to do their brows. The guys wore trenchcoats and had hair over one eye, sometimes wore hats, and some ventured into a hybrid of punk fashion (Sid Vicious chains, safety pinned denim jackets with patches, spiked hair) Everyone had a cigarette hanging out of their mouth.
The 80s fashion carried over a little bit into the 90s. Half of the girls still had big sprayed 80s hair and perms. The other half were starting to straighten their hair and flip it to one side and wear big hoop earrings (see: Kelly Bundy from Married With Children (hair.) The pale pink lip was also carried over from the mid eighties and late eighties (about half the girls still wore that color) while the other half started wearing a darker lip. A heavy brow was still in fashion (see: Beverly Hills 90210 first and second seasons for all hair/clothing that was from 1990 91). Scrunchie socks and L.A. Gear shoes carried from late eighties to early nineties. The only neon that carried over from what I saw was from nail polish on some girls.
Back to work!
Til next time