Dress For The 80s

Television has proved to be a wonderful way of chronicling fashion through the ages

, particularly with style that has changed at break-neck speed during the television age. Pop culture programming efforts have been great at recording the dress trends of young people. As it's nearly always the young who adapt to new styles (the older generations usually need to give it a decade before taking the plunge), you get to see fresh, new fashion directions as if they were new and the latest trend.

The 1980s were an incredible period for rapid change. Re-runs of the famous Top of the Pops from this decade show the obvious transformation from aged-hippy seventies influence at the start of the decade to the slightly more tailored, almost office-like, styles that crept in as the famous yuppie culture came to prominence. It could be argued that even though style has appeared and disappeared ever since, some of that late-80s styling has stayed with us. That was the period when food became more of a talking point, for example, and when the seeds of our grooming, art, home design and music habits were established.

No-one is sure if it's because the eighties revival scene is on the up again, or becasue we are more prepared to accept something a little different, fashion from the 1980s (and I refer to vintage fashion that was worn by the masses in the Eighties) can still hold it's own. The clothes we wear for celebrations and special occasions exhibit this perfectly. The styles of the 1980s made us look slim and subtly glamorous enough to look fantastic without seeming like we'd spent ages getting ready. Of course, you can expect sequins and sparkles and some bold and colourful printing styles, but these colours rarely took the attention away from the slim Eighties fashion look. No matter it's a sleeveless top, a blouse or a full evening gown, the look was always lady-like, slightly flaunty and, most importantly, fun.

If you do think Molly Ringwald was indeed pretty in pink (and a generation of boys grew up insisting that she was), then you'll have put your finger on the attraction of this era's party fashions. Being glamorous, especially when your business dress was clearly not (which was true for much of the working class in the 1980s) was not something to be worried or concerned about; it was something to be celebrated. Even the lyrics of those Eighties classics indicate that those years were ones where dressing to party after a hard day earning lots of cash at work was common. And remember that behind the glitzy exterior of 1980s culture was a gloominess and a sarcasm that was lost on all but the most astute observers of the time.

There's another angle that is worth commenting on, too you can read far too much into a nice sparkly top! You don't have to be evoking or reliving anything to choose a great example of 1980s evening chic for your next party night. You just have to be a person who understands that great fashion and fun are pretty much timeless. It's only bad taste that truly fixes itself inseparably to an era.

by: Callum Asterman

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