1980-1990

1980-1990

The 1980s was a decade about heavy emphasis on expensive dressing and fashion accessorise. It was also a time influences by music and television icons. Definitely a decade of many styles. 

Women expressed an image of wealth and success through shiny

 costume jewelry like large faux-gold earrings, pearl necklases and clothing covered with sequins and diamonds. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade.

Hair in the 1980s was generally big, curly, bouffant and heavily styled. Television shows such as 'Dynasty' helped popularise the high volume bouffant and glamorous image associated with it. Women from the 1980s wore a heavy and bright makeup. Everyday fashion make up in the '80s comprised having light coloured lips, dark and thick eyelashes, pink and light blue blusher.

Madonna

When thinking about clothes worn in the 80s, the most popular style that comes to mind is definitely Madonna. This pop icon was discovered and elevated to her most popular days in the 1980’s. Her style was the most copied after look. After all, Madonna was omnipresent in 80s culture, appearing on TV in many music videos, on the big screen in movies, on cassettes in every home and car, and in concert. She had many looks during this decade. Her ability to perpetually re-style herself has certainly contributed to the longevity of her career. One was her most iconic looks from the 80s was the wavy hair with highlights. Girls went to the salons in droves to get the “poodle” looking perms so their hair was wavy too.

Michael Jackson

The 'Thriller' look was inspired by Michael Jackson's record breaking album 'Thriller'. Teenagers would attempt to replicate the look of Jackson which included matching red/black leather pants and jackets, one glove, sunglasses and jheri curl. Leather jackets popularised by Jackson and films like "The Lost Boys" were often studded and left undone to create messier look. Oversized shouldered faded leather jackets with puffy sleeves from Europe caught on. Gloves, sometimes fingerless, would also accompany the jacket. 

Late in the decade plan brown aviator jackets made a comeback, styled after World War II fighter pilot jackets. Already popular aviators were joined by other forms of sunglasses. It was not unusual for sunglasses or shades as they were known, to be worn at night.

Fashion of the 1990s has been named as “The decade fashion has forgotten.” Trend of the 1990s is basically an eclectic mix of trends from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and the combination of styles from the three decades can be seen throughout.  The late 1980s fashion trends carried over into the new decade, as women continued to wear aerobic leggings and stir-ups in bright florescent colours, blue jeans with matching denim jackets in acid wash, baby doll dresses, over sized t-shirts, sweatshirts and sweaters, with slouch socks over high-tops sneakers and keds.

The 1960s and 1970s styles were revived in the mid-90s with fashion taking on hippie style floral dresses, flowered floor length skirts, lace blouses, Gypsy tops and wedge heeled shoes. Another trend that began in the 80s is the Z Cavaricci pants (parachute pants), which were worn by both men and women.

Z Cavaricci pants

At the same time mainstream fashion looked back to previous decades for inspiration, another alternative trend developed. In the middle of the decade, with the influence of rock band Nirvana and their lead singer, the iconic Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love, the new grunge era began. Cobain and Love inspired fashion trends to adopt what is known as the 90’s grunge.

Ripped jeans were very popular in 1990

The new grunge was an amalgamation of punk, which began in the 1970s, and gothic (Goth). Some of the key elements of the 90s grunge are jeans that are ripped, patched with fabric, and/or drawn on with a permanent marker, long sleeved flannels, long sleeved cotton shirts with a rock band t-shirt over it, doc martens, skate shoes, chuck taylors, or any other type of boot. The main influences driving grunge fashion are comfort and creativity. In conjunction with grunge, another fashion trend that was seen in the 1990s was inspired by the influx of hip-hop artists as the sagging-jeans era began in the early 90s and carried through into the 2000s.

Another fashion trend - hip hop style