80'S Style And 80'S Fashion

The splatter prints, shocking neons, and aggressive shoulder pads of the 1980s have all found their way back onto today's catwalks. Check out these designer collections and what makes them oh-so-80s.

History of 1980's Hairstyles:

Big and eccentric hair styles were popularized by film and music stars in particular amongst teenagers. There was generally an excessive amount of mousse used in styling an individual's hair which resulted in a desired shiny look and greater volume, some mousse even contained glitter. The mullet existed in several different styles, all characterized by hair short on the sides and long in the back. Mullets were popular in suburban and rural areas among working class men. This contrasted with a conservative look favored by business professionals, with neatly groomed short hair for men and sleekly straight hair for women. White collar men's haircuts were often shaved at the nape of the neck to create an artificially even hairline. Women's hairstyles became increasingly long in the latter part of the decade and blunt cuts dominated. Unlike 1970s blunt cuts, which were often longest at the spine, late 1980s long hair reached an equal length across the back.

During the middle and late 1980s it was unfashionable to part either men's or women's hair.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Acid-washed jeans and denim jackets became popular with both men and women. Acid washing is the process of chemically bleaching the denim, breaking down the fiber of material and forcing the dye to fade, thus leaving undertones of the original dye evidenced by pale white streaks or spots on the material. This became associated with the heavy metal trend (called "hair metal" in later decades for the large frizzy coiffures worn by both male and female enthusiasts).

Madonna was the "Queen of the 80's" and set several pop trends during the decade.
One popular look for men in the late 1980s was Hawaiian shirts. Often they would be complemented with sport coats with stitched looks. They were often gray and white, and were worn for both casual and business settings. When worn in the business setting, they were often worn without a tie.

Leather jackets popularized by Michael Jackson and films like The Lost Boys were often studded and left undone to create a messier look. Oversized, slouch shouldered faded leather jackets with puffy sleeves from Europe caught on.

Gloves, sometimes fingerless, were fairly common.



Late in the decade plain 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.

Earrings became a mainstream fashion for male teenagers. Teen culture held that to pierce the left ear was acceptable for a heterosexual male. A right ear piercing indicated homosexuality. Adults who did not understand the fad worried about how this would affect young men's job prospects as they reached adulthood. Ear piercings left a scar even if they closed from disuse.

Ensembles featuring the colors of Africa, green yellow and red, become wildly unpopular among African Americans mainly named kente cloth. In the urban hip-hop communities however, sneakers usually worn unlaced, tons of gold jewelry and headwraps donned the young of the eighties.

Severely bleached and ripped jeans, either manufactured purposely or done by hand, become a popular fashion trend, being a main component of glam metal music acts such as Poison. Although gay men have often been thought of as trendsetters in the fashion world, elements of gay fashion exploded into the mainstream in the 1980s. The outdoor look, such as the wearing of huge hiking boots, jeans and flannel shirts in the city caught on, drag styles for men and butch styles for women spread into straight society.

Tattooing and piercing also began to enter the mainstream.

Sources:
Wikipedia.org
Nostalgia Central

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