Far too much time is spent marvelling at the jaw dropping fashions of the 1970's; however, the 1980's deserve equal time. They could be every bit as awful, and oftentimes worse. Take for instance, the bedazzled sweaters and sweatshirts shown above. My eyes!!
I wonder if those shoes are L.A. Gear, and I think those are acid washed jeans. Never has so much 80's radness been condensed into a 400 x 267 image. It's almost too much to take in at once.
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This is the 1980's James Spader asshole fashion line. You basically had to be a egotistical douche to wear something like this - it's perfect to wear while giving hateful condescending stares to geeks.
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Can you count all the unholy trademarks of the 80's? The bright colors, leg warmers, huge hair, pastel overkill, mega tan, multi-colored eye shadow, ankle boots, cat suit, headband.... need I go on?
I have a theory why everything was bursting with loud colors in the 1980's: because it wasn't popular in the 70's. The 1970's were scorned in the 80's, and so the earth tones popular in the previous decade were verboten. Dishwater brown and avocado were OUT, and retina-damaging neon pink was IN! The 1970's have been called the "browning of America"; so, I think it may be appropriate to say the 1980's were the pastelling of America. Personally, (and not surprisingly) I prefer the colors of the 1970's to the Care Bear colors of the 1980's.
I have a love-hate relationship with 1970's fashions. For 80's fashions, there is only hate. When I see MC Hammer pants rolled up above the ankle, I want to kill something.... preferably something with loud obnoxious colors. And everything California was so damn cool - these schlubs may be wearing "SoCal surf wear", but something tells me they're not going to be riding any waves anytime soon.
I found this at a flea market the other day - it's from a booklet on ways to desecrate perfectly good sweaters and sweatshirts. What became of all these sweaters? After grunge hit in the early 90's, sweaters that looked like a unicorn threw up on them were no longer fashionable. Someone tell me what became of all the millions of bedazzled sweaters - Retrospace wants to know.
I leave you with this image from 1987, not to torture you, but to demonstrate that the awfulness of 80's fashion transcended color. Here we have some ladies with colors that actually don't cause migraines; however, they are godawful nonetheless. The title "Neckline Extravaganza" combined with this photo is just priceless. You can thank me later.
