1980’s Fashion – The Decade of Excess

                          

Television shows and movies continued to influence fashion, while the introduction of music television and MTV meant that music as an art form grew on a whole new scale.   The visuals from the music videos captured the audience’s attention, adding mystery to the music rather than destroying it, as was feared. True to form of the 1980’s, music videos were larger-than-life in both fashion and narrative, and set many of the fashion trends of that decade.

The music of the 1980’s was heralded by two great icons, namely Michael Jackson and Madonna. With nine Number 1 singles and a number of other hit songs, Michael Jackson was at the forefront of the music industry. Madonna’s influence in both music and fashion is undeniable, forever changing her generation, and the music industry. Her lyrics were about taboo topics such as virginity and unwed mothers, and her music ranged from dance hits to soulful tributes.

Madonna epitomised the 1980’s fashion trends with her bleached blonde and wildly teased hair, and her penchant for lace, beads, crosses, and fishnet stockings. Although chic, her accessories were always over the top, and her trademark mole was copied onto many cheeks of her young followers.

Madonna’s hair style wasn’t the only style of the 1980’s. Big hair was fashionable with tall hairstyles, hair sticking out at unusual angles, and mousse, plastic and metal piled into hair until people could barely hold their heads up.

Big hair was not only a 1980’s fashion trend – the1960’s saw the beehive, and the 1970’s saw the afro – but it was the era when styles had the most diversity. In the early 1980’s people experimented with unusual colours and cuts, but by the mid-80’s hair styles had settled down to one main trend – volume. The band Bananarama experienced a variety of cuts and colours, as well as high-volume hair, while bands such as Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Def Leppard and Poison embraced the bigger-is-better, voluminous styles.

Towards the end of the 1980’s the retro look of the 1970’s returned, with short hair being acceptable as long as it was bleached, brightly coloured, or creatively spiked. Hair gels and mousses were used to achieve this, with some products containing glitter to create extra individuality.

Another fashion trend was asymmetrical hair styles, with short bangs cut longer around the back and ending in a diagonal point. Other styles were very short on one side of the head and longer on the back and on the other side. Mullets became fashionable during the 1980’s, where hair was short on the top and sides of the head and longer down the back. This style was occasionally taken further by braiding or tightly winding the longer back into a rat tail. Some more daring females even copied this masculine style.

In the mid-1980’s parachute pants became popular amongst men. These were fairly fitted nylon trousers with zippered patch pockets, the usual two on the front and back, as well as an extra one or two on the legs, and ending in zippered ankles. MC Hammer adopted this look, but wore his pants loose and long in the crotch, very baggy, and in a variety of materials and colours. This look was adopted only by the very daring.

More 1980’s women’s fashions include hair bobbles, slides, bands and bun nets in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours; slip petticoat dresses that were white vests and tartan skirts in one, worn with a jumper and matching tights; tee shirts and tops with the Betty Boop character printed on it; fringe jackets which were denim jackets that were tight around the bottom and had fringe sewn onto the sleeves; Farlows Female jeans that were very tight, lightweight jeans that looked like spandex when worn; and waffle jumpers that were knitted in a waffle-type design, and worn by both men and women.