80s: The Eighties

Fashion trends through the 80s 

• For men, the early 1980s can be described as post-hippie, post-disco and early glam, with an obvious influence of David Bowie androgyny emerging. Beards started to disappear and tans, open collars and jewelry started to emerge as popular fashion. The up-turned collar became a signature of cool.
  1980s punk fashion can be traced to the ripped jeans, torn t-shirts, scrappy haircuts and worn and torn leather jackets sported by members of the Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols were dressed by Malcolm McLaren, their manager, who owned a clothes store called 'Let It Rock' in the Kings Road, Chelsea area of London, when they released Anarchy in the UK in 1976.
• Pastel colors dominated fashions of the early 1980s. This shifted to more somber and muted tones in the Mid 1980s. The trend toward moody shades remained dominant for the rest of the decade, with notable exceptions. In 1987 day-glo colors became popular for beach and party wear. The mid-1980s also saw revivals of Hawaiian shirts and tie dyed shirts. Unlike the original 1960s tie dyes, 1980s fashions were usually printed fabrics designed to resemble the tie dye process, rather than homemade tie dying. Opulent shades such as royal blue became fashionable late in the decade.
• Acid-washed jeans and jean jackets had become very strong with both sexesin the Late 1980s. Acid washing is the process of chemically bleaching the denim so it would break down the fiber of material, forcing the dye to fade and thus leaving undertones of the original dye which would leave 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). Big and eccentric hair styles were popularized by film and music stars in particular amongst teenagers. 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. Women's hairstyles became increasingly long in the latter part of the decade and blunt cuts dominated.