Wednesday, December 19, 2007

'80s Fashion

iii) In other randomness, I think a s/he said (I think this is a snazzy way of changing up the title) post on 80's fashion could be funny. Have a nice day! --Kim


Look at this picture:


Yes, that guy in the middle with the big glasses (Christian Dior) and the white, um, Izod jacket is me. I'm smiling because my button-fly Levi's 501 blue jeans are tight-rolled at the ankles and I was wearing argyle socks.

I was so cool.

The guy just to the right of me is Keith. You can't see it very well in the pic, but he has, um, hair that, um, a porcupine would envy.

And the guy leaning into the pic from the front left (as you look at it) is my friend Jeff. He was my partner on the school's, um, debate team. When we went to debate tournaments he wore a yellow or red bow-tie and loaned me his sport jacket that was a Don Johnson knock-off from Mr. Johnson's Miami Vice days.

My favorite store in those days was Chess Mate. I bought a bright red shirt there once that had black ziggy lines on it. Folks fainted if they looked at it too long. Or else they saw 3-D pictures pop out of it. I buttoned it up all the way to the top and had two small gold crosses pinned to the right and left collars.

And did I mention my Christian Dior glasses had tiger stripes down the sides? And I wore Ocean Pacific t-shirts and shorts? And I had a Newport Blue t-shirt that wasn't blue and wasn't from Newport.

Sigh.

I miss those days.


My brain is hurting right now having to think of something to say about 80’s fashion. I’m not sure how valid my comments are considering that I lived outside the United States until 1988. But I’ll take a stab at it.

One of the things that I remember from the 80’s were “prairie skirts”, which were full skirts often worn over a “petticoat” that peeked out from underneath. One of our supporters (who had expensive taste and the money to go with it!) brought me a plum colored corduroy skirt with a plaid top that matched. It had puffed long sleeves, and a ruffled yoke that buttoned to one side, and a white eyelet petticoat for underneath. I was stylin’!

Most of the time, though, I don’t think what I wore was typically in fashion. Fashion in Ecuador didn’t necessarily keep up with what was going on in the US.

Fads that came and went at my school included “jelly” shoes and bracelets (which you wore as many at a time as you had colors to go with your outfit) wearing your polo shirt collars turned up, short boots with socks on the outside of your jeans, Ocean Pacific T-shirts, etc. etc. etc.

I was very tempted to post photos from high school days so you could get a good laugh. But considering many of my good friends are from high school, I thought I would refrain. That’s all I got! But oh joy, I found a photo with the afore-mentioned shirt. It's a black and white though, bummer!