Historical Evolution of Fashion: 1980s Fashion w/Bigger Better

1980s Fashion – A close look at the periods referenced by fashion, which is in a continuous cycle of development, change and return. Our thirteenth stop is the 1980s with the motto ‘bigger, better’.

Fashion refers to currently popular clothing styles. It always evolves and changes and returns to the beginning. Every style and trend in fashion is recalled from an absolute time or era. That is why it is very important and valuable to have an idea about the history of this evolution.

When you get an idea about a person, you also learn about his style. While reading the history of humanity, it is inevitable to take a look at the history of fashion.

In this series of articles, we will take a closer look at the periods that fashion uses as a reference. Enjoy reading..

1980s Fashion

As the decade came to an end, people who were bored with the frugality of the 1970s embraced the concepts of wealth and success, and this new era was typified by ‘dressing strong’, but the real opening of the 1980s was with stylish sportswear and the New Romantics. Losing their power to shape fashion in the 1960s and 1970s, the elite gained new inspiration from the upper class with Ronald Reagan in America and Princess Diana in England.

The sportswear trend carried over from the late 1970s was triggered by the fitness frenzy and encouraged women to carry the clothes they wore in the gym into their daily lives. One-shoulder sweatshirts and tights, embodied by Jennifer Beals in the 1983 movie Flashdance, and leggings in Jane Fonda’s exercise videos dominated the street.

Norma Kamali continued to produce stylish sportswear pieces using materials such as jersey. Meanwhile, designers such as Donna Karan and Azzedine Alaia began to use stretch materials such as lycra to design body-appropriate clothing. Gone are the days when clothes gave direction to the body; now it was the female body that guided the clothes. While Donna Karan and Azzedine Alaia’s clothes were compatible with the body, Versace became the brand that paved the way for high fashion for sportswear. And thus was born the most popular piece of the eighties: the one-piece stretch romper.

In the early 1980s the romantic style was typified by the country dress from the 1970s. The best outfit that embodied this trend was, without a doubt, Princess Diana’s fairy-tale wedding dress by David and Elizabeth Emanuel. It has taken its place among the unforgettable for fashion history with its fluffy sleeves, exaggerated accessories such as belts and ribbons and historical references.

As the decade progressed, ‘dressing strong’ began to become the dominant style. The style, which was shaped by the fact that women began to occupy high-level positions and took fashion seriously, was reinforced with padded shoulders and flashy accessories. As more women enter male-dominated business circles, this style has become the most obvious expression for women to express that they have the power. Flamboyant pads, vibrant colors, big buns, accessories and pointed toe heels became the cornerstones of strong clothing.

The focus of the early 1980s was on designer personalities, thanks to their development of signature styles. Christian Lacroix, Gianni Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld were brands that were shaped by the personality of the Chanel designer.

With its undisputed historical significance, Chanel entered a new era in 1983. With Karl Lagerfeld, who was appointed to increase sales, it became one of the most stylish fashion houses within a year. Instructed to increase sales by retaining Chanel’s loyal traditional customers while gaining the appeal of the new, youthful market, Lagerfeld remained committed to the classic styles while at the same time ruthlessly parodying them. With this attitude she displayed, Chanel once again took her place at the forefront of fashion.

While the dominant trend of the 1980s was ‘bigger, better’, taffeta and vibrant colours, other designers continued to create their own styles. For casual wear, American designers such as Perry Ellis and Ralph Lauren have turned to adapting menswear elements such as blazers, shirts and hand-knit sweaters to create stylish women’s clothing. Representing the relaxed American style, these looks were touted as ‘college’.

The trend, inspired by the traditional Ivy League and Seven Sisters style and the style of the early 20th century English aristocrats, created a classic style by blinking a little bit into the late 1940s and early 1950s. Popularized by oxford shirts, polo shirts, chino trousers and shoulder-trimmed knitwear, the trend has been embraced by young urban professionals.

On the other side of the world, a new perspective began to sprout in Japan that would shake the fashion world. Continuing to run fashion shows in Paris, innovative Japanese designers became fierce and surprising alternatives to Western style. Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto have profoundly transformed the relationship of clothing to the body with their deconstruction and exaggerated proportions. The decade began to evolve into minimalism as it turned to the 1990s, thanks to Japanese designers with its lines that differ from the typical styles of the period and its ties to the color black.

>1980s Men’s Fashion

Men’s fashion in the 1980s was shaped by following the trends that dominated women’s clothing. Just like women, the fitness wear craze for men, classic American workwear, college style, and strong dressing were the dominant styles. Many of the big names in women’s fashion, such as Mugler, Comme des Garçons, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Karl Lagerfeld, began designing for men in the 1980s as well.

Early in the decade, sportswear gained popularity with key elements such as tracksuits and jerseys. See-through suits, polo shirts and knitwear were indispensable for those who adopted the collegiate style. From the mid to late eighties, it was necessary to dress strong to look strong.

Wide-necked double-breasted suits made of pinstripe fabric were the main details that determined the strong outfit. They were worn with a wide tie and promoted strong women’s clothing. The most perfect version of this look embodied in the image drawn by Hugo Boss.

It was the street itself that fed the other styles that sprouted in the fashion of the eighties. Styles that emerged from subcultures or identities had the characteristic of spreading from the bottom up. This diffusion of fashion was not new, examples have been seen in the last few decades; what was new was that the new subculture styles of the 1980s became permanent on the fashion scene. It was music and dance cultures that fed these styles the most.

Born with the evolution of punk, which marked the end of the 1970s, gothic style was one of the sub-trends of the early 1980s. With outfits inspired by Victorian mourning clothes and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this trend put the color black at its center.

Towards the end of the decade, a distinctive new trend emerged in America; hip-hop Hip-hop continued to influence fashion as a never-ending culture, with its style reflected in Adidas shoes, bleached jeans, college shirts, nylon baggy jackets, hooded sweatshirts, gold chains and baseball caps.

>Reflections of the 1980s in Today’s Fashion