80s Fashion Essay

80s Fashion! For many, the 1980s was a great time. The creation of MTV revolutionised fashion, the music industry and even how we watched TV. But for others, it was nothing but bad hair, worse clothing and music often had more to do with machines than talent. The clothes worn in the 80s depicted people who were trying to find themselves. They looked fro ways to express their creativity and individuality.Men wore heavy make-up and grew long hair; for example David Bowie or Boy George. Whilst women wore layers of clothing and short hair cuts. The likes of Madonna and Cindy Lauper rocked this look. Both sexes were looking for an identity. Famous Fashion Trends In the 80s: New Romantic Look, Valley Girl, Power dressing, Leotards and Dance wear and Miami Vice Look were just a few famous trends that people in the eighties wore. New romantic Look:New Wave, New Romantic, and gothic fashion at this time was heavily influenced by punk fashion: the streaky eyeliner, the spiked hair, the outrage ous clothing, some of which derived from bondage wear and some of which (New Romantic) was a nod to long-gone eras. Power Dressing: Shoulder Pads, popularised by Joan Collins and Linda Evans from the soap Opera Dynasty, remained popular throughout the 1980s and even the first three years of the 1990s.The reason behind the sudden popularity of shoulder pads for women in the 1980s may be that women in the workplace were no longer unusual, and wanted to â€Å"power dress† to show that they were the equals of men at the office. Many women's outfits had velcro on the inside of the shoulder where various sized shoulder pads could be attached. Leotards and Dance wear: Leotards had been a fashion trend since the early 1970s, when were first used to add colour and texture under the â€Å"layered look† popular in the middle of that decade.By the end of the decade leotards made from shiny spandex had become the standard feminine fashion of the â€Å"disco era†, partly for their form-fitting quality and the fact that they allowed flexibility and ease of movement. With the arrival of the aerobics craze of the early 1980s the classic leotard moved from the dance floor to the gym, accompanied by matching tights, Leg warmers and elastic headbands. Leotards of the early 1980s boasted bright stripes, polka dots, and even elastic belts.