Naff today...

[jake_fink]

The eighties were more than all those trends you so correctly disparage as naff. natural textiles and classic colours and cuts came back in the eighties, at least for a moment or two. I bought my first pair of high waisted trousers off the rack (from The Brick Shirt House in Toronto); they were callled English back pants for some reason; and I bought a very classic looking 3 piece suit - a ringer for Indy Magnoli's Chinatown - off the rack.

I bought my first hat and wore a combination of vintage and contemporary apparell that would no doubt cause your eyes to shrivel like raisins if you saw it now. For a big chunk of the eighties I was into the rockabilly scene and went to great lengths to get that look. (Great lengths of time building my hair up to the height and sheen of the Chrysler building.)

I hated all that Pepsi Generation pap that has become what we recall of the eighties, but there was another side to the decade - particulalry the first part of it, before the 60s revivial and the babyboomers hijacked everything all over again.

I will say, though, that book design and packaging was at its absolute worst during the eighties. Books never ever looked so bad. I blame the seventies since that would have been when those designers/aritists went to school. I briefly went to art school in the eighties, and after one and a half semesters I was ready to chew of my drawing arm... horrendous place, infested with hippies and ballyhoo arteests. All I wanted to do was draw like this:

:cry:

 

[mysterygal]

The good thing though about fashion fads is that they don't last very long....and I'm glad that classics never go out of style. I'll admit I like 80's music for the most part, but the clothes...yikes! back then of course we all thought we were cool but we don't need to go there again , I really wish I still had some pictures of my hairdo....the teased up bangs that took a whole bottle of hairspray...yep real lovely

 

[shamus]

James...

I don't understand you song. Are you anti-80's? or Pro-80's?

 

[nightandthecity]

actually, its pretty silly saying you “hate” (or like) the 80s or 60s or 40s any other decade, as if any and every facet of an arbitrary ten year period can be lumped together.

I lived through both the 60s and the 80s and I had a great time. When I diss the 80s I am referring to things like Margaret Thatcher, Dallas, power-dressing and yuppies. Most of the positive things Jake and Quigley say about the 80s I’d agree with.

As for “the 60s”, people who weren’t there have a very simplistic and inaccurate idea of what it was like. Even if we just stick with clothes associated with the most visible youth cults here in Britain there was an enormous variety of styles……beats, beatniks, mods, rockers, teds, skinheads, soul boys, trendies (think “swinging london”/carnaby street), hippies, glam… ….and a variety of straight and adult styles reflecting the trends of the entire past century – a lot of old people still dressed basically 1920s or even Edwardian.

This was also the era when people first started wearing “vintage”. Before the late 60s there was NO “vintage” only “second hand”, something that poor people wore (I think the vintage thing was kickstarted by student radicals, but that’s another thread…..)

My gripe with 60s menswear is the quality. Whether you wore suits or jeans it went pretty uniformly down hill. But you can hardly blame the people of the era for that, it reflected fundamental economic changes in the clothing industry over which the average citizen had zero control.

 

[Senator Jack]

Good 80s

Bad, Horrible, Awful 80s

Unfortunately, as with everything, too little of the good and too much of the bad.


Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[herringbonekid]

If you are 20, then 20 years ago is your whole lifetime and things from 20 or 30 years ago are ancient and fascinating, and often deeply nostalgic.

sorry to pull you up about this one, but i believe that you can only truly feel 'nostalgia' for something you actually lived through. if i play a duke ellington tune from the 30s i'm experiencing it as if for the first time, because i haven't heard it before and i wasn't around in the 30s (this is a good thing too, because i'm objectively hearing it for what it is, rather than what it reminds me of when i was a young man. this proves to me that it IS actually real quality and not just a misty-eyed trip down memory lane).

so in defence of trashy 80s fashions seen on people who are too young to remember....they are trying those things out for the first time too.
i just wish they wouldn't.

 

[Lincsong]

The 80's

To me was brought in by the Iranian Hostage Crisis of November 1979. I was ten years old at the time. Then in 1980 we had a 20% Prime Interest Rate 12% inflation and the second gas crisis. In California we had Governor Jerry Brown ration gas with his odd and even days. If your license plate ended with an odd number you could put gas on the odd numbered days and same with even. Commercial plates were exempt. Then we had the Mediterrean Fruit Fly and Governor Brown sent the helicopters over San Jose to spray malathion. I saw how hopeless Jimmy Carter was as president and Jerry Brown as Governor and have been a Republican ever since.:eusa_clap

In terms of fashion; I could easily forget the Members Only and Guess Jackets, forget the parachute pants, forget Michael Jackson Off the Wall, and forget the Yugo. I think that what I liked in terms of fashion was that when Reagan came into office and in California; Deukemejian they brought back the steady, stern fashions, suits and ties, for men, gowns and glamour for women. But everyday pop culture was not worthy of remembrance.

 

[BellyTank]

I grew up in the '70s and '80s- in retrospect and with my tastes, as an individual and an adult, the fashion and other environmental aspects suck a bit compared to what I now like but it was MY childhood.
I was a kid, kids shouldn't care about much else than being a kid.

It makes me sad to hear people who are my contemporaries, who grew up in the '70s, di's that era- it was a part of our collective youth.

I really loved the '90s- a great decade for music.

I look back with fond memories.

B
T

 

[Katt in Hat]

Only an ignorant man acts as though he has a monopoly on the truth.

Dutch Reagen pardoned a record number of convicted felons who were members of his Administration. The record may be jeopardized by this President if all goes well.

The Med fruit fly infestation was an act of nature, not a political mis-step by a Democratic Governor. Were the Asian flu to strike, it too would be a natural event. How preparations are handled during the run up to the possible pandemic,(God Forbid), may have political implications just as the possible info regarding 9/11 may not have been well handled prior to the event.

I am becoming disgusted by rabidly reactionary right wingers with only selective recollections of events, claiming only good things happened during the reign of their heros and naught but bad when the other side had power.

The best sign of all is that the American people seem not to be buying into the stories which had passed for truth these last few horrid years. Just read the tea leaves.

I was born in Brooklyn and "Wait 'Till Next Year" was our perennial cry. "Wait 'Till November" is my cry now. :kick:

So much more to say and so little time...

 

[shamus]

When I was 10, I wasn't a Democrat or Republican. I was 10.

 

[Doh!]

Not me, brother. I was a Cub Scout.

Or was it a Webelo...?

 

[Lincsong]

I don't see any recollections about the 1980's?

:eusa_booh

Dutch Reagen pardoned a record number of convicted felons who were members of his Administration. The record may be jeopardized by this President if all goes well.

The Med fruit fly infestation was an act of nature, not a political mis-step by a Democratic Governor. Were the Asian flu to strike, it too would be a natural event. How preparations are handled during the run up to the possible pandemic,(God Forbid), may have political implications just as the possible info regarding 9/11 may not have been well handled prior to the event.

I am becoming disgusted by rabidly reactionary right wingers with only selective recollections of events, claiming only good things happened during the reign of their heros and naught but bad when the other side had power.

The best sign of all is that the American people seem not to be buying into the stories which had passed for truth these last few horrid years. Just read the tea leaves.

I was born in Brooklyn and "Wait 'Till Next Year" was our perennial cry. "Wait 'Till November" is my cry now. :kick:

fftopic:

 

[Lincsong]

I don't have a picture of it;

But, who could have forgot that '80s gullwinged Irish roadster?.....The DeLorean! If anyone has a picture of it please post it. (Personally, since I'm a fan of Lincoln's I like the '84 Mark VII, and if you want to go '70s the 1969-1971 Mark III, 1972-1976 Mark IV and the 1977-1979 Mark V. The 1980-1983 Mark VI was not much of a looker. Sort of a Mark V on Jenny Craig.)

 

[Katt in Hat]

The very first paragraph referenced 4/5 of the decade.

:eusa_booh

fftopic:

"Dutch Reagen pardoned a record number of convicted felons who were members of his Administration. The record may be jeopardized by this President if all goes well."

Some debater...

Re: Gull wings; the 300 SLR (?) floored me upon first sighting.

 

[Senator Jack]

The very first paragraph referenced 4/5 of the decade.

lol lol lol

SJ

 

[jamespowers]

Dutch I am becoming disgusted by rabidly reactionary right wingers with only selective recollections of events, claiming only good things happened during the reign of their heros and naught but bad when the other side had power.

Feel free to disagree but we can do without the name callling of other Lounge members. Thank you. [bad]

 

[jamespowers]

James,

Tiny Tim? I know who he is (in fact my wife knew him) but i want to know how he helped the degeneration.

You're kidding right? Tiptoe Through the Tulips!?

Regards to all,

J

 

[magneto]

Re: Tiny TIm and 60s degeneration

You're kidding right? Tiptoe Through the Tulips!?

...but but...Tiny Tim was a reborn vaudevillian! He was trying to revive the popular music of 1890-1920! He lived in the past! He played the uke and carried it about wrapped in a (*vintage*) cardigan!

Now, Barf Alpert and the Tiajuana (insert social disease here), on the other hand...

 

[Senator Jack]

Posted by Magneto:
Now, Barf Alpert and the Tiajuana (insert social disease here), on the other hand...

HUH? Herb Alpert and the TJB kicked @** from here to Hong Kong! You can insult my family, you can insult me, but not Herb!

Senator Jack

 

[Brad Bowers]

HUH? Herb Alpert and the TJB kicked @** from here to Hong Kong! You can insult my family, you can insult me, but not Herb!

The only thing I know about Herb Alpert is that my parents had an album with a cover featuring a young woman, apparently naked, slathered in whipped cream.

Never listened to the record, though.

Brad