Which decade is the worst in terms of style?

[K.D. Lightner]

I certainly didn't mind the 70's while I was in it -- enjoyed some of the fashions, then. But, now, looking at old photos or movies, the styles and clothing look so silly. The era just did not hold up well, as did, say, the 30's.

I don't ever remember looking back at the 30's and thinking the fashions looked silly.

Some fashions in the 80's and 90's looked awful. When I see pictures of men with mullets, now, I cringe.

The 2000's fashions right now are ugly. Women's fashions today leave me cold: jeans that do not flatter anyone's body (too low, shows off the belly, makes your kazoo look big), too tight shirts. Even women's blazers, a staple in almost every era, are tight and ugly.

The men here in Iowa wear ballcaps everywhere and wrinkled cargo shorts that look like someone found them in the bottom of a garbage can.

However, I do like the shoes. It is below zero and am wearing my UGG boots as I write this.

karol

 

[Burton]

My immediate answer to the question would be the 70's, terrible, fashion, hair, car designs etc. After a bit more thought I am more forgiving of that decade as I look around at our current state. Not sure we have made any giant strides forward as a society/world.

 

[Dr Doran]

Hmmm. Well, I find it difficult to watch 1970s films because of the horrid styles --even very good ones, such as Mean Streets.

1980s styles in film don't bother me as much. Top Gun looked OK. Lots of good suits: the suits and neat hair had made a comeback. Suspenders were back, too. Lots of black leather.

I don't see too many 1980s films featuring mullets. I do agree that the mullet is an abomination unto the Lord.

 

[docneg]

Add my name to the "Let's forget the '70s" petition.

 

[Edward]

I don't ever remember looking back at the 30's and thinking the fashions looked silly.

I wonder sometimes whether, as a general rule, the fact we lived through an era makes a difference.... although I turned six in 1980 and was 15 as 89 rolled into 90 (let's forget for a minute the debate as to whether 1990 is 80s or 90s, and stick with the simply numbers..), I have very clear memories even then of hating certain things about the fashions of the era - legwarmers, some of the bright colours (men - grown men - in bright yellow trousers, the electric blue suits and canary yellow slip on shoes with no socks....). I remember being especially unimpressed for some reason with Diana's wedding dress (hated the colour) and her general impact on fashion. Positively loathed too then the fashion for wearing unmatched, fluorescent towelling socks. (Quite happy to wear odd socks nowadays, but certainly not in those styles or fabrics!). Seems to me that maybe I can have somewhat rosier memories of the seventies as, being so young back then, for me it's mostly about retrospective reviews of the cool bits, like Westwood's Seditionaries line....

Not having lived through the thirties or forties, I'm sure I've not really fully exprienced the fashions of the era, but more a revisionist interpretation thereof.... As I type this, I'm beginning to wonder too how far our concept of those earlier eras may be distorted by the fact that a much more limitied visual record exists. People didn't tend to have photos so often (not like today, when everyone almost has a camera at all times, things end up on Facebook so quickly.... and so on). Do we really have the same impression of that time as folks in 2090 will have of 2010? where it really strieks me is weddings. Nowadays, how many photos are taken - both officially, and by guests, at the reception, and so on. My grandparents generation would have referred to "the wedding photograph" - singular.

The 2000's fashions right now are ugly. Women's fashions today leave me cold: jeans that do not flatter anyone's body (too low, shows off the belly, makes your kazoo look big), too tight shirts. Even women's blazers, a staple in almost every era, are tight and ugly.

Uhm.... kazoo? [huh]

The thing that I notice about those ultra-low cut waists on ladies is how they elongate the body at the expense of the legs. I've never seen them flatter anyone in that respect.

 

[Edward]

1980s styles in film don't bother me as much. Top Gun looked OK. Lots of good suits: the suits and neat hair had made a comeback. Suspenders were back, too. Lots of black leather.

I loathe Top Gun on so many levels (some of them even permitted discussion topics on the Lounge lol ).

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing that I notice about those ultra-low cut waists on ladies is how they elongate the body at the expense of the legs. I've never seen them flatter anyone in that respect.

Exactly. It's the same reason a man in low-waisted pants ends up looking like Charlie Brown: all torso and little stubby inconsequential legs. All fashion aside, that's an offense against simple geometry.

 

[Lokar]

I wonder sometimes whether, as a general rule, the fact we lived through an era makes a difference.... although I turned six in 1980 and was 15 as 89 rolled into 90 (let's forget for a minute the debate as to whether 1990 is 80s or 90s, and stick with the simply numbers..), I have very clear memories even then of hating certain things about the fashions of the era - legwarmers, some of the bright colours (men - grown men - in bright yellow trousers, the electric blue suits and canary yellow slip on shoes with no socks....). I remember being especially unimpressed for some reason with Diana's wedding dress (hated the colour) and her general impact on fashion. Positively loathed too then the fashion for wearing unmatched, fluorescent towelling socks. (Quite happy to wear odd socks nowadays, but certainly not in those styles or fabrics!). Seems to me that maybe I can have somewhat rosier memories of the seventies as, being so young back then, for me it's mostly about retrospective reviews of the cool bits, like Westwood's Seditionaries line....

Not having lived through the thirties or forties, I'm sure I've not really fully exprienced the fashions of the era, but more a revisionist interpretation thereof.... As I type this, I'm beginning to wonder too how far our concept of those earlier eras may be distorted by the fact that a much more limitied visual record exists. People didn't tend to have photos so often (not like today, when everyone almost has a camera at all times, things end up on Facebook so quickly.... and so on). Do we really have the same impression of that time as folks in 2090 will have of 2010? where it really strieks me is weddings. Nowadays, how many photos are taken - both officially, and by guests, at the reception, and so on. My grandparents generation would have referred to "the wedding photograph" - singular.

I start disliking fashion when it became modern "fashion". When the 60s came, and fashion truly started being dictated by the young, the teenagers, and used as an act of rebellion, I just don't like it. Not because of the rebellious nature (although I am anything but a rebellious person). I've disliked the late 60s, 70s & to a less degree, the 80s, for as long as I've known of them (I was born in 86, for the record). Fashion used to be influenced much more by the establishment, who were more conservative, perhaps that's why. Perhaps it's because up until the 30s/40s, clothing was a slow, natural evolution, and then from the 60s onwards, everything changed so rapidly, and to such extremes.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

A rethink...

My immediate answer to the question would be the 70's, terrible, fashion, hair, car designs etc. After a bit more thought I am more forgiving of that decade as I look around at our current state. Not sure we have made any giant strides forward as a society/world.

Originally my vote was a definite thumbs down for the '80's, but reflecting what Burton says, just looking around at the grey/black/khaki formless shapeless no effort cheap-looking clothing of the masses these days, well, I may have to vote for now...No to sportswear/pj's for all occasions, Uggs, muffin tops and skinny jeans. Also, I was having a flip through an ASOS catalogue at what is supposed to pass for fashion, and 99% of the models (besides looking like they had just finished freebasing) seemed to have shut their eyes and donned the first togs that they pulled out. Colourful yes, but with no sense of co-ordination whatsoever.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that at least during the '80's an effort was made to pull together an outfit and get made up (even if that meant marrying pink and grey on a regular basis *yucky* !).
Rant over!

 

[Yeps]

I am going to throw my vote against the nineties, with the eighties close behind. The nineties just look silly and artificial to me, and the grunge part of it looks entirely too messy.

Just for reference, I was born at the end of '89, so the nineties and the naughties are the only decades I have actually witnessed.

I would like to blame the fifties for the faults however, as much as I love them. It was in the fifties that the culture started its ongoing feud with adulthood, and I think that most of the big fashions since then are suffering from that same problem. If you look at the most annoying fashions now, they tend to be twenty-somethings dressed like ten year olds.

Call me biased because this past decade has been the one that I have grown up in, but I don't think it has been that bad. Sure there have been some really hideous trends, but there have also been some good movements. One of them is the return of femininity for women (notably sundresses. I like sundresses). Also, I see quite a few guys on my campus sporting sport coats, which is a definite trend in the right direction. Also, hats, at least for people my age, are becoming more acceptable.
Then again, I am an opera singer at a music school, so my view on the world is a little bit lopsided.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Worst Decade Weekly Update

Based on your "votes" the '70s are still the worst

1910s: 1
1920s: 2
1930s: 0
1940s: 0
1950s: 0
1960s: 6
1970s: 15
1980s: 12
1990s: 11
2000s: 10

 

[Edw8ri]

In defense of the 70's, let me remind you of its positive innovations:

1. Neckties were so wide you could use one as a cummerbund in a pinch.

2. Shag haircuts would last for months because - who could tell?

3. Platform shoes lifted the vertically challanged without embarrassment.

4. Polyester is the fabric that moves with you.

5. A leisure suit is machine washable.

6. People would actually dress up to go out ...to a disco

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"I love the seventies because that was the beginning of the "Art Deco" revival"

 

[Dr Doran]

THE NAUGHTIES (2000 - 2009)

I wonder how we will see the naughties in retrospect. Because they just ended a month ago. And it's hard to frame them, and to judge them.

It seems that they were more casual than any previous decade. I believe it. There has been a continuous trend of casualness, it seems, for many decades. Last month I saw someone in cargo shorts in Vancouver, Washington (not Canada) in approximately 40 degree Fahrenheit weather with his wife in front of a supermarket. That indicates something. It's significant. It means, I think, that he is so attached to his casual shorts that he won't wear long pants even when it is almost freezing cold out -- much less for some socially semi-formal occasion. This is a new attachment to The Casual "Style."

Grunge really didn't help things in the 1990s. But that was a semi-deliberate style; what I am describing isn't deliberate or stylistic.

 

[John in Covina]

Speaking of shorts - Back on Long Island one of my friends' dad was committed to wearing shorts as his casual at home style year round. He did change to long pants when going out to shop or dine, etc. Over at the ITM warehouse in Cerritos the Warehouse manager and head assistant manager were in shorts year round. It was a uniform for them in many ways. In the winter it made it easy to spot them, that warehouse was pretty cold.

I like to wear shorts as the "warm" months in Southern California can be quite hot and that can be from early May to late November. Temps in the farenheit 90's and over 100 are regular events. I am a husky guy and in a tie and jacket I will simply melt or have a stroke.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Last month I saw someone in cargo shorts in Vancouver, Washington (not Canada) in approximately 40 degree Fahrenheit weather with his wife in front of a supermarket. That indicates something.

It might simply indicate that he doesn't get cold easily. I've known people like this: they go trekking in Patagonia while wearing shorts. The cold just doesn't bother them.

.

 

[Dr Doran]

I like to wear shorts as the "warm" months in Southern California can be quite hot and that can be from early May to late November. Temps in the farenheit 90's and over 100 are regular events.

This is one of the chief reasons why I left So Cal and moved to No Cal almost 20 years ago. I hate heat.

 

[Dr Doran]

It might simply indicate that he doesn't get cold easily. I've known people like this: they go trekking in Patagonia while wearing shorts. The cold just doesn't bother them.

.

I did not think of that.

It is my dream to one day visit Tierra del Fuego.

 

[Widebrim]

I don't see too many 1980s films featuring mullets. I do agree that the mullet is an abomination unto the Lord.

That is funny, Tim! And true...

 

[Ethan Bentley]

If you look at some of the later Hall & Oates music videos they tend to portray 80s fashion in a dim light. Although Hall's Leopard Print jacket in "Out of Touch" is pretty cool.

To The Crystal Dome!