The 80's

I recently reflected that the eighties teens I remember from when I was a small child are now in their late thirties. How did so much time pass by? They are glowing, their sun-tanned tight thighs in faded ill-fitting cuttoffs, or jeans slashed everywhere around the knees and below the bum. They are natural, careless, edgy, everything about them is made to draw attention, the t-shirts with slogans, the tight tight shiny lycra in bright and fluro colours that the women in their thirties prefer, the punk-inspired hair and the still-new concept of facial and body piercings, and shock is a friendly word. They brim over, they are dressed for sunshine, the couples are physical, walking with their hands in each other’s jean pockets entwined. The ones in my mind are big and bright, from a time when they were very young, and I was very small- now they have a past rather than a future and the course and meaning of their life has pretty much been written, although they still have many years ahead. The eighties Retro fashion now might be the reason why I remember them, but the “revival” barely does it justice, resembling the toned stylish minimalism in the dressing of a dancer on the way to the studio more than anything else. The tights now are cute, but the ones of the eighties were horrendous and tasteless, made of materials that looked vulgar, and worn by crash-dieting bony women past their prime, or the overweight whose silhouettes were outlined dimple by dimple. The sleek headbands made of modern materials, intricate embroidered looks for just a couple of dollars, diamantes and lace artfully arranged, on a thin plastic or stretchy black fabric, don’t really recall the feel of the bulky Alice band plonked on top of a face framed by a clunky fringe or a stressed head of perm. People might have different opinions on this, but I think the ideal of the 80’s was to make an impact and create attention, and that apparently the more unpleasant or extreme the look, the more positive a thing it was considered.