80s Fashion Trends

Remember looking back at some photos when you were young in the 80s and wondering "What were we wearing!?" and now, with fashion revisiting the 80s, seeing people today wearing some of those fashions? Well this week, let's take a little flashback to the 80s and revisit some of the crazy things we used to wear - odds are, we'll be seeing a lot of them again soon!

Stirrup Pants

Remember these? They were a cotton type fabric stretch pant legging but at the bottom, they had little stirrups on the feet, kinda to help keep them in place. As a kid in the late 80s and in the early 90s I had several pairs of these, in different colors. I had the standard black pair, a pink pair, a purple pair, hunter green pair, and I think there was a blue pair too. I remember these things were annoying sometimes though, as I'd get dressed and put my socks and shoes on last, sometimes forgetting to pull the stirrup part back over my socks before putting my shoes on and then having to take my shoes off and put them back on - oops! Surprisingly, Stirrup Pants are one of those 80s fashion trends that's starting to make a comeback - tight legging pants are already back and just recently have I seen ones with stirrups! To be honest though, I don't intend on getting back into this trend - if you're skinny, great, go for it, but I for one have curves and I don't think anyone wants to see me wearing just cotton 80s stretchy leggings with stirrups!

Hypercolor T-Shirts
I remember thinking these shirts were awesome back in the day! My best friend had one and of course I had to get one! She had the original blue one, I think I had a tie dye one. For those that don't remember these, these shirts were one color when exposed to standard temperature, however, apply heat and voila - wherever the heat was placed, the shirt changed color. I remember we'd all sit around, placing our handprints in these, or sticking the shirts to our mouths and blowing hot air on em, lol... unfortunately though, these shirts, as cool as they were, were easy to ruin too in the wash if you didn't wash them at exactly the right temperature!

Neon Clothes

In the 80s, neon ruled the world. No, seriously. EVERYTHING was electric and bright neon! I for one loved hot pink at the time as well as the neon green. If you lived in the 80s, you wore neon - there was no escaping it!

Puffy and Splatter Paint T-shirts

These things were awesome as a kid - you could either buy a plain white t-shirt and your own paint at the craft stores and design a shirt yourself or you could buy professionally made ones. I had a few in the late 80s - one I remember was sea creature themed one and it had these little round mirror reflective pieces on it that were held on by the puffy paint. I LOVED that shirt, but was sad when the mirrors started falling out. Often times with these shirts, when I got bored I'd start picking at the paint flecks and pull them off. They were pretty neat though!
 

Slap Bracelets

The favorite fashion accessory for us kids in the 80s! These bracelets had a type of metal inside them that caused them to fold around and coil like a bracelet and were covered with a fabric or paper. There were many many types of Slap Bracelets - some would have animal print, some would be plain colored, some would have fun designs, etc. I admit, I had probably dozen of em at one point, as they were sold cheap and often given out as cheap ticket rewards at Chuck E. Cheese and similar places. Often times though us kids would make a competition out of how hard we could slap them onto our wrists - stupid, I know.

Jelly Shoes

This is a trend that just keeps coming back! Originally from the early 80s, Jelly Shoes made a comeback in the mid-late 90s, and just recently, I saw some for sale in a department store! Basically, these were shoes made out of a clear jelly plastic material and were water resistant. They came in all different colors (I had a pair of clear ones and a pair of lime green ones in the late mid-90s).

Shirt Clips/Ties

Another essential late 80s/early 90s fashion trend were shirt clips. Had a shirt that was too big or too long? No problem! Bunch the excess shirt together on one side and either slide on one of these specially made shirt clips or tie it in place with a scrunchy or other decorative holder accessory! I had several of these, in different colors. I had a purple one that got used on my sea creature themed puffy paint shirt that I wore with purple stirrup pants and my slap bracelets - I wish I was kidding, but I'm not! That was the essential 80s outfit for us kids!


What crazy things did you wear in the 80s? 
Which of these trends do you think we'll be seeing again in the not-so-distant future??