Hello Everyone!

I'm hoping that you can help me. Just recently, I've begun research on a story and I need help. Primarily, I need to know what teenagers were wearing between 1980-1982. I just need a real crash course in what was worn--like labels and things like that--and what hairstyles were popular. If anyone could contribute webistes or photos or anything, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks so much!  ;D

Check out the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"  It was filmed in 1981 but was released in 1982...Great teen fashion scenes in that flick!

I had a pink (hot pink) members only jacket....shut up!  ;D 

like this but fuchsia
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/550Deano/untitled.jpg

I wasn't really a fashion girl so I can't name labels....except Calvin Klein & Jordache  but here are some pics I found circa 1982-83


Dude I was totally rockin' the one glove look back in the day!

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/snozberries44/Elvira.jpg


And my friend was totally rockin' her Garfield T

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/snozberries44/KathyERockintheGarfieldshirt.jpg



This was taken at my 14th b-day Dec 1982 (sorry it was a Polaroid) but hey I got my first VCR that year!  (this was before we watched Madman....after we were hiding in our sleeping bags  ;D

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/snozberries44/Dec82.jpg



one more pic of my friend Julie (1982) I didn't want to put her pic on Photobucket w/o her permission...but check out those bangs  ;D

Wow! Thanks so much guys! I totally appreciate it.  ;D

And Snoz, I love the pics! They're so cute!  :) And call me cheezy, but I like Members Only jackets.

If anyone runs across anything else, please contribute.

Thank you!

Well I was personally just being born then lol, but I'm an '80s afficonado so I'll try and answer this.

From all the movies, tv shows and pictures I've seen, fashions seem to lag a few years behind if you look at a crowd shot, except maybe for the most cutting edge people. I guess because everyone gets comfortable with a look they like, so they're less likely to give it up when things change, especially hairstyles. I've often thought stuff from a certain year "looked" 4-5 years before they actually were, just 'cause of the older fashions sticking around and blending with the new stuff. Pop culture, especially music seems to be the most advanced.

I'd say 1980-'82 was like a toned down '70s look. Judging what I've seen, teenage guys still had mustaches and stuff, but it didn't seem to be overblown with afros, leisure suits and Disco looking people either. :D Even as late as 1983 this look seemed to be around in movies and footage I've watched. I'd say just mix that with an emerging new wave style, especially on kids in Junior or High school, moreso with girls. That was before the Madonna look though.

Yeah, Jordache was big back then I think. The simple T-shirt, jeans and sneakers look (i.e. Nikes) seems to fit with the entire 80s too.

Well I was personally just being born then lol, but I'm an '80s afficonado so I'll try and answer this.

From all the movies, tv shows and pictures I've seen, fashions seem to lag a few years behind if you look at a crowd shot, except maybe for the most cutting edge people. I guess because everyone gets comfortable with a look they like, so they're less likely to give it up when things change, especially hairstyles. I've often thought stuff from a certain year "looked" 4-5 years before they actually were, just 'cause of the older fashions sticking around and blending with the new stuff. Pop culture, especially music seems to be the most advanced.

I'd say 1980-'82 was like a toned down '70s look. Judging what I've seen, teenage guys still had mustaches and stuff, but it didn't seem to be overblown with afros, leisure suits and Disco looking people either. :D Even as late as 1983 this look seemed to be around in movies and footage I've watched. I'd say just mix that with an emerging new wave style, especially on kids in Junior or High school, moreso with girls. That was before the Madonna look though.

Yeah, Jordache was big back then I think. The simple T-shirt, jeans and sneakers look (i.e. Nikes) seems to fit with the entire 80s too.


nikes? I thought we were wearing keds in 1982  ;D

nikes? I thought we were wearing keds in 1982  ;D


LMAO you could be right. ;)

Even though alot of THINGS I like are from the earlier decade (for instance, I love music from around 1981-'85), I'll cop to being way less EXPERIENCED with those years. Like certain slang, fashions or the atmosphere of the time, sometimes it goes a little over my head if I'm watching a movie from then, whereas I'm much more in familar territory with, say 1988.

Snozberries - your photos are amazing! Love the first one - nice sunny neighbourhood - and I love all the Fame posters in the second!

My mother used to wear those skin-tight jeans that were popular in the early 80's. Even though she's naturally skinny, she said it was a challenge to get those jeans on! I still have the old Chic and Sassons she used to wear. I can only dream about squeezing my butt into those things!  ;D

Snoz - great pics!  :)

In Britain in the early eighties a lot a of girls were influenced by Princess Diana. 

I remember I had a short-sleeved blouse that my mum made that she based on one Diana wore.  It was a small check ginham material (pink) with a huge round white collar.

Snozberries - your photos are amazing! Love the first one - nice sunny neighbourhood - and I love all the Fame posters in the second!


Thx.  That second pic was taken in my bedroom so I was the cool one with the Fame poster  ;) 

Snoz - great pics!  :)


Thanks, it was a nice trip down memory and I ended up connecting with some old friends on facebook & myspace as a result so thanks Tiffeny!

okay so this thread has become my own personal walk down memory lane  ;D

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/snozberries44/File0056.jpg




OMG I'm wearing a dress.... someone catch me before I topple over  ;D


Oh and remember Prairie Skirts? Those were the rave in 82 (okay maybe it was 84) I can't remember what year I took sewing. I would have failed if my friend hadn't fixed my skirt for me. My prairie skirt came dangerously close to being a mini  ;D

^ Cool pics, you still look groovy and '70s (which I don't mean in a bad way at all).

Hey what the heck? While we're on it, here's what I looked like in 1989 (the shirt actually looks a bit 90s though!). This was out on the golf course we lived on back then:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/old_biff/GolfCourseBall89.jpg

Actually since it's suppsed to be early '80s, here's me in 1984 or '85 on the steps of one of our first houses in the morning, I think before I went to school. I can barely remember, lol:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/old_biff/NovatoSteps85.jpg

okay that bottom pic is too cute!



The pics I posted are from my freshman year in high school which was 82-83

okay so this thread has become my own personal walk down memory lane  ;D

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/snozberries44/File0056.jpg




OMG I'm wearing a dress.... someone catch me before I topple over  ;D


Oh and remember Prairie Skirts? Those were the rave in 82 (okay maybe it was 84) I can't remember what year I took sewing. I would have failed if my friend hadn't fixed my skirt for me. My prairie skirt came dangerously close to being a mini  ;D


  YES!  I remember prairie skirts!  They started showing up in the late 70s and were popular until the early 80s!  They were so cute!  I had a few of them, and yes  some were short enough to almost be considered mini length!  I still have a few in my closet today!

  YES!  I remember prairie skirts!  They started showing up in the late 70s and were popular until the early 80s!  They were so cute!  I had a few of them, and yes  some were short enough to almost be considered mini length!  I still have a few in my closet today!


I blame Little House on the Prairie for their popularity  ;D

here are a few pictures of my family in the early '80's....

My mom, me, and my little sister
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/rapunzel_1689/family%20pics%20through%20the%20years/FamilyPictures032.jpg

check out my shiny jacket!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/rapunzel_1689/family%20pics%20through%20the%20years/80spics002.jpg

this was I think my 5th or 6th birthday party.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/rapunzel_1689/family%20pics%20through%20the%20years/greengatepics4.jpg

My dad, sister, and me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/rapunzel_1689/9767b57f.jpg

My mom, sister, and me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v397/rapunzel_1689/395f77d5.jpg

great pics Erin! I remember those "shiny" jackets. I had one too!  ;D

great pics Erin! I remember those "shiny" jackets. I had one too!  ;D



hhaah...thanks Q. :)

Oh my GOSH! You guys are all rock stars! Those pics are amazing! Thanks so much for sharing them!  ;D

OMG - I forgot all about the Shiny Rollerskating Jacket, I had a pink one with a winged rollerskate on the back.  Whoo hoo, I was styling. 

I do remember the Jordache jeans with the white stitching down the legs, and pictures on the pockets (I had jeans with a gopher on the pocket and they said "gopher it" Ha :D

Makes me laugh thinking about it.

Does anyone remember the sassoon shirts with the finger pointing, everyone had to have one?  :-\\ 

Hair with bangs was really the "in" thing. 

Oh boy, I had so much fun dressing in the eighties and early nineties.  In 1983-1988 for example ( I was only 8-12) I wore lots of bracelets, those rubber and the bangly ones, also those funky colored charm necklaces, I actually had a toilet charm!!!! Lots of flourescent hair bows, banana clips, wide belts with big shirts, Lace cutouts on my jeans, and a matching denim jacket (of course skin tight), tacky makeup, spiky hair, shoe boots, fringe jackets (I actually kept mine for nostalgia), and when I went through my preppy stage I did this stupid thing with my jeans.  We would roll them at the bottom in a weird way.  Penny loafers, bass shoes, and liz claibourne pocket books.  And finally the heavy metal shirts.  Yes.  It was a fun decade.   At the time, I wanted to be older---I used to watch Lita Ford and the motley crue girls.  Those were the examples we had --(and people think britney is bad!!)

I'm glad that this thread is making so many people happy and brinng back memories for y'all. I just really wish I could have lived in the 1980s because I know I probably would have lived everyday dressing like I was in Purple Rain--with a little less cleavage--just have rocked it. Like everything I do with fashion lately is kind of influenced subtely by it. LOL. Someone mentioned bangs. I've wanted for 5 years to get bangs cut in my hairm, but I know if I didm all hell would break loose because I KNOW I would doing "mall bangs" and probably ruining my hair.  :D Like quirk you mom has the PERFECT 80s bangs.  ;D I came in in the late 80s and I just remember that from like age 2 to age 8 I wore ALOT of flourescent colors. Like hot pink, and highlighter yellow and turqouise. And I kepy wearing it until grunge came to my town around 1994 and then everyone was drowining in plaid and looking like a lumberjack.  :(

I got some old pics of my mom I need to dig up. She didn't have bangs, but she had the tightest coolest Jherri-Kurl I've seen!  ;)

Great pics guys and thanks for sharing!

I was born in 1980, so I don't really remember much of the early 80's trends. However, when people think of 80's they see giant hair and extremely colorful clothes and the whole 9 yards.

That trend era wasn't born yet in the early 80's.
At least not from my knowledge.

But I saw someone mention Fast Times at Ridgemont High, that movie is perfect for your question.

I was born in 1980, so I don't really remember much of the early 80's trends. However, when people think of 80's they see giant hair and extremely colorful clothes and the whole 9 yards.

That trend era wasn't born yet in the early 80's.
At least not from my knowledge.

But I saw someone mention Fast Times at Ridgemont High, that movie is perfect for your question.



actually that's a great idea.  The film was released in 1982 and they had people from every class/80's genre represented so you'd get a good feel for the era

In the early 80s I first started working on a full time basis (1980).  I worked in an office.

For work I remember wearing wedge shoes, some button up shirts trimmed with lace or ruffles, some silky back-button shirts, "pencil" style knee length skirts (and dresses) with little slits in them, and wool or chino or corduroy straight legged pants.  I wore a couple of dresses to work too, of a similar style (knee-length pencil slim), or else a shirt-dress.  Jackets were always welcome at work, too (at that time I wore business attire to work - that was normal).

For going out I had a wraparound silk blouse, a cotton gauze stand collar with gold metallic threads running through it, a shiny pleated skirt (rayon? polyester? both?), and tight black velvet jeans.  I remember I also loved wearing soft mohair blend sweaters.  And silk was one of my favorite blouse fabrics.

For weekends I loved my hawaiian shirt in the summer (unless it was a slogan tee shirt day) and my cowl neck velour in the winter.  And of course designer (or fake designer) jeans in various colors.  I seem to recall a cotton summer sweater I wore a lot with dolman sleeves.

For outerwear, in the winter, I liked wearing fur.  REAL fur.  (But I usually wore wool anyway.)  And flat boots, except for going out.

That's about all I remember.

Another good reference for fashion was the movie working girl with Melanie Griffith.  I think that was pretty right on. St. Elmos Fire too.