# Best/worst decades for fashion **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080 "2014-07-26T03:48:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/21 "2014-07-28T18:06:48Z")
I was wondering when someone would bring up the 80s. Shoulder pads. I was in a vintage shop once and saw a silver silk shantung suit…custom-made, looked barely worn… and linebacker shoulder pads. Wanted to cry. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/22 "2014-07-28T20:10:26Z")
I’m going to say the 1970s but I think in its context it was pretty cool. It was a contrast to everything that came before so that it of itself was unique and what made it appealing. Cool fashion from that era that I like can be seen in Satruday Night Fever and A Clockwork Orange. A second favorite for people to dislike is the 80s but I liked it. The look of early Madonna and Cindy Lauper was cool. The big hair and shoulder pads looked bad most of the time but when done right it was very striking. I’d say my least favorite is the 1990s. Some of the fashion from that era was pretty bummy. Some of it is still eye catching in my mind. For guys I’d say the 1920s. I liked the suits, coats and hats. For women it’s the 1950s because fashion seemed to allow for more curves to be shown. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/23 "2014-07-28T22:53:25Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The _Directoire_ and _Empire_, definitely. The best decade-and-a-half of all is the one from 1795 to 1810. Madame Récamier and Dolley Madison, for example. It doesn’t get any better than that. I actually think that look was dreadful, at least if you didn’t have a perfect, thin, figure. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/24 "2014-07-29T14:04:50Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Especially the [Incroyables and Merveilleuses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incroyables_and_Merveilleuses). Anyone who puts up her hair to mock the way it was prepared for guillotining is my kinda gal. Except that the Incroyables were the inventors of the [mullet](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boilly-Point-de-Convention-ca1797.jpg). Umm, yeah, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/25 "2014-07-29T14:22:08Z")
> [@Athabasca](#): > > Oh, and let’s not forget the wrap dress? Probably one of the strongest fashion influences having been translate to tops and skirts and jackets. Diane Von Furstenburg is brilliant for that innovation. I have at least 2 wrap dresses and a few tops as well. I actually sewed a wrap coat for myself in 1979. Absolutely right. The wrap dress was by far the best thing about the '70s. It has even been credited with helping to advance women’s liberation in those days. I was so glad when it came back into style a few years ago. I’ve lost count of how many wrap dresses I have. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/26 "2014-07-29T14:46:56Z")
Best: 1920s Worst: 1970s I don’t really know what would be the defining look of the 2000s to make it a contender for worst ever. Maybe it’s just that it’s still so contemporary but when I think of 2000s fashion nothing stands out as that much different from right now. ---
**Author:** ![skylyn12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@skylyn12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skylyn12)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/27 "2014-07-29T15:15:11Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Best: 1920s > > Worst: 1970s > I don’t really know what would be the defining look of the 2000s to make it a contender for worst ever. Maybe it’s just that it’s still so contemporary but when I think of 2000s fashion nothing stands out as that much different from right now. 2003 vs 2014: [http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813](http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813) Looks very different to me. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/28 "2014-07-29T22:27:43Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I actually think that look was dreadful, at least if you didn’t have a perfect, thin, figure. Ah, well, it doesn’t matter because none of us was around then and there is no sign of it ever being brought back. I was always partial to women’s fashions of the 1940s. Hemlines were back up, waists were tailored in, and women were in the workforce like never before. I think of it as feminist wave 1.5 that helped bridge 1.0 (1848–1920) and 2.0 (1965—1990), and as such indispensable to women’s history in the 21st century. As for the lads, I don’t know what to nominate for best or worst. I actually have fond memories of the 1960s, although fashionwise the ‘60s are divided into two distinctly different halves, and the question is: which half are you talking about? I love Jackie Kennedy’s style in the first half (John Kennedy dressing the part of “the guy that accompanied Jackie” to perfection), and as for the second half, I’ll stand up in defense of the hippies’ aesthetic. I honestly miss that. Love beads, joss sticks, peace symbol, the pink-and-purple combo. In the 1960s I was getting the pink and purple from both sides: the Catholic Advent wreath and vestments at home and in church, and psychedelic electric pink/purple color schemes on the street. '90s grunge was worse than '70s kitsch, but on the whole the '90s add up to better than the '70s. OK, I’m fond of much '90s music, but to its fashion I’m practically indifferent. The \*one \*thing the '70s got right was the wrap dress. The '80s just look cartoonish to me, except I thought Prince looked mighty dapper then. When '90s grunge was at its height, I remember reading somewhere that it was a repeat of the way most of the '50s Beat Generation dressed: not the beatnik stereotype, but much plainer; they showed pics of Jack Kerouac and friends on the road in very grungy flannel/denim array. The mid-'90s \*Clueless \*craze at least had flair and verve to it. I liked the late '90s return of wrap dresses—they’re the perfect synthesis of comfortable, practical, and attractive. The '00s had a nice touch in the middle with the boho trend. As for right now, it looks as normal to me as ever. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/29 "2014-07-30T05:44:21Z")
> [@skylyn12](#): > > 2003 vs 2014: [http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813](http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813) > > Looks very different to me. The suits in the bottom pic are more tailored (and look better) but if I were to see some guy walking outside in a suit from the top pic I wouldn’t think “Oh, he looks like he’s from the mid-2000s!” He would just look like a guy in a baggy suit. And really I often see Black guys dressed like that anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080/30 "2014-07-31T21:20:44Z")
> [@skylyn12](#): > > 2003 vs 2014: [http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813](http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/nba-2003-draft-style-062813) > > Looks very different to me. “The Style at the NBA Draft has come a long way.” A few guys in the group picture look sharp but some of the other outfits look like they’ll easily be outdated in a few years, like the too-tight fitting blazers and the over abundance of pinks and magentas. The hipster look and it’s influence will be just as easily mocked as the 2003 picture and other eras. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-worst-decades-for-fashion/694080.md?page=1)