# Were "70s" style fashions still popular in the early 80s? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 5, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435 "2019-12-05T22:13:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/21 "2019-12-07T18:57:22Z")
Another comparison is “within” a decade. Listen to “runaround sue” by Dion from 1961 and anything by Janis Joplin from around 1969. Same decade only 8 ish years apart and there’s zero resemblance in the style of music. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/22 "2019-12-07T19:05:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Yes. All people were required by law to but new clothes by January 1, 1980 as a way to boost Christmas sales. > > Anyone caught wearing bell bottoms was arrested (actually, the least controversial part of the law). My entire elementary school class was suspended for wearing polyester. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/23 "2019-12-18T08:02:00Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > The 2020s are starting in less than a month. You mean you’re not going shopping on January 1 and replacing your entire wardrobe with whatever the new '20s fashion trend is? 😉 If we’re finally going to get silver suits then, yeah, for sure! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/24 "2019-12-18T08:42:11Z")
I’ve noticed that usually, a decade dosent usually begin as its own until the 3rd or 4th year the odd thing is by the time something gets mainstream the inspiration for it has gone … like when i was in school a lot of the kids went with the wall street yuppie look but the era was all ready over by the time it reached us … ---
**Author:** ![The\_Maple\_Leaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a8b319/32.png) [@The\_Maple\_Leaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Maple_Leaf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/25 "2019-12-18T10:23:58Z")
Others have already answered the question well so I can only chime in my two cents, but yes. You´re absolutely right. As has already been stated, fashions associated with a particular decade don´t necessarily become common until several years into the decade and people themselves may adopt them gradually. Early 80s fashion was definitely a carryover from the late 70s. I don´t think even big mall hair became ubiquitous until Jennifer Beals and other actresses codified it in “Flashdance”. Another thing to take into account is that fashions come to some places later than to others. There were some “new tens” styles that I saw in Prague in the middle of the last decade that I didn´t really see on visits back home to Toronto until the end of the decade. But to go back to the 80s, here is a commercial for Toronto´s famous mall Yorkdale Shopping Centre from 1982. Definitely has a 70s vibe to it: [Yorkdale Shopping Centre 1982 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcytf8rcY4o) BTW, I wish that mall still looked like that. It has been renovated almost beyond recognition, and not for the better IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/26 "2019-12-18T12:32:24Z")
Proof that people bought new clothes 1980… It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me which came out in 1980. What’s the matter with the clothes I’m wearing? Can’t you tell that your tie’s too wide? Maybe I should buy some old tab collars? Welcome back to the age of jive Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey? You can’t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money (I’m joking) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/27 "2019-12-18T14:03:42Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > My entire elementary school class was suspended for wearing polyester. Wearin’ suspenders? You better believe that’s a suspendin’! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/28 "2019-12-18T14:40:30Z")
The film “Meatballs” perfectly captures that moment when some 70s styles (I’m thinking mainly clothing) were still popular, while some 80s styles were becoming popular already. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/29 "2019-12-18T14:59:22Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Can’t really say when the 90s ended though, or whatever the next decade was. They seem far more ambiguous than the prior decades to me. The 90s ended on September 11, 2001. It’s not always about fashion. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/30 "2019-12-18T15:18:37Z")
I was the youngest person of my generation in the family, in some cases by a lot; I have at least one second cousin that is older than me. My parents didn’t make a lot of money at the time so my wardrobe throughout elementary school was pretty much 100% hand-me-downs from all of my cousins who all grew up in the 70s. ALL of the 70s. I started elementary school in 1983. Judging by the reaction I got to my clothes at the time, I can definitively say “no.” ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/31 "2019-12-18T15:21:04Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Can’t really say when the 90s ended though, or whatever the next decade was. They seem far more ambiguous than the prior decades to me. Perhaps not in terms of fashion, but the dividing line between the “90s” and “the 00s” is very easy to see: Sept 11, 2001. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/32 "2019-12-20T00:18:59Z")
I remember the late '70s as the last time hemlines went low as a fashion dictate. They dipped to mid-calf in 1978 before they started to rise again. I remember 1982 as the year miniskirts came back, but that wasn’t all. The return of the miniskirt, as a grassroots trend among young women, coincided with the end of the fashion industry’s power to dictate hemlines. Young women nowadays have no idea how the fashion industry once had the power to dictate hemlines every single year. Ever since 1982, though, hemlines have been a free-for-all, left up to the preferences of each individual. So the early '80s form a sharp contrast to the late '70s for 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:** [December 20, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/33 "2019-12-20T00:42:58Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > Another comparison is “within” a decade. Listen to “runaround sue” by Dion from 1961 and anything by Janis Joplin from around 1969. Same decade only 8 ish years apart and there’s zero resemblance in the style of music. Your point is well taken. Although by 1969 Janis was 100% into the blues. Her music then was very much in the same vein as what the more advanced R&B artists were already doing in 1961, like Big Mama Thornton or Screamin’ Jay. What Janis did at decade’s end was—she made it white. You just couldn’t sound very Black and get on the pop charts back in 1961. Ann Wilson of Heart learned to sing by emulating Robert Plant. In turn, Plant learned to sing by emulating Janis. In her turn, Janis had learned to sing by emulating Bessie Smith. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/34 "2019-12-20T00:56:36Z")
> [@The\_Maple\_Leaf](#): > > But to go back to the 80s, here is a commercial for Toronto´s famous mall Yorkdale Shopping Centre from 1982. Definitely has a 70s vibe to it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcytf8rcY4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcytf8rcY4o) Those _are_ 1978–79 hemlines! :eek: I was visiting Toronto a lot in those days, but never once got the impression of it as backward in anyway, quite the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/35 "2019-12-20T04:05:24Z")
I was given bell-bottoms somewhere in the early 80s and was pilloried at school. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/36 "2019-12-21T19:46:59Z")
I was in high school at the time in Provo, Utah. A few of us quit wearing bell bottoms and switched to Levi’s 501s at the beginning of the 1980-81 school year. The rest of the school made the switch in '81. By the end of the school year (June 1982), nobody wore bell bottoms anymore. I got my hair cut short in 1981, there were still people wearing the longish, parted-in-middle style throughout the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/37 "2019-12-21T19:48:34Z")
I was in high school at the time in Provo, Utah. A few of us quit wearing bell bottoms and switched to Levi’s 501s at the beginning of the 1980-81 school year. The rest of the school made the switch in '81. By the end of the school year (June 1982), nobody wore bell bottoms anymore. I got my hair cut short in 1981, there were still people wearing the longish, parted-in-middle style throughout the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/38 "2019-12-21T21:38:38Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > The 2020s are starting in less than a month. You mean you’re not going shopping on January 1 and replacing your entire wardrobe with whatever the new '20s fashion trend is? 😉 I predict we’re soon going to be wearing shiny form-fitting jumpsuits with space boots. That’s how what 21st century attire is supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/39 "2019-12-21T22:55:51Z")
I guess it was around 1980 when the Coast Guard decided “Dungarees” (blue denim bell bottom pants and light blue chambray shirts) were no longer an approved work uniform. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435/40 "2019-12-21T23:32:21Z")
i can remember when “leisure suit larry” was a nickname for a few clueless people…then supposedly a pc game programmer heard the term in a singles bar when a woman complained to a friend and it became a successful line of games featuring an out of touch wanna be ladies man … … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-70s-style-fashions-still-popular-in-the-early-80s/844435.md?page=3)