You know, for kids.
Mood Rings were very popular when I was in college.
They’re popular now under a different name. I can’t think of it off hand. But it does the same thing.
Seeing how many people could fit in a Volkswagen, 1960s.
Pegged pants, early 60s.
Zoot suits.
Kilroy was here
I was going to mention this also. There was also the fad in NYC in the 20s to ridicule, destroy, or forcibly remove straw hats from people you chance upon in the street who were still wearing them after early September.
Zubaz pants
Fanny packs
Planking.
There was this weird medieval English fad of giving animals first names, so you could address them politely. Cats were called “Tom”, goats were called “Billy”, rabbits and asses were called “Jack”, redbreasts were called “Robin”… as you may have noticed, some of the names stuck.
I never got how they sat. Did they just sit on the ball on top? Sounds unstable. And painful.
AIUI there was usually a small platform built on top of the pole.
Now I hate to go all Howard Stern, but the bathroom thing seems an awkward thing to deal with in that prudish era.
I remember them from the late 80s. We called them kerknockers. The way I remember it, one grabs the middle of the string and moves it back and forth rapidly, to get the balls to bounce off each other rapidly. The faster you could make the balls bounce off each other, the better.
Bongo boards in the 60s
Frisbees in the 50s (and later as well with ultimate and Frisbee golf)
Were/are bell bottoms a fad?
Toga parties
.
Pet Rocks, Streaking.
Wearable pet snails.
“No Bozo” (a picture of the clown with the circle-and-slash superimposed)
Urban cowboy look
Down vests (think Marty McFly in Back to the Future. It does look like a life preserver.)
Wait, what?
Nearly everything else mentioned so far is familiar to me, but this one is … new …
Sumptuary laws of one kind or another have been around since Ancient Greece. The Elizabethan Statutes of Apparel and similar laws were just another round of a favourite royal pastime.
Case in point (pun intended): Edward IV’s 1436 sumptuary law included regulations about the length of shoe points - because that was the outrageous fashion fad at the time.
I doubt any modern dance fads were as dangerous as the St. Vitus Dance…definitely none lasted as long.