# What were the fads when you were in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243 "2012-11-16T20:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![kirk1168](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@kirk1168](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk1168)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/121 "2012-11-23T16:12:26Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > What I remember as the “fashion fads” at my school in my 7-12th grade years in the 1980s is wearing big, nigh oversized dress shirts unbuttoned and untucked over a t-shirt, with black high top sneakers. In cooler weather, a denim jacket was worn over the dress shirt; in the winter, a long 3/4 or full length wool overcoat. > > There was a year or two where the “puffy insulated parka jacket/vest” look was around that was the target of the “why are you wearing a life preserver?” joke in _Back To The Future_ (1985), but I don’t think I had one myself (though my Dad definitely did). Apparently, you and I had the same fashion sense “back in the day”. But I DID have the puffy insulated vest.🆒 Don’t forget the buttons on the denim jacket: I had Whitesnake and Night Ranger on mine. And mullet-perms. Ugh… The rich kids had Jansport backpacks (and I was not one), the rest of us had either cheap knock-offs or just carried books in a duffel bag. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/122 "2012-11-24T06:52:59Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I went to an all-boys private Catholic school in 1980s UK. > > Please tell me this was just my school, I’ll have more faith in humanity if it is. People used to purposefully scratch the back of their hand again and again and again so as to create a large scab, 1-2 inches long and maybe a half inch wide. Loads of people had it. In second grade or so, there was a brief fad for clawing the backs of each others hands. Does anyone remember Yaga clothing suddenly being popular, around 92 or 93? There was a store in our local mall and everything. Apparently, it’s still around. ---
**Author:** ![akeimi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@akeimi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akeimi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/123 "2012-11-26T11:12:18Z")
31, generic middle-class suburban child-factory in the northeastern US. Just things that I don’t think were mentioned: In pictures from when I was very little (mid 80’s), my mom tied my pigtails or ponytails with these thick yarn things. They were so cute! I must have caught the tail end (har har) of that trend, because I don’t remember them after kindergarten. Double socks! You’d fold them down so both were visible. (Late 80’s) In middle school (mid 90’s) there was one month where almost every girl in the school was wearing these black cotton ballet flats, but with straps, and half the guys were wearing woven ponchos. Both these fads seemed strange to me because they were so pervasive for a short time, then one day disappeared. Not petered out like trends usually do, but it was like everyone had a meeting one Friday and those items were never seen again. (The shoes fell apart quickly. I have no idea what happened with the ponchos.) I’ve always wondered if this was a larger trend, or if it had something to do with the “random new age stuff” store that opened at the nearest mall around this time (both things were sold there). > [@Joey\_P](#): > > A few more… > [Docksiders](http://www.bkrw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Sebago-Dockside-Classic-Boat-Shoes-05.jpg). I can’t find the one’s we wore. But they had 3 or 4 eyelets on each side, we laced them straight across and then tied off the laces in a very specific way. Kinda like [this](http://www.fieggen.com/Dont_Link/BoatShoeKnot1.jpg) but pulled tight against the shoe so they stuck out. Yeah, it was a very specific boat shoe - brown leather, brown soles. Mine came from Bass shoes. People would replace the lace-spiral-things with neon ones. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/124 "2012-11-27T20:38:02Z")
Remembered a handful more: - Scratch’n’Sniff stickers (Cecil even did a column on how they were made) - unicorns (pegasi were a small subset, and the winged unicorn was a marvel to behold) - rainbows - hologram stickers, especially if they had a unicorn and a rainbow on them [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243.md?page=6)