What were the fads when you were in school?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I have never been in style. I’m not even sure I know. Whatever it was, I didn’t have it.

In college, Ray-Ban Wayfarers were making a comeback. Once everybody had them, they were no longer cool and the prices dropped. I still have the pair I bought back then and wore them to the homecoming game I went to last week.

22

A lot of what I remember has been covered, but I’ll add what I can.

  • Summer of 1981 (between 4th and 5th grades), striped rugby shirts were very in. Mom got my brothers and me each one for our three week drive-around-America vacation.
  • during 5th grade, spring of 1982, for not quite two months, knickerbockers of all things were the absolute coolest thing you could have. I was dying for them and finally got two pairs. The week after they were no longer cool.
  • Sixth grade, 1982-83, twist-a-bead necklaces. It was a string of 3 or 5 mm opalescent beads. You’d get three or four together, twist them, and then secure the ends behind your neck with a clasp.
  • Sixth through eighth grade, 1982-85, a name brand sneaker (Reeboks? Adidas?) with two sets of laces per shoe. The big thing was to trade gold safety pins with interlocking plastic beads to put on the straight away lace closest to your toes.
  • Sixth through eighth grade, 1982-5, a very specific type of Mexican dress, the name of which I’m blanking on. It was often sold by street vendors. The cloth would be very bright, and there was multi-colored embroidery around the neck. Sleeves were short, and the shape was very mumu like. Every woman I ever saw in one of those looked like a cheerful lump.
  • Seven grade, 1983-84, Gloria Vanderbilt shirts, which were like Polo (knit, short sleeve, collared) shirts. Collars had to be popped. For a few months, there was even a fad where you wore a long sleeved name brand Oxford shirt over your Polo/Gloria Vanderbilt in a matching color and then popped both collars. Jeans were also tight rolled.
  • Eight grade through 12th grade, 1984-89, Banana Republic t-shirts. The front had a small logo on the lefthand chest, but the back always had a very intricate drawing of wildlife, usually from Africa, in the style of a newspaper etching. Those were actually way cool. Bud Light t-shirts were also very popular, but administration came down on them.
  • not sure when, possibly ninth or tenth grade (84-86), but there was a clothing store called Units, which sold very generic, non-gendered, multi-purpose knit cotton clothing - like tunics, tights, belts, and such. The idea was that you could own twelve pieces of clothing and have a complete wardrobe. Ugly as hell.
  • Ninth grade - 12th grade (1984-89), hair bows. Oh, the humanity. There was a hair style at least half the girls at my school followed. First give yourself generous bangs. Then, pull the top of your hair back to the crown of your head and secure with a clip that had a bow glued onto it. Then, tease, rat, curl, and spray the hell out of your bangs and use hot rollers on the rest of it. The first hair bows were reasonable, but then it spiraled out of control. I swear, some of those girls had bows as big as their heads. Very popular with cheerleaders and the spirit team as well as the country girls. We took to calling them bowheads. Finally calmed down when I got to college.
  • 10th grade on (1985-), Keds came back into popularity. Even the knock offs were kind of expensive.

Well, I’m tapped, but that was far more than I expected to remember.

23

They’re back again. My eight year old nephew and his friends have them.

24

I was in grammar school in South Jersey from '66-71. Around '70 or '71 the guys all got Beatle Boots with the zip on the inside ankle.

25

I was never fashion-conscious as a little kid, so I don’t remember much except that a lot of girls wanted combat boots. I do remember pogs, tamagotchis(sp?), and Starter jackets. I grew up in the home of da Bulls, but I wanted a Charlotte Hornets starter jacket SO BAD because blue and purple were my favorite colors.

26

Reebok Pumps

Well, first came Nike Airs (which are not only still around, but more or less standard footwear now), then Reebok Pumps, then came then ones that included the CO2 cartridge so you could fill it so tight your didn’t have any circulation in your feet anymore.

27

1966, I was in 1st Form (now known as year 7). Witches britches were the big thing. The mini skirt was getting higher and higher and pantyhose not yet in general use (or too expensive for us 12 and 13 year olds)

28

this wasn’t a fashion fad, but for a year, maybe a little more, we were all obsessed with Sanrio erasers and pencils. I’m 31, and this was probably in '93 or '94.

29

about the only thing left unmentioned: Champion and Esprit clothes (Grade school in MA during '80s)

Not a clothing thing but: “Pencil fighting”, using a pencil to snap another one in half.

30

London, Ontario freshman college culture around 1991 was a ridiculous gothic hellhole. The women were all really into Anne Rice vampire nonsense. The guys all wore Doc Martens and army surplus coats with a little German flag on the sleeve.

I actually think the undisputed king of pre-internet college students was H.R. Giger. I knew someone who spent an entire month’s worth of minimum wage spending money to buy “Necronomicon II” or something similar.

31

How long before the teachers get annoyed with them and get them banned under the pretense of “they’re dangerous” again?

32

Guy here, American Southwest.

Grade school: Big Bell jeans. Wide leather belts with flashy big buckles. Scarfs as an alternative to a necktie. Sneakers. Clogs for fancy shoes.

High school: Blue jeans. Bandanas. Leather hats for the bold. Hippie stuff like bandanas and jangly bracelets and little pouches. I remember a lot of midriff showing on the girls. Plaid cotton jackets or Levi jackets (still have mine!) for winter. Cowboy types had giant chains holding their huge leather wallets inside their skoal-marked back pocket on 501s. Cowboy boots and hats and typical yoke cowboy shirts.

33

I almost forgot: In 1964, the sound of hairdos falling all over town, and the bankruptcy announcements by companies like Brylcream let everybody know that The Beatles were all the rage.

34

Grade school. Marbles, roller skates that fastened to our shoe soles. Daniel Boone regalia

High School. Button down shirts, chinos, loafer shoes or safari boots. Folk music. Beach Boys. Going to the beach and surfing. Rock and Roll. Smoking and beer.

Hi, Chefguy!

35

Male, born in 1949. Grew up in Portland, Oregon (so some of the hotter fads may have missed us, or been late coming to our large one-horse town).

Grade school I do remember Davy Crocket 'coonskin hats, although I didn’t have one, and hula hoops (although I wouldn’t call that a fashion) which I did have one of but couldn’t really make it go. Jeans were worn very tight from the late 50’s through the late 60’s. I don’t remember much else clothes-wise, as I did not attempt to follow fashions.

In the 60’s, for guys it was all Beatles all the time from '64 to '66 or so, including those cute little suits, whenever we wore a suit. After that, hippie styles came in, with bell bottoms and tie-dye and other stuff like that. That lasted into the 70’s. I think platform shoes were in there, for the seriously avant-garde.

I don’t remember much about girls’ clothes, although I remember my sister wearing peter pan collars, probably in the late 50’s; all through high school she wore her hair in a heavily-teased bouffant, not quite a beehive. Actually, it still looks pretty good when I look at her graduation picture, that style actually suited her face.
Roddy

36

Oh, 88-89. Biker shirts–black lycra with a day-glo stripe on the outside of each leg.

Also knee-length denim shorts, rolled up several times

37

Keds, then Chucks.

38

Oh My Gods, I wanted these so bad! I never got them. :frowning:

39

'70s junior high and high school:

Farmer bib overalls by the original Madewell Manufacturing Co. Not sure if this was a local fad because these were made in Massachusetts. This was before the factory closed and J. Crew bought the brand. Both boys and girls wore these.

Tan suede desert boots. These may have been late '60s when I was still in 5th or 6th grade.

Jeans jackets.

Army fatigues–probably inspired by first-run MAS*H

As we approached the nation’s Bicentennial there were lots of ugly “colonial” colors - olive, burnt orange, harvest gold, often in big plaid prints.

Bell-bottoms.

Ankle boots with a buckle on one side like THESE.

40

Pumps. Hell yeah.

Back in elementary school (I’m 32 as well) Triple Fat Goose coats were all the rage, too. So were Used jeans and the Major Damage line. Oh yeah, and Girbaud jeans.