Tonight on Style Trial, I am arguing the case for 80’s fashion at 10pm on BBC4. Yes I am a passionate advocate of a time when women crossed dressed (Grace Jones, still sets the bar for androgynous elegance in my book) and power dressed (Joan Collins you rock).
So let’s go back…. right back for a moment. Here’s a pic of me taken in 1982 or thereabouts when I was fashion editor of i-D. I’ve been doing this TV thing for a long time!
Aficionados will spot the Westwood pirate dress still residing, I might add, in my cupboard today (I wore it only last summer in Ibiza).
Any way I digress. The eighties was all about distorting the body with square shoulders and fitted leggins and mannish shoes (well for me at least as you can see).
We still distort our bodies today, but in a much more knowing way to conceal what we don’t like and reveal what we do. I like to explain how to dress for your body shape, so check me out.
Anyway, the fact is the 80”s fashion vibe is more influential than we really give it credit for and I make my case to you, having already discussed the eighties in it’s full glory in an earlier edition of Style Trial with John Taylor of Duran Duran and Stevie Stewart of Bodymap.
So tonight, before a panel…Dylan Jones – editor of GQ magazine, Lulu Guinness – accessories designer, Celia Birtwell – textile designer and former design partner of Ozzie Clarke, and pop star Jamelia; I set out my stall reminding them that the current hot name in fashion Gareth Pugh, whose look I was working recently, subscribes to an eighties aesthetic and where would he be without hard edged silhouettes, strong women and futuristic embellishment.
They then have a jolly good laugh at my expense when the programme shows the worst clip of me I’ve ever seen in eighties attire twittering on about men in turbans. Ah yes happy days.
I think the right era won and I won’t be spoiling the result for you by revealing it here.
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3 responses so far
1 Lovely Lisa // Jan 29, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I really like androgynous fashion too! But rather hard to achieve with a 16/18 (or even 20) and very curvy figure!
My question is: how to look powerful in a female way? More of a Goddess look, than Mother Earth or Apple Pie.
My idea of female power is NOT hiding beneath a polyester tent. Nor is it to waft about in layers of frills.
(I remember the Ghanaian women of my childhood being large and round and powerful.)
Is it possible to achieve this from any of the offerings on the high street?
2 denise pia // Feb 2, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi,
I recently watched a video of my brother’s wedding in 1987. I can only say that I looked terrible, evn though I was the heieght of fashion. I will not be going back there!!! Take a look at http://www.thefashionfix.co.uk
Denise
3 Caryn Franklin // Feb 2, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Hi Lisa,
Nice question to ponder I’ll get back to you in a future blog.
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