Fashion

Fashion has always been a way for the young to reinvent the fashions of previous generations and reclaim them as their own. The fashions of the 1980s stole from almost every era: the make-up of Ancient Egypt or Elizabethan England; the mishmash of Victorian buccaneers and Native Americans; 1960s minimalist chic and 1950s rockers1.

In the early 1980s, as with the previous two decades, much of what might be called 'fashion' by British city-based journalists never reached the provinces. Club-goes might have felt brave enough to 'gender-bend' or join the 'New Romantics' in London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Liverpool, but such trends rarely thrived in Southport or Aberdeen. While Carnaby Street heralded a new Renaissance for those with a skill for turning old rags into evening wear, such extravagance was unlikely to have allowed the wearer to survive a stroll through Newcastle.

Perhaps surprisingly, British fashion did make a huge impact across the Globe; the infamous Flock of Seagulls 'Batman' cut had its imitators on the club scenes of New York, while Boy George became a megastar in Japan and even made a memorable guest appearance in the über-macho action series The A-Team.

Outlandish experiments like tartan kilts or headbands soon gave way to the conservatism that, at least politically, the decade was renowned for. Spandau Ballet began to wear jazz suits with huge waved hair-cuts sprayed into place and dressing smart came back into style for boys and girls alike.