I recently got my hands on a copy of the new BBC series, Ashes to Ashes. This is the sequel to the wildly popular series Life on Mars. Gene Hunt and the the crew from the seventies are back but now transported to a police precinct in London in the eighties.
I was absolutely right, but I missed one salient point: The "fashion" of the eighties was really horrible! The lead character of the show wanders through her dementia loosely swaddled in baggy tees with necklines that hang half-way down her upper-arm, exposed bra straps, and all the other trapping we remember (and are embarrassed by) from the eighties.In one episode she goes to a nightclub and encounters her coworkers in full Glam-Rock regalia. Ugh! Hold-on to your lunches, folks… We all know what has to be coming down the pike next!
Wherever you are today, I hope you're having a wonderful Day
Don Bergquist - February 05, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
4 comments:
It was basically just unpaid overtime. But I do remember one New Year’s Eve during the 1980s when I was at a club downtown similar to the one described in your blog. I was standing next to the dance floor with a co-worker from the office I worked at. We were watching a “wall-to-wall” U2 video with scenes of Paris in the background. I had a Heineken’s in my hand and was thinking to myself, “You know, this is pretty cool”.
Er...
That is kind-of the point. That is why we are now embarrassed by it. Yeah, we thought it was kinda cool in the eighties. But the "fashion" didn't really hold up, did it!
I'll admit to having gone to the Punk clubs when I was younger. It was fun, the music was all the rage, and the drinks were cheaper than at the clubs downtown.
And yes, I even dressed the part when I was going there. Mercifully none of those pictures have survived into the present day.
(...of which I am aware, at least...)
We all do wild and crazy things when we are young and that is really the point here... do we really need them coming back to haunt us?
Thanks for reading my random rants... thanks even more for responding! I like the exchange. I hope you're enjoying my blog.
Don
Like I mentioned in my previous comment, looking back I feel that the constant happy hours (and going to clubs with co-workers after the happy hours) in the 1980s was in a way unpaid overtime.
The economy was difficult in the early 1980s and I think social things and work things got merged together more than they are today.
Personally, I wore a flannel shirt, jeans and black dress shoes at whatever club I was at in the 1980s (and there was one club in Los Angeles that I was not allowed in when I vacationed there in the mid-1980s). I've never been big into fashion. But I don't think you should be embarrassed by the fashions you experimented with (wondering what led you to do that) because there might have been a professional reason for the particular style you had at that time. For example, women who felt they couldn't get ahead at work, because they were thought of as being too conservative and boring, might feel they could improve their image and improve their futures (maybe even get into management where they like creative and outgoing people) by wearing something somewhat provocative when she was out with her co-workers.
In my view a lot of the fashion at the time was a way to survive. It worked and now some of the people who did it might be embarrassed. They shouldn't be because it helped them survive a difficult time and helped them to become what they are today.
If you are haunted by the 1980s coming back, that is understandable. Hopefully people will never again feel forced to mix work and social things that much. That might happen. It is understandable that you would be worried by something like that,
I know you will disagree with a lot of this but there may be a little truth that will help you feel a little bit less embarrassed about the 1980s
Anonymous Reader
Yeah, I can remember a number of "had-to-make" appearances. I guess I can see it from that angle.
Don
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