Overall Chic
Manolo says, who can ever forget that brief period in the 1982 and the 1983, when all the cool kids were dressing like the street urchins?
Everyone in the bib overalls and the bad shoes with the damaged hair.
Pray ardently this that this look never comes back.
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Comments
Tova 17 years ago
I loooooved Eileen…I thought the art direction in that video was magnificent… of course, I was 8 in ’83. Though, let us not forget the return of the overalls, (minus the belt, one shoulder strap unlatched & “hanging tough”, circa 1989, -thanks, NKOTB-and then again in 93 courtesty of Rachel & her Friends. Never you fear…. the overalls will return once again. Just as with ugly shoes, comfort justifies a lot of fashion mishaps.
Zarba 17 years ago
For a truly nasty experience, check out the frontman for Dexy’s in his later years, in DRAG.
Sends shivers down my spine thinking of it.
Blame VH-1 for showing the video on thier “One-Hit Wonders” program.
As for Banananananaramadingdong, the sooner I forget them the better. Cruel summer, indeed…
Mememememe 17 years ago
I was one of those urchins and still would be if I could get away with it. It was more comfortable than the early 90’s hoochy-ness, what with the spandex and all.
JaneC 17 years ago
Some starlets apparently do think that damaged hair is in.
I remember the overalls in 1993. But it was ok for me to wear them, because I was eight years old for most of 1993.
Annalucia 17 years ago
Ah, the Eighties. In fact a very good decade for the Tedesco (who worked two jobs until he found one that paid well enough that he could jettison the second) and the Annalucia (who was having the babies and minding them at home), and who were fortunately too strapped for cash, and too busy, to pay attention to the sartorial horrors around them.
Anne 17 years ago
Love the clip… featured ya on apples2apple club … hope you dont mind…
aimlessjoys 17 years ago
Alas, I have grown completely immune to the pheromone dispersion of the prominently displayed armpit of the aggressive urchin bellorama bird-dogging the sweet young pal Eileen, who should have been pursuing her education. & the Bananaramas, what a mixed-up message that was! Who was corrupting whom? Creepy.
Lisa 17 years ago
As the Lisa graduated from the high school in the 1983, she is well-acquainted with the overalls, the damaged hair brought on by soaking it in the AquaNet (hair lacquer of the gods), and the much-discussing of the dirtiness of the “Come On, Eileen” in the bathroom of the ladies.
Ah, youth.
Chris 17 years ago
We came very close to this last year with all the 80’s stuff blowing about. Luckily someone used the red phone and staved off an all out fashion holocaust.
I saw a lot of people who looked like this in London last summer, not sure if this look is still big there.
Kevin Hillstrom 17 years ago
Whatever happened to the days when one could deter chasing police cars with banana peels?
daisyj 17 years ago
Overall, that is not chic.
VeddyVeddyBadAng 17 years ago
I wanted a pair of wrestling shoes in junior high in the worst way…
They looked so darn comfy!
leiarenee 17 years ago
In defense of the Bananananaramamama, they were apparently moonlighting as auto mechanics, who, like farmers, can wear overalls whenever they fancy. Though that doesn’t explain the appalling-ness of what they wore after work….
themanintheseersuckersuit 17 years ago
The lesson here is that after the many years the Johnny Ray still appears the sharp dressed man, time has been the more cruel to Dexy
class-factotum 17 years ago
When I saved my hard-earned babysitting money in high school ($1/hr) so I could buy a pair of the coveted overalls from the Sears catalogue, my mother, who grew up on a farm and didn’t even have indoor plumbing until she was 12 (try *that* in northern Wisconsin!), was horrified. “We wore *those* to the barn!” she sniffed. She was appalled that I was not only willing but eager to wear overalls in public.
Bridget In Oregon 17 years ago
I think I’m most grossed out by the Dexie Midnight Runner’s hairy armpits. Why did we need to zoom in on THAT? Like the street urchin look wasn’t bad enough?
Nora Charles 17 years ago
I too succumbed to the lure of 1980s fashion as the young teenager and in the land Down Under braces are making making a comeback with the young fashionistas. As a thirtysomething it is amusing to see.
PS Thank you Manolo for the lovely memories through the film clips.
Jenzilla 17 years ago
In the 80s, I preferred the slick Duran Duran style to the urchin look. I had a badass fedora. And parachute pants. Three pair. Though I didn’t have sense enough to not wear those things, I did realize enough to not allow anyone to take my picture while so dressed. No visual record to be humiliated by, only the memories!
Meg Q 17 years ago
Ha ha. Thanks to the Manolo for the fashion flashback. I remember very well in high school wearing the Guess? overalls and spraying the bangs with the StiffStuff (the bangs were not too outrageously big though – I was, and mostly still am, a “preppy”). I left the parachute pants to my younger sister – she had at least 1 pr in black and another in orange, which was our high school’s main “color”, to wear on football Fridays, “spirit days”, etc. (We grew up in small-town Texas.) She also wore knickers, and a Members Only jacket (though not at the same time!).
Frankly, we rarely got to see videos, because we didn’t have cable – our family was well-off but our father thought that having to pay for television was an abomination before God. (He and Mother finally got cable – digital cable! – in 1999, after they moved into the city.)
Meg Q 17 years ago
Wrestling shoes – remember Jennifer Grey wearing those in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? That was probably the apotheosis of that look.
desertwind 17 years ago
The white painter overalls were the thing in ’73 when desertwind graduated high school.
Lord, my Ma hated those overalls.
And, little could she have imagined that Punk Rock was (thanks gawds) lurking around the corner! Hee hee.