1980's

1980's (80-89) saw the mix of styles with the beat "everything bold and flashy". Everyone had their individual style depending on their personality and lifestyle. There was money and lots of activity in society. The generation of baby boomers were young and working. By 80's it was not unusual to see women working in high positions. The 'power dressing' for women was shown by the popularity of use of shoulder pads, mini skirts, bold hairstyles, high heels in bright colors.

In 1983 the movie "Flashdance" popularized the ripped sweatshirts with one exposed shoulder for women. Bollywood actress 'Dimple' wore the similar one in movie "Aitbaar". The superhit style icons of 80's were 'Michael Jackson' and 'Madonna'. They gained fame all over the world. Madonna wore brassiers for the first time as outerwear and the youngsters followed her. Lace gloves, tulle skirts, boytoy belts, fishnet stockings, layers of beaded necklace were the trends set by her. Michael Jackson as an icon spread red/black leather pants, jackets, one glove sometimes without fingers, sunglasses and the love for breakdance.

The elements of casualwear were getting into the formal dressing which gave birth to contemporary style. Men started to wear casual T-shirts under expensive jackets. People started wearing sneekers as casual wear instead of only wearing them as an athletic wear. Acid washed jeans and denim jackets was another popular style. Tatooting and piercing had their own reflections. Left ear piercing was acceptable for a heterosexual male and right ear piercing would mean homosexuality. Pret a porter (Ready to wear) design business flourished in 80's because the trend was to reflect the money that you have and that is what happens when the young generation has money.

1980's also saw legwarmers, puffed sleeves, hairstyles with bangs, headbands, tight pants with lose shirts, polka dots and aerobics wear. The designers used lycra/ spandex and viscose in making of special fabrics.

Dance and Music were the main theme of many influential movies of both Hollywood and Bollywood. The bollywood 'disco dancer' and 'dance dance' movies followed the success of 'Dirty dancing', "Flashdance' etc. ' Mithun Chakraborty was a disco dance icon. I remember as a kid (80's) we used to dance on his dance numbers in our birthday parties.

Amitabh Bachan and Jitendra could be seen dancing the same actions as the actresses. They also wore make up in their movies. Some of the 80's pop singers in west also wore makeup like Boy George, Duran Duran.

Sridevi was the no 1 heroine in Bollywood. She had dark and bold make up on her face, hairstyles with bangs and little overacting in most of her movies. Overacting, dark lipstick and eyeliner were the trends.

The era of 'Minimalism' (90's) in India started with the movie 'Maine pyaar Kiya"(1989) in which the story,acting, screenplay, songs and dresses did not have that extra, bold and flashing character of 80's. All over the world 90's saw 'Minimalist' as wearing the frills, makeup and color just as much as they needed.

The fashion and style trends start repeating them after every 20 years and If we look at the trends now we have reflections of 80's like the return of tight pants and lose shirts, high heels in bold colors, hairstyle with bangs and lots of layers, puff sleeves, patent leather, shoulder pads in jackets, dresses with high waist belts etc.

I am sure 80's had so much going on that I must have missed one or the other point. You are welcome to add on as a comment if you find some other thing.