Child Of The 1980's

During the late Seventies and early Eighties the jump suit was a popular item of fashion clothing, though I personally have to wonder why. I guess some bright spark fashion designer must have been sat in a garage waiting for their car to be MOTed when they caught site of one of the mechanics, and inspiration suddenly hit them.

The phrase jumpsuit was first used to describe the one piece overall worn by skydivers and parachutists, but over the years it has become the term used to describe any item of clothing which has a one piece design for covering both arms and legs. They normally, though not exclusively, fasten up at the front of the body.

Whilst jumpsuits are worn by pilots and racing car drivers for safety reasons, the popularity of them as an item of clothing for every day wear can most likely be attributed to pop stars, starting back in the Fifties and Sixties with Elvis Presley of course, but other notable wearers of these clothes in the 1980′s include Freddie Mercury and Suzi Quatro.

It appears the popularity of the Jumpsuit was on the rise again earlier this year, and indeed many of the fashion websites are, at the time of writing this, still selling jumpsuits of various designs, including one off shoot known as the Playsuit. As far as I can tell this is a jump suit with the legs cut off. Fine, if you like that sort of thing, but I do think they could have come up with a better name for them. I can’t help feeling that Playsuit sounds distinctly seedy…

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We human beings are a funny bunch. Everyone likes to think they are unique and have their own mind, yet at the same time there’s nothing we like more than being part of a group, which explains why so many people end up getting caught up in the rage for the latest must-have fad item.

One such fad fashion accessory popular in the late Eighties was the Slap Bracelet (also sometimes known as Snap Bracelet), which became a craze that both girls and boys got caught up in, though for possibly different reasons.

The Slap Bracelet consisted of a piece of springy metal wrapped in fabric. It could be straightened out into a long thin rectangle, and then wrapped around the wrist (or any other item for that matter) simply by flicking it sharply at it. On contact the springs would coil the bracelet around your wrist, making it fit perfectly.

For girls the Slap Bracelet was seen as a cool new fashion item. It was available in many different colours and designs, and most importantly was cheap, so you could have a whole collection of them to co-ordinate with your wardrobe.

For boys however the appeal was probably more in the snappy action of the bracelet. Boys being boys, the act of performing the slapping action tended to get a bit over zealous, and so it wasn’t long before schools across the land started banning the Slap Bracelet. I don’t know if anybody was ever badly injured by one of them (I wouldn’t have thought so) but I’m sure there were more than a few instances of slightly smarting arms, wrists and other bodily parts.

Search for Slap Bracelets items on Amazon.co.uk

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I have very vivid memories of the dreaded clothes shopping trip when I was growing up. If either my sister or myself needed new clothes for any reason (e.g. new school uniform, grown out of old clothes, needed something for a special occasion) then the shops in our local town were usually next to useless, so the weekend meant a trip to the next biggest town about 15 miles away.

I think we loved and hated those trips in equal measure. Of course there were the good shops (i.e. toy shops and for me, computer game shops) that we got to look around as well, but the biggest part of the trip was going round the various clothes shops, which at that time usually included a visit to C&A.

C&A was a huge shop selling clothes for every possible member of the family, from babies through to grandparents, so it always seemed an extra long trawl as you had to negotiate the racks and racks of women’s clothes, up the escalator to get to the children’s clothes.

Then we’d try to find something both ourselves and our parents liked, and which the shop also had in the correct size, then go and try them on (hopefully in the changing rooms, though there was the odd indignity of having to try something on in the shop itself) before then taking the items to the till to pay and have the giant security discs removed.

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Looking at a pair of classic design Moon Boots, it is immediately obvious how the name was chosen, as they look just like something an astronaut might wear. It’s hard to think of any other name that would suit them better.

Moon Boots were first created by Italian company Tecnica in the early Seventies, but it wasn’t until the Eighties that they really took the fashion world by storm.

They were originally designed as a highly practical shoe for use in snowy conditions, as they are waterproof, warm, and easy to slip on and off. Unlike most shoes they don’t come as a traditional left and right pair. Either boot can go on either foot.

The boots have a rubber sole made in two parts, a thin rubber outer layer, and a thicker cellular layer to cushion the feet. The shoe itself is often made from a polyester material, giving the boots that spacesuit like quality, but suede and fake furry versions are also available, though these tend to look more like a normal boot.

Laces cover the top of the foot before criss-crossing round the back of the leg to be tied up at the front near the top of the boot, which helps to keep the boots on when trudging about in thick snow.

The Moon Boot logo, written in a style that wouldn’t be out of place on Space 1999, adorns the side of the boot, so you can easily tell a proper pair from an imitation.

Search for Moon Boots items on Amazon.co.uk

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The Eighties was great for many reasons, but it also had its fair share of less than admirable moments, and many of those are related to what we might now call questionable fashion ideas.

One such fashion statement was the craze for wearing Terry Towelling sports socks (in either standard white or a range of neon colours) as every day socks, which is something I’ve covered here before.

Another piece of Terry Towelling apparel that became popular was the sweatband. Sportsmen and women wore them (particularly tennis players as I recall) as they served a useful purpose, but for some reason they suddenly became the in-thing to wear normally.

Whilst some went the whole hog and wore a head sweatband, most toned it down a bit and went for one of the wrist ones, which quite often had the name of a football team too.

I’m not quite sure why these became so popular, but my best guess is because of Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler, who famously wore a rather illuminated neon one in the video for Money for Nothing (in fact that was all you could see, as his face was blacked out in the video).

I wonder how long it will take for this particular fashion to resurge? I’m guessing it might be a while, but who knows?

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Velcro has to be one of the most useful inventions of the 20th century. It can be used to fasten together all kinds of things, including clothing, bags, wallets and just about anything that requires two things that need to be repeatedly joined and un-joined. Perhaps most surprising though is that whilst I personally think of it as being a fairly recent invention, it was actually invented in 1941!

I’m not sure if they first appeared in the Eighties or perhaps earlier, but I distinctly remember trainers appearing that were fastened by Velcro and immediately on seeing them I wanted a pair. After all, who wanted to mess about with laces, which kept coming undone, when you could slip on your trainers and have them fastened in seconds?

Eventually I got a pair, once we had managed to locate a pair that were reasonably priced as most of the initial versions were made by the big names in trainers and so had price tags which my Mum wasn’t prepared to pay (and to be honest I can’t say I blame her either).

I forget which manufacturer made my pair of trainers (they were probably unbranded ones to be honest, a sort of shoe shops own brand) but I did love them dearly. They were dark blue in colour and the Velcro fastener consisted of a U shaped strap which was fed through two oblong metal rivets. You just needed to pop in your foot, pull over the strap and push it down and you were done. Brilliantly simple!

Whilst Velcro trainers are still available today (as are Velcro fastening shoes for that matter) you don’t tend to see them about quite as much these days for adults, though for kids they are still very popular given that young children can find tying laces pretty tricky.

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Dr. Martens boots were the footwear of choice for a number of different groups of people during the late Seventies and most of the Eighties. Skinheads, Punks and Goths all found Dr. Martens appealing, not just because of their looks but also, though they might not admit it, the comfort of the boots.

I wonder how appealing they would have found them had they known a little more about their history though?

Dr. Marten was actually a real doctor believe it or not! Klaus Märtens was a doctor in the German army during World War II. Whilst on leave he was enjoying a spot of skiing when he fell and hurt is ankle. He found his standard issue army boots very uncomfortable with his injury, and set about making a few changes to the boots design in an effort to ease his aching feet a little. Softer leather was one change, and another was to add an air-cushioned sole.

After the war Märtens decided to go into business manufacturing his new boot design, and they proved highly successful, albeit with housewives over the age of 40! The company did well, and in 1960 the boots arrived in the UK, when British show manufacturer R. Griggs licensed the rights to make the boots for the British market. They made a few tweaks, such as reshaping the heel and changing the stitching colour to yellow, and they also named the soles AirWair, a name which became synonymous with the Dr. Martens brand.

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These days most kids probably have a school bag decorated with a picture of whatever the current most popular TV show is (so for the boys it’s probably Ben 10 at the moment, and for the girls maybe still High School Musical, or perhaps Hannah Montana) and that bag is probably a rucksack.

Back when I were a lad though, it would have been more likely to be a holdall style bag (or possibly a leather (or leather effect) satchel when you first started school – I bet they’re hard to track down now). For the girls this would probably have been pink or another girly colour, possibly with a picture of a horse or pony, whilst for the boys it would have undoubtedly been a football team bag, not dissimilar in style to that shown above, which is actually a currently available retro styled bag.

Now, I was never really into football. Sure, I had the odd kick about but since my Dad wasn’t a footie fan he never passed it on to me like many father’s do to their sons. When I first started going to school though, I suddenly discovered that most boys were big football fans, so in an effort to try and fit in I thought I had better start to show an interest too.

Most of the boys at my primary school would have had a holdall with their favourite football teams name on (and perhaps a picture of a footballer, a football or the clubs emblem). Most were also colour coded to the chosen team’s football strip as well.

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