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Tracksuits have come on a long way since I was a kid, so much so that they are now worn as every day clothing by many people as they are both warm and comfortable to wear. Â Personally I think it looks a little lazy but each to his own. 
I do wonder though whether people would find them quite so fashionable if they still looked like the classic polyester tracksuits we had as kids in the years leading up to the early 1980′s. Â In those days most tracksuits were made of that slightly stretchy polyester material that always looks as if its been worn too much even when its brand new.
As I recall most people ended up with what I would deem the classic Adidas tracksuit. Â The arms and legs would have white stripes down them, and the tracksuit itself was normally navy blue in colour, although I do remember one kid at school having a bright red one (and this was well after these tracksuits had become completely unfashionable and everyone was wearing tracksuit/sweatshirt combinations). Â They were usually sold as a two piece set consisting of trousers and a zip up jacket, which I think was usually hoodless.
The other classic thing about these tracksuits were the foot straps at the bottom of each leg. Â You slipped these over your foot before you put your trainers or football boots on (it was amazing how many kids put the strap under their shoes, and then had to pull a muddy strap off the bottom of their footie shoes) and this kept the trouser leg from riding up and looking a bit ridiculous. Â This meant it was important to get a pair with long enough legs, otherwise you would have a material deficiency at either the ankle or backside level, preferably the former.
The image accompanying this post is from a currently available version of this tracksuit from Adidas, so it appears somebody out there still thinks this style is fashionable!
The world is a strange place, and there’s no accounting for taste, but I do find it somewhat bizarre that the humble Plimsoll shoe is currently considered an item of fashion, in the UK at least. Apparently David Beckham himself is a big fan of them! Not bad for a shoe normally worn by primary school children that was originally designed as an item of footwear for wearing on the beach – one step up from a flip flop, another item of footwear which also seems to enjoy a strange popularity.
The 1980′s spawned a number of dubious fashions, with the usual suspects of big hair and shoulder pads normally being mentioned first. However, during my teenage years the fashion it was cool to be seen sporting was the simple Terry Towelling sock.
Darth Vader may be an evil villain from Englands West Country (Dave Prowse is from Bristol) but I bet most kids wanted to pretend to be the Sith Lord whenever they played Light Sabre battles in the school playground. Of course, it wasn’t the same without the rasping breathing and cool black costume, but it was still fun.
I’m always fascinated by the way crazes for certain items come and go. I often wonder who is responsible for starting the current fad in the first place. Obviously someone somewhere must have started the craze of in the first place, but how do you identify exactly who that person is? Whilst you ponder that, consider this as a fine example – the humble pair of Deelie Boppers.
