Friends, if there's one thing I learned living through the Eighties, it's that oversized clothing does not flatter undersized people. The Eighties was a bad decade for me style-wise and perhaps for you too.
And yet. I was looking at Eighties patterns while searching for my bomber jacket pattern and -- I'm embarrassed to admit this -- they've started to look good to me. Have I totally lost it?
Jackets -- for both men and women -- weren't only oversized back then (thirty years ago, OMG), they were also slouchy, unstructured, and often worn with the sleeves scrunched or rolled up a la Sonny Crockett.
Half of you weren't even born yet, I know, but the other half of us were sporting things like this:
You may have noticed already that a great many of these patterns were unisex, which tells you how shapeless and ginormous these jackets were. You could fit a pair of double D's in one -- or not -- and they'd still fit just fine.
There was undoubtedly a bit of New Wave-inspiration to this overscaled look (which itself was inspired by the men's "zoot" suits of the Forties. Italian (and other mainly European) designers like Versace, Armani, and Hugo Boss made it popular. And those Japanese too.
Stateside, there were these two...can you name their show?
Parenthetically, have you heard that the Pantone Color of the Year for 2013 is that forever-Eighties classic, EMERALD GREEN?!
Not even preppy old me (young back then) was able to avoid the big-n-slouchy trend entirely; it's what was available (notice, too, my pegged, pleated pants).
Readers, I must ask: How do you feel today about the oversized Eighties jacket -- and other oversized clothes in general? (If you were too young to experience it the first time, does it hold any allure whatsoever?)
Is this a look you'd like to see return? Or did it already return and I just missed the memo?
Oversized Eighties jackets -- YEA or NAY?
Oh god, they're awful. Not even David Byrne could pull that off now. The worst, though, is the pattern art from the 80s. Perhaps I just have bad associations with the whole decade, but I would say, "just say no to oversized 80s clothes."
ReplyDeleteThe middle kid on the mccalls 2804 envelope is a baby Bud Fox off Wall Street! Mesmerising!
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1975 and I cringe whenever I see 1980s regurgitated by the likes of H&M and TopShop and lapped up by today's teenager.
I would make an exception for the oversized jacket but not if you have a minute figure - which I understand you do.
Smaller frames look swamped by oversize fashion and it's very hard to look good that way.
Bigger frames can sometimes pull off oversize fashion but it's a difficult one. As a curvy 5'7" I spent years in oversize clothes and I cannot for the life of me work out what I was thinking! I have a waist so the definition is there, why didn't I do anything with it? Fool! :D
Last year I thrifted an oversized mens jacket that I used as a coat, but with denim shorts and Lonsdale boxing boots. They discovered I am severely flatfooted this year so the boots are out (no. support. at. all) and so is the jacket, but I can't say I am missing it.
I like them but I think that's partially to do with the fact that I didn't have to witness the eighties, and therefore these bad boys in all their glory.
ReplyDeleteThat look is bound to come back. It wasn't bad, back in the eighties, but it used a lot of fabric. The over-size shoulder pads were the biggest problem, in my opinion. Dynasty (TV show), anyone? ;o)
ReplyDeleteI was not a fan of the 80's clothes, let's hope they dont make a full comeback. But i really dislike ill-fitting clothes. I firmly believe that clothing too tight makes you look 10 lbs heavier, clothing too loose makes you look 5-10 lbs heavier and clothing that fits well makes you look at least 5 lbs slimmer. You cant go wrong with a nicely tailored jacket with some 80's inspiration if that's what you are going for. less costumey more retro.
ReplyDeleteAs an 80s girl who still misses her BIG hair, I long for the Working Girl look to come back. :-)
ReplyDeleteThen you'll love this:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlmIcnO_paQ
I'm with you Debbie! I LOVED the 80's. I lived my late teens and early twenties in that decade and had a GREAT time!
DeleteWhat I find about the 80's (so OK, maybe the jackets were a little on the large side) was that people dressed better than they do today. No grungy looks - but skirts/trousers with tucked in blouses and jackets, scarves and make-up. But it was all fun, young and bright. I have dozens of 80's patterns and I am currently watching the first series of NYPD Blue in my sewing room (early 1990's) and am loving the fashions - this period was a little less extreme, but still classy!
And your photo - you look like a young, slim Matthew Perry! Great pic!
NAY. NAY. NAY. (Except you look adorable in that pic - despite that oversized thing you were wearing!) And the show was Miami Vice. I was there the first time. Seriously, is there anyone who doesn't know that - even if they were a zygote at the time??
ReplyDeleteIn 1987, I spent $250 of my first pay packet after university on a Country Road jacket (Aussies will understand) which had shoulder pads you could land 747s on. Enormous shoulders, but the waist and hipline were nipped in, so it wasn't a complete sack. I loved that jacket at the time. Do I want to reprise that look, or the oversized look in general? No.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, I was thinking Miami Vice on the first 3 patterns. 80's fashions and 70's to an extent makes me laugh. My husband scolds me that I swoon over fashions from the 50's & 60's when watching say a Cary Grant movie, but ridicule Crocket & Tubbs at every opportunity. I think I just appreciate them in very different ways.
ReplyDeleteOh, no, no ,no!
ReplyDelete80's was even worse than 70's and I lived through both.
No.
Sure but not with the rolled sleeves.
ReplyDeleteNever dreamed you make a comment so late in the year.
DeleteBiting my tongue!
I always think of The Heathers when I try these on in the thrift store. It is only good if you have the WHOLE look and that means penny loafers with cuffed socks and plaid pleated skirts for me. For men, I only really like when it is done in a '40s style.
ReplyDeleteStep away from the pattern catalogues, Peter. No, no, no, no, no. Just no.
ReplyDeleteI kind of miss those. It was much easier to buy something that fit off the rack -- it just had to fit in the shoulders and you were good. I also think the big shoulders and oversized look gave women a lot more visual power, certainly more so than today's starved-model/Spanxx-strapped image. It emphasized the face and hands.
ReplyDeleteYou were a doll baby back then as well as now!
ReplyDeleteSo much nay. ENDLESS nay. Nay.
ReplyDeleteI have a boss who still has a few jackets like this that she wears. I realized one day in a meeting that most of her clothes are technically out-dated, but she's a good looking woman who exudes confidence and calm, so she comes off as strangely chic. When she walks in, a room full of screaming engineers will calm down and begin to discuss things rationally. It's like a superpower.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest of us mortals, I don't recommend the oversized jacket unless you are female, very thin and tall, and pair it with skinny pants. I do however roll the sleeves of my blazers up, especially in the summer.
Oversized may swamp a smaller body but it can make a taller, heavier person look like a refrigerator...ask me how I know. Only Sunny and Stubbs looked good in those super, drapey jackets.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say Nay. But I wasn't old enough in the 80s to be wearing those. I was wearing things more like this, this or this.
ReplyDeleteI like the length of the over sized jacket but the shoulder pads have to go!
ReplyDeleteewww, I didn't like oversized eighties jackets in the eighties. Thank god for punk.
ReplyDeleteThe 80's look was high waist pants and a cropped top with shoulders. Or leggings and a long sweater, flat heels on black strap and buckled boots. Sharp toes shoes came back in tropical colors. Oh and a poodle perm. I didn't ever wear a slouchy blazer. It wasn't a blazer time of life for me.
ReplyDeleteNooo! As an 80's kid we had our own questionable fashion. Anyone else remember the screen printed sweatshirts with matching skirts & attached leggings from Spumoni? But I missed out on the oversized jackets. As someone who's pretty petite and can look like a kid playing dress up in adult work clothes to begin with I definitely don't want this look coming back. Because if you don't look like you're playing dress up you're probably going to look sloppy and neither one is particularly desirable.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Peter -- you look so CUTE in that picture!!! Ok, but seriously, I agree with the prevailing sentiment that while the giant jacket + linebacker sized shoulder pads was bad then and is baaaaad now -- I like the concept of layering, oversized garments and scrunched up extremities on the garments. Think Helmut Lang's last 2 lineups -- clean, sophisticated, but with one garment oversized and bunched up (either at ankles or wrists).
ReplyDeleteOnly the mens crossover jacket - Burda 6406 has any redeeming value! That could be adjusted with smaller shoulder pads too.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I lived through that boxy decade and a couple before too. Not a time in my life where I needed any of those style of clothes, thank goodness. Not suitable for working on a commercial fish boat off the West coast of Canada !
Thanks to reading this earlier, I singing Spandau Ballet's GOLD all morning.....can't imagine going back to '80's fashion, but am enjoying a Spandau Ballet revival! I'm off to hunt out a greatest hits album (Crossing my fingers that it is a CD NOT a LP...can I be that old?)
ReplyDeletePlease Jebus, let that trend fade into fashion obscurity. As an "under tall" person, that look has always been easy for me to achieve. Just buy the size I'm supposed to wear and watch as the sleeves are miraculously 8" too long to begin with. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. Miami Vice. Ugh. My dad had one of those jackets. And he wore it just like Det. Crockett. Oy gevalt.
ReplyDeleteOh lord, those patterns bring back memories! At the time they seemed fine but in retrospect I regret all the years I spent hiding my curves under shapeless jackets! If you have boobs and a waist they just aren't flattering. On guys though they were ok if done right, it's a more natural silhouette. The exception for me was a jacket I made that was almost identical to the Burda 6406 up there, it was super-flattering and I wore it to death with my asymmetrical tops and tartan pleated pants, and my Flock of Seagulls haircut :D
ReplyDeleteYes to the sleeve roll and scrunch. No, no, no to the fake wide shoulders and looking like a little boy playing dress-up in a man's clothes. You were cute despite the pleated pants, though . . . . Elle
ReplyDeleteYou look adorable in the photo, like my older son, when he cared about clothes. Now it's the outdated Grunge Look. I am a DD, so appreciate getting the girls into a jacket, and being able to button it. But, I hate the over-size shoulder pads, and the armscye being way beyond where I need it. Too long doesn't work for me, but a bit of slouch is good. I often wore men's dress jackets, with a well-fitting, snug, long-sleeved T., and a long chiffon or georgette skirt, with boots. We can be ecclectic, and respect our bodies, choose proportions for us.... Cathie, in Quebec.
ReplyDeleteWow Peter you looked smokin' hot!
ReplyDeleteMelisa :)
Shoulder pads, were be thyne?
ReplyDeleteCometh back, and help the masses create the illusion of a nipped waste.
Those silhouettes were a riot, theatrics were in the air.
80s revival - BEGIN!!!
80's music, yes. 80's jackets, no.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'm a fan. I wore them the first time around, though! I had one that I loved; I wore that jacket to death, and I thought I looked HOT. Of course I was about 25 then, and now I'm 52. Looking at it now, I think it just looked kind of boxy. I'm not very tall, and I looked like a rectangle! (Sadly, I would look SQUARE if I wore one now. Sigh.)
ReplyDeleteCrockett and Tubbs always looked great wearing them, though. You did, too.
The only thing I remember and can see in my photographs was that I wore a lot of make up and everyone had really huge glasses. The glasses are back, some are bigger than my head.
ReplyDeleteLike anything, it's all in the proportion. The eighties padded shoulder look actually looks pretty good at the start of the trend-until we had the progression to the ridiculously HUGE shoulder pads the size of halved casaba melons(yes, Norma Kamali, I am looking at YOU)Once we got to "if-a-little-shoulder-is-good-then-much-much-more-is-better" things started to get all stupid, we knew we were at THE END of the TREND.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine anyone not already oversized can wear 'oversized'- provided the "oversize" is in proportion to the person themselves...and THAT'S THE TRICK, isn't it? Like shoulder pads! Hardly anyone looks good WITHOUT them, but hardly anyone DIDN'T look like an idiot in those football-player-sized ones that gave eighties style its BAD name!
I like the style of the boxy blazer with the low break, but not oversized. You could make one in a small size so it is more in proportion maybe? But set in sleeves not those awful raglan sleeves. Yeach.
ReplyDeleteOnly thing that looked nice in all those patterns was the dress on the Simplicity Easy-To-Sew pattern. That's kind of cute, but would be more so with a slightly more fitted bodice.
ReplyDeleteNay.
ReplyDeleteYea. Having had my teenage years in the 80s (I started with New Romantic and ended it with Hair Metal!) I look upon the 80s with fondness. Like every decade, there are items that should remain in the past and those that should be revived after having been 'rested'. I reckon that those soft linen unstructured jackets will be coming back at some point; I always thought that they looked great especially with the sleeves pushed up (I still do that with my jackets - you can take the girl out of the 80s...!!)Go on, go for it but perhaps leave out the over-sized shoulder pads!
ReplyDeleteI was in high school and college for most of the eighties. My general preppiness kept me away from the extremes of the time, but I did buy myself an oversized plaid blazer that I wore with a short, tight skirt and I thought I looked HOT.
ReplyDeleteI look at a particular 80's unisex overcoat from time to time, but the huge raglan sleeves scare me away every time. It would be nice to have the sweep of a huge coat with more normal shoulders. Another good reason to learn to draft my own patterns.
ReplyDeleteDreadful - don't do it! 80's fashion is awful and the oversized jackets are the worst culprits.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like oversized garments personally, because the armscyes were so huge, when you lifted your arms, the entire garment went up! A-noy-ing. I don't like the look, either.
ReplyDeleteEXCEPT for the more artistic, geometric clothes. Ok, so this one is just gravy.
Or Issey Miyake.
I love the pic of you!
You were adorable in the '80s! No wonder you want to go back (I kid; you're still adorable). My fave pic is the one near the bottom from a book, I think, where their heads look teeny tiny compared to their enormous jackets.
ReplyDeleteI have an oversized blazer I bought last year by Michael Kors that I like, but it's not huge like the blazer pictures you posted. I think the difference this time around is that even though the garments are baggy, they're not balloon sized and have a "fitted" element to them. I personally like wearing an oversized sweater or tunic with leggings and boots, but I guess that's because I wasn't old enough to experience it the first time around! I draw the line at stirrup pants though...I wore them in Kindergarten and never will again.
ReplyDeleteI vote Nay.... I am of the opinion clothing serves one or more of three purposes. (Psychologists say there is a fourth) ... 1.)Clothing is protection against the environment (warmth, rain, sun), 2.) an indicator of social status (more expensive, more worn by a certain class. This is particularly important in the business world), 3.) a sexual lure (i.e. accentuate certain parts of the body which one can not openly speak of in public) .... Psychologists add, 4.) a sexual inhibitor compared to everyone walking around naked 24/7...... Oversized coats pull duty only in #1 and #4..... for they offer perhaps more protection against the elements, and they certainly do make a body less appealing.... I vote Nay, except if I am COLD.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I LOVED the '80's. Loved the music, loved the colors, loved the spikey hairdos. Loved the Miami Vice/Zoot Suit inspired fashions. The edginess was so fun. But I hated the Dynasty knockoffs. Somehow I could never corollate the edginess of the above mentioned things with the insipidness of the floral, flow-y, floaty Dynasty look.....
ReplyDeleteall I can say is that my 17 year old daughter has "stolen" my last oversized slouchy brightly coloured jumper (aka sweater) and is wearing it in her graduation class group casual photo.
ReplyDeleteAwful, truly awful - don't go there, please!
ReplyDeleteno, no, no, no, no..the only adorable picture in this post is the one of you. I want to adopt you as my best friend. I'm glad I know you now, I wish I knew you then.
ReplyDeleteIt feels good to be adopted! :)
DeleteI wonder what happened to the companies that made all those shoulder pads in the 80's. As I've gotten bigger in some places I didn't mean to, slouchy has come back into my wardrobe. But, not shoulder pads. Be well this new year. Lane
ReplyDeleteHeh. I still have one of these jackets which I made for myself in the 80s out of black linen: collarless, with ginormous shoulders and an ample size which naturally made me look like a refrigerator. Every once in awhile I pull it out and try it on. At this point, all it would need to be viable would be strategically placed tent poles.
ReplyDeleteThat photo of you is ADORABLE! I think you absolutely pull off the oversized look!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I try to avoid most of the styles from the 1980s (except some of the 40s-esque stuff with a few alterations). I think oversized clothing makes most individuals look rather sloppy, although there are always exceptions to the rule.
I finally got around to going through the closet this last weekend, and found 3 80's jackets much like the ones in the Simplicity patterns. I waffled on keep/donate, and ended up keeping them. They are a lovely wool fabric, I keep thinking I can update them a bit. The 80s fashions will be back, I just hope the shoulder pads and oversized cut aren't quite so exaggerated next time around. More a nod to the 80s, not a full blown revival.
ReplyDeleteI miss oversized jackets and am a wholehearted Yea on this one (and was in 2012 as well, when the original post was published). I think you can do so much with an oversized jacket; both with emphasizing good points and in hiding flaws. I'm still sorry I got rid of the ones I had in the early nineties.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, they were comfortable as hell. You could sleep in them. Which is why I have had some jackets made along that line. They were called "baggy" in this corner of the world.
ReplyDelete