The Plum Peacock: Bringing back the 80's

Hi folks! So, yesterday I was not feeling well. Amidst coughing, being stuffy, & feeling feverish I did manage to have a pretty decent day. One of the things that made me feel a little better was the music I was listening to. I have a very eclectic musical taste! I listen to all types, but I admit I love my country (especially Kenny Chesney).

OK, back to focusing on what I was saying & not on the Kenny picture. Yesterday I decided to play an old favorite: How Will I Know by Whitney Houston. I have to tell you I love Whitney! Her voice is so pure, & her songs are amazing (especially back in the day). So, one Whitney song led to another, and then another, and then another. Pretty soon I decided lets take Whitney to another level, lets listen to other "old" songs. Before I knew it I was playing "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo, "Walk Like An Egyptian" by The Bangles, & feeling totally out of "Control" by Janet Jackson! Yes, I was in an 80's frame of mind!

At some point in time, during my 80's music fest, I was even contemplating putting my hair in the "Pebbles" do! I think that was one part nostalgia, and one part meds talking! There is NO way I would ever do that to my hair willingly again. I will tell you that my Mom was a big fan of the Pebbles hair do. No! Not for her hair, but for mine! I have pictures of me with the Pebbles hair, the side ponytail, the bangs, & the dreaded perm! All of this hair was made possible, of course, by:

Besides loving UGA, & nascar, I also enjoy watching wrestling. Oh yes, I really just said that! One of my favorite wrestlers is Chris Jericho! In his WCW days he used to rock a mean looking Pebbles hair do! You can see that here:

Thankfully, he does not look like that now:

Just like Jericho: hairdo's change, music changes, & fashion changes! However, the 80's style is coming back! Last year, 2009, saw a lot of the 80's influence in design, & even in the toy market!
With fashion week in NYC over, there was still an 80's influence on design. "Some of the major designers debuted their 2010 fall collection looking back to the 80's while others preferred a more futuristic modern look," (Hollywood Today online magazine). Ralph Lauren & Tommy Hilfiger were two of the designers that featured designs in their collections with the 80's influence. Also, the 80's influence can be seen in the upcoming movie Sex & The City 2. Here is one of the released photos from the movie:

For the remainder of this blog we will take a look at popular fashions of the 80's & their sleeker, more modern counterparts of today. Lets start with the one accessory that keeps our life in order: the watch! There were two major 80's watch companies: Swatch & Timex. I LOVED swatch watches! I remember I had to have one in every color, & design! I would wear them all the way up to my elbow (as every other girl did). Here is a look at Swatch then:

Here is Swatch now:

Not bad, the only difference in Swatch now is the colors are more vibrant & vivvid! They are also more streamlined, & all similar is size. www.swatch.com
Sticking with accessories, the bracelet! I loved my bracelets, still do! In the 80's there were the jelly bracelets, the glitter bracelets, & the charm bracelets. While I liked the jellies & the glitter ones, I LOVED the charms! Every time we went shopping I HAD to have a new charm for my bracelet! Now, I am not talking about some glitzy, expensive, gold/silver charm bracelet. I am talking about one that looked like this:

In fact I think I had every one of those charms! Today charm bracelets are very much back in business! And today there is a charm for every occasion! There are also charm bracelets for every price point. This is one from Juicy Couture, www.juicycouture.com, that I think is pretty & feminine:

You can certainly see the difference between the two! One is plastic, with cheap charms. The other is sleek, modern, & sets in gold. Still, I would not trade my plastic 80's charm bracelet for anything (though I would never wear it in public).
Leaving accessories behind, moving to the feet. One thing I love is shoes! When I was a little girl I loved my jelly shoes! I had them in every color! I had to wear them all the time! Another kind of shoes I had to have in every color were my "bubblegum" Reeboks! No girl could be without her Reeboks!

So how have Reeboks changed? Not too much. Just last Spring Reebok introduced a line of shoes influenced by "Kool-aid". The colors look almost the same as back then. The biggest difference is the colors are less vibrant, the shoes are not as high, & the laces are not as thick. www.reebok.com/US/

For the finale, I have to talk about the clothes! There were so many different styles that were popular in the 80's. One style that I wore a lot during that time was the dreaded "Hammer" pants. I can't believe I just admitted that! Yes, I was a fashion crime waiting to get locked up!

At least today they don't look quite so bad! Honestly, I still would never wear them! At least through the lens of this picture we can see how fashionable they can look.

One last fashion that I could NOT live without in the 80's was my tee shirts! Tee shirts have been popular in any decade! During the 80's there were many styles of the tee that were loved. One style in particular struck a cord with me. I loved my splatter paint tees! I thought they were the coolest looking things! What was even more fun than buying one, was making one yourself! Making my own splatter tee was something I enjoyed back then. Today the splatter paint is back! Just have a look at these: