I internally sniggered at a teenager today. Confess your worst teenage style disasters here.

[waltzingparrot]

She'd piled all her hair up on her head in an amazingly tall Marge Simpson do. I was both completely mesmerised and internally sniggering at the same time.

Then I remembered I used to actually go out wearing plumbers overalls, accessorised with a cheap red, wide plastic belt.
Tied red bandana round hair like Bananarama/Dexys/Hilda Ogden
Wore long dangly chain earrings with red balls on the end the size of a grape
Red canvas shoes
Pink and red eyeshadow
Blue lipstick

Essex 1980s.

Confess your style disasters here.

Patchwork trousers, "hippy tops", DMs and a hideous velvet hat. Sometimes all at the same time. And I wondered why I couldn't find a boyfriend 🤣

I was at uni early 90s and worse the aforementioned patchwork trousers and my going out outfit was a denim skirt, DMs, cheesecloth second hand top. Rommel black cherries and palest foundation I could get from beauty without cruelty.

I attended a 'wear what you want to school' day in the 80s, I was about 14.

You could pay 20p to wear ordinary clothes or 50p if you wore fancy dress.

I pitched up in a bright blue tracksuit, one green legwarmer and one pink, cleverly enhanced with black thick high heeled shoes. I thought I was the height of sophistication and fashion.

I was charged 50p.

Those big gold ingot pendants

Well this has been a fun and frightening read.

Seems after the garish 80s/90s fashion, teenagers have actually toned it down a bit.

But, reading through all these outfits, although it’s possible many of them weren’t, erm, quite carried off with the necessary style and aplomb, they nearly all sound interesting, adventurous and creative- kind of how teenagers should dress, really. I’m a bit taken aback by how bland the fashions for teenagers are nowadays. DS1’s getting acquainted with secondary day coincided with GCSE results day, and the crowd of waiting teenagers outside the school was just a big sea of beige .

I have many, many “interesting “ and “creative” outfits to look back on - at the age of 14 my friend and I used to go around wearing collarless white shirts, short black lycra mini skirts, thick black tights, clumpy black shoes, WW2 battle dress jackets , Greek fisherman’s caps and bright red lipstick 😆

@crackofdoom

But, reading through all these outfits, although it’s possible many of them weren’t, erm, quite carried off with the necessary style and aplomb, they nearly all sound interesting, adventurous and creative- kind of how teenagers should dress, really. I’m a bit taken aback by how bland the fashions for teenagers are nowadays. DS1’s getting acquainted with secondary day coincided with GCSE results day, and the crowd of waiting teenagers outside the school was just a big sea of beige .

I have many, many “interesting “ and “creative” outfits to look back on - at the age of 14 my friend and I used to go around wearing collarless white shirts, short black lycra mini skirts, thick black tights, clumpy black shoes, WW2 battle dress jackets , Greek fisherman’s caps and bright red lipstick 😆

I think one of the reasons so many young people are heavily into coming out as non-binary / choosing neo-pronouns etc is because fashion and music seems so staid and conformist compared to previous decades, so it’s one of the few ways they have to rebel.

Perm. 1980's. Say no more.

@Marmelace

Late 80s, blue hair, chain from nose to ear, dms, fishnets, silver and black fairy dress with lots of web like lace. Still wear big boots.

@Marmelace Were you never worried you'd get your chain caught and yank it out?

All those fashions with chains from body part to body part make me go cold. What if you bent down to pick up your bag and it gets caught round the chair and next thing you know you're holding your chain with a bit of your ear on one end and a bit nose on the other. Boak.

@waltzingparrot I never actually thought about it. I pierced my own nose, needle and frozen sausage to numb it, goodness knows how I didn't lose my nose. I often wonder how I managed to turn out such well adjusted sensible sons.

@Marmelace Frozen sausage

[quote Marmelace]@waltzingparrot I never actually thought about it. I pierced my own nose, needle and frozen sausage to numb it, goodness knows how I didn't lose my nose. I often wonder how I managed to turn out such well adjusted sensible sons.[/quote]
I did my first nose piercing myself too!! The night before my first GCSE (1993). I used a sewing needle, an ice cube and a ear stud!
It took me about an hour and as soon as my mum saw it she insisted I took it out. I refused because it had taken me so long to do so she let me get away with it!
I now have 4 rings in the right side of my nose (VERY outing here!).

I guess my biggest clothing faux pas from my teen years would be the men's black trench coat I used to wear everywhere! I'm 5ft 2 so the bloody thing drowned me, but I thought I looked SO cool in my trench coat, skintight black jeans and DMs.

I was chuckling away at you before realising I used to go clubbing in a silky lilac (no doubt polyester) nighty and knee high boots hair in space buns and sprayed with glitter.
Also a couple of years later I loved a navy blue boiler suit with poppers (I think it was from Mark One, anyone else remember that shop? Maybe changed its name to MK1?!) which I wore open at the top to reveal a neon Orange bra - by this stage I had chopped all my hair off in the style of posh spice, a very short crop, and obviously looked the bees knees.
By comparison although dd1 may go for some strange outfits I’m glad she doesn’t want to leave the house wearing her underwear on display

I had the 80s perm as well. My Mum decided to pay for a perm as I had to do a public speaking competition and she was very proud of that and said I could have my new hair for the competition. I want a long perm but only had shoulder length hair as my Mum never let me grow it longer. The hairdresser then cut off around 3 inches from my hair and permed it. It only went to just below my ears and looked like a poodle. I started crying when asked if I liked it knowing I was also going to have to make a speech that day infront of 200 people. My Mum did the usual Mum thing of trying to insist it looked lovely but even she couldn't keep that up for long and it went to it will grow out and won't the curls at the end looks lovely.

Pffft snorting at so many of these. I was a teenager in the late 80s - straight cut jeans, occasionally bleached or ripped at home, baggy denim shirts tucked in and pouffed out at the waist (oh, the days that I had a waist). Pixie (Tucker?) boots. Bouncy hair.

I did have a preppy look that I was proud of - beige chinos, clumpy shoes, white polo neck, navy blazer from a charity shop. It was all the rage and I thought I thought I looked great, added a couple of hula hoop sized earrings to that little ensemble. I was the absolute shit.

But I hit a punk phase in 1989 and took to wearing tight mini skirts, short boots, stripey tights, ripped sweaters or skimpy vests and tons of black and silver jewellery. Obligatory tatty messenger bag containing Walkman and headphones. Massive crimped quiff dyed black or pink and held up with a vat of hairspray.

Ah, happy days.

So many velvet "vintage" jackets. Where did they came from? Where did they go?

I also looooved my big hoop earrings.

The worst though we're the bodysuits with popper crotch.

@celticecho I ended up with nipples and tongue, all out now, don't wear any jewellery anymore, neuropathy means it annoys the life out of me. Still got the tatts though.

The worst though we're the bodysuits with popper crotch

Oh god yes! After a few rushed trips to the loo after too many Malibu and oranges where I’d have panicked drunken attempts to unpop them I’d leave the poppers undone and tuck the ends down into my stonewashed Pepe jeans for ease of access. Classy.

Batwing jumper and puffball skirt
I need say no more.

OMG The perms!!!

Various phases: I had a shell suit. It was mint green with lilac.

Then when I had a phrase of liking Bros (cringe) I had Grolsch bottle tops on my boots for a few months.

Then I discovered alternative/indie music and a lovely shop selling tie dyed, patchwork or skirts with tassels on and I lived in that. I loved those patchwork trousers. Often had a band tshirt to match it. I remember going to the Merry Hill shopping centre in those trousers and getting funny looks from loads of people. I thought they were all the losers in that moment

I think one of the reasons so many young people are heavily into coming out as non-binary / choosing neo-pronouns etc is because fashion and music seems so staid and conformist compared to previous decades, so it’s one of the few ways they have to rebel
You might be onto something there.
I realised a few years ago that there doesn't seem to be the same subcultures in school that there was when I was a teen, and many of our subcultures were closely linked to music.

KloppsTeeth
Patchwork trousers were great. I had a pair of jeans with patchwork up the leg on one side, and down the leg on the other. The ensemble was styled with those tiny butterfly clips and a healthy dose of spray on hair glitter.

Hot pants with gladiator sandals.🥴

I remember wearing ripped denim hot pants with opaque black tights, chunky black shoes and a shearling flying jacket in the 90's thought I looked fab probably looked bloody stupid !!

Perm. 1980's. Say no more.
Ah yes. I also coveted Trisha Yates from Grange Hill's hair - a sort of long pageboy with the ends curled out like guttering for the face