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.

I spent my birthday money on a hat like Tia and Tamera from Sister Sister. God knows why. It made my forehead itch.

A plum purple suede blazer. I thought it looked smart and sophisticated, but I actually just looked like Willy Wonka.

I've just remembered the Global Hypercolour T-shirts. I was desperate for one and bought one on a school trip to Germany.

They changed colour according to your body heat.

I was devastated to find out that invariably meant my armpits were a different colour to the rest of the T-shirt...

@TheChosenTwo

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 bloody loved Mark one! It was probably the first 'affordable' aka fast fashion shop I can remember. As a teenager I could suddenly afford a new outfit every month. Not great environmentally looking back but it helped with my creative outfit choices lol.

1987 I was 14 years old. My best friend at the time and me bought home perm kits from the chemist and permed each others hair. Then we backcombed the fringe and hairsprayed it to within an inch of its life. Nothing would have moved that fringe and I probably was a serious fire hazard 🤣 I had perms at the hairdresser after that. Good times 🤣

My parents had matching shell suits in the 80s. Could hear them coming a mile off as the material made a crunchy sound as they walked. Think my brothers also had them. I veered away from that style 🤣

I also shopped in Mark 1
Ooh the quality in there. Everything was very thin cotton with a lot of polyester/ nylon mix and probably highly flammable
It would all go out of shape or shrink the first time my nan put it on a hot wash and then she'd iron it and all the logos would come off
I circumvented these problems by never washing my stuff and blasting it with liberal quantities of Impulse spray instead.
Mark 1, Topshop, C&A, River Island and Dorothy Perkins were our main shops (don't think New Look existed and certainly not Primark). Next was aspirational. We'd scour the Next catalogue for inspiring looks but never be able to afford anything.
I also bought a lot of cheap at shirts at Market Stalls.
Never had the nack of finding anything nice in charity shops and still don't to this day.

Dungarees

The last time I was fashionable was in the mid to late 80's. I wore Benetton and GAP, and cool jumpsuits (nightmare to go to the toilet in), ra-ra skirts, went to roller disco and ice cream parlours with my mates and we'd wear pink lipstick, back comb our hair (my poor parents, I had very thick, very long hair!), a shit load of glitter and costume jewellery and think we were grown ups.....or Jem (remember Jem - that doll who was a singer that was more made up than a drag queen at Mardi Gras). I was age 6-9.

Age 11-13, I looked bloody ridiculous. I'd wear reject clothes of my older sister...except I didn't put them together like she did, so I just looked stupid. Add teenage acne, huge lack of confidence and plastic pink NHS specs....NOT a good look!!! I was able to borrow J17 and More magazine from my classmates though and that helped shift things to...

Age 14-16....grunge!!! Discovered makeup (thanks to magazines borrowed from classmates). Lots of army surplus, DMs...

From age 17....morphed into a semi-goth/burlesque type person (for nights out)....who also wore a lot of skateboarder/surfer/ mountain biking style clothing for everyday wear. I used to try and sneak out the house in the evenings so my folks (i.e. my mum. My dad was less bothered!) wouldn't see what I was wearing! This backfired massively one night circa 2am when my brother forgot I was out and bolted the door. My Dad found me halfway up a ladder, half-pissed and knocking on my brother's bedroom window with a rake. My best mate was holding the ladder steady. We'd come home from a burlesque party and looked like two extras from Moulin Rouge...oops. He still stayed cool with it though, bless him!!!

PS I love this thread :D I'm reading through all the posts and have a huge grin on my face

I had massive, properly huge down past mid thighs and wide, t shirts from The Body Shop and wore them with non fitted jeans. I must have looked like I was wearing a giant's outfit. I was just really awkward about my body or people knowing I even had a body.

Then I graduated to over sized band t shirts and baggy combat trousers. Sometimes a tight t shirt but only if I wasn't going to be around my mum as that's who gave me the complex about my body in the first place.

I loved the punk look (I still do, but now I try to keep things a bit more chic) and lived in tartan mini skirts, chunky boots and mesh tops with neon/leopard prints bras underneath. Hair always dyed a crazy colour, thick raccoon eyeliner and huge necklaces were must haves.
My leather jacket was worn to death, it had so many patches and badges. I wonder if the safety pins were for the aesthetic or if they were actually holding the poor old thing together.
My old best friend and I spent hours one weekend dyeing her grandfathers ties and sticking pins and badges to them. The amount of creepy old men that would stop us and say "ooh I like your ties" while blatantly drooling at our tits makes me feel ill 🤢😬

I considered myself quite the fashion plate growing up

Late primary was full on Madonna desperately seeking Susan phase. Had fingerless gloves, rara skirt, rags in hair, lip gloss.

Then tie die dungarees with bright cotton hoodie tops under and desert boots with Alice band. We listened to Betty Boo doin the do and knew all the words for the rap section. See also Lindy Layton dub be good to me.

Then grunge/indie kid. Vintage clothes that stank. Gypsy/hippie dresses, holey cardigans
The more riot girl look with babydoll dresses, bleached blonde hair in a blunt rough Bob, striped tights or fishnets ripped and or old prom dresses from Flip in Glasgow.

Went to uni and spent my loan on smart clothes from French connection, Sisley and red or dead. Got into clubbing. Wore mini skirts over trousers! Bought load of things from Morgan. Lived way out with my means and (thought) I looked amazing. Fake tan, highlighted hair. Low low rise sass and bide bootcut jeans and tiny little tops from diesel.

Wore black rimmed yellow lenses glasses with a silver fitted blazer from Warehouse with just a black bra under and a black mini skirt!

Thankfully not many pictures.

Ra Ra skirt with braces, over a vest top, lace fingerless gloves, lace footless tights, tukka boots. And hair, so much fucking hair permed within an inch of its life. No surprises for guessing this was the early 80s. 😂

Inspired by this thread I googled to see if anyone had ever willingly worn the offence against fashion that was my batwing jumper and puffball skirt but it appears nobody is stupid enough to allow it to be uploaded so here is something I cobbled together.
I went outside wearing this.
On purpose .
🤦

DS is rocking one of those nose length fringes, where the boys keep shaking their heads to flick it forward.

My 80's perm was so bouf I looked like Louis XIV, this followed a Wham Shirley wedge, and morphed via Dad's Brylcreme into a Palmer girl.

@IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves same, but with fishnets and a black trilby hat.

1980s I was a New Romantic. I wore a pair of baby blue knickerbockers with a long sleeved, white frilly shirt, shoes which looked like the Prince wears in Beauty and the Beast. My hair was short, cut around my ears and permed. I wore lip gloss and lashings of blusher.
After that I wore clothes trying to emulate Madonna in her Desperately Seeking Susan Stage. Black lace fingerless gloves, ribbons in my backcombed hair, black lace up boots, pink eyeshadow, blue mascara, a black cropped top, a long brown skirt with lace around the bottom, and masses of thin metal bangles and crucifixes around my neck!
I then turned to the goth look keeping some of the stuff from my Madonna phase(fingerless gloves, backcombed hair etc).
I do remember someone saying that even in a nuclear war, my hair would remain fixed in place! I used so much insett hair spray I should have had shared in the brand.

Disco pants, triple platform converse, bright yellow top and a quiff 😂🙄 Oh the shame

My teen uniform consisted of:

Red and black velvet poor boy hat.
Combat trousers.
Long black velvet coat.
Nirvana t-shirt.
Purple DMs.
Hair put into loads of tiny plaits each evening to create a massive ball of frizz.

I do miss my DMs to be fair.

[quote ZenNudist]@pecanmix what is a shag band?

That autocorrects to shame band![/quote]
Shag bands were thin plastic bracelets we all wore in the 00s. Different colours meant different things (kiss, sex, BJ etc) and when someone snapped one of yours it meant they wanted to do that with you.

I had them aged 13, God knows why as none of us had ever even properly snogged someone yet.

I was a teenager in the late 90s/00s. I remember blowing my entire savings on a straight-cut knee length coat from topshop, which came either in black with white buttons and white piping, or the reverse.

I bought the white coat and was totally bemused when literally everyone pointed out it looked like scrubs (not in a good way). I washed it once and it ran like buggery, so I took it back and lied through my teeth it'd run in the rain, as it was dry clean only and I'd no idea what that meant.

I am also still bitter that I bought a pair of gorgeous, thigh-hugging jeans ending in a delightful trendy bootleg, about one week before they became fashion untouchables.

I think my usual issue wasn't following fashion, though, it was not having any clue. I remember aged 14 or so I went to non-uniform day in wedge platforms, jeans, and a truly lovely red silk shirt I'd picked up for three pounds in the sale. I was channelling Nikki from Bad Girls and I assumed silk shirts were a perfectly mainstream look for a teenager in 1998. Not so. I got some very weird looks and comments and pulled a sickie at 10am because it was so obvious I'd got it wrong!

When I was about 12 I had a pair of red satin trousers, just like Sandy's from Greece. Everyone asked how I got them on and off as they were skin tight. Lycra, my friends, lycra.

My friends and I also carried all our school work in files, just like the pink ladies did in Grease. I actually thought I was in the film set of Grease. We didn't wear school uniform either so that helped me create the illusion in my head!!!

@Atalune Your fashion history is almost identical to yours, although loved grunge, I was more into house and clubbing at that time-slip dresses, knee high boots, Kangol etc.
Massive yes to Morgan and more smart wear and spending a fortune on clothes..at around 19/20 I think. Am guessing you’re around my age, 43, or maybe a bit younger?

*To mine!