80s fashion question from a baffled Trebizon reader

[Sluggish]

I was a big fan of old boarding school stories in my 90's childhood, but I guess the Trebizon series was too modern because I missed them, and am just catching up with them now.

I'm currently reading "Boy Trouble at Trebizon" (first published 1980) and aside from annoyance at the titular boys (Mallory Towers never had these problems...) I am mostly just agog at Rebecca's party outfit. I need some help to make sure I'm picturing it properly.

"It was a long dark green skirt and pale green shirt and matching dark green waistcoat to go over it. Rebecca tried the outfit on and could have cried because it looked so beautiful". To this ensemble she adds a "silk tie".

Everyone loves it. Robbie is rendered inarticulate by it ("You look...you look good"). Another friend brands it "stunning". I also think it sounds fabulous, but I need to know, in 1980:

1. is the silk tie likely to be an actual neck tie, like a school or man's tie?
2. what fabric/finish would the skirt, waistcoat and shirt have?

In my mind's eye the waistcoat has green embroidered patterns and the tie is a typical necktie, and Rebecca's party outfit is what I would wear for a business meeting with the King of the Elves. Those who remember 80s teen fashion in the UK, am I right?

unashamedly following and hoping for pictures

I think you need to think more of 70s fashion, or late 70s. This would have been spot on for maybe more conservative girls. Polyester.

Actually you’re right. This sounds a lot like my mother’s wedding outfit from 1976

Something like this

I love these!

Thank you. I have mentally added a crackle of static electricity from the polyester to the outfit.

Oooh, here we go. I'm still hoping a more masculine tie is a possibility, but I do like that scarf as an option.

Think thick ribbon/thin sash....

Silk and velvet were acceptable, as were brushed cotton dresses....

I’m picturing more a Laura Ashley vibe, maybe velvet. Might the tie be more of a ribbon, like you would use to fasten a pie crust collar blouse? It all sounds rather fetching!

On that note, baffled & fetching are the type of words you’d only ever read in such books. I’ve never heard anyone using such jolly hockey sticks language IRL.

I would love this outfit to be velvet, though I feel it might have been mentioned if it was. I should have said, the outfit was purchased by her grandmother because "There's bound to be something special on at Christmas", though Rebecca ends up wearing it to the Halloween Ball. So I feel a heavy fabric like velvet would work.

Massive Trebizon fan here. I always pictured the tie as being more of a sash and going round her waist than her neck.

Not sure if this helps but Chat GTP made me this based on your description

I was thinking more silk scarf like a tie, but despite being a massive Trebizon fan, I don't particularly remember this, and am not at home to check (in my books which I was allowed time off school so we could go and see Anne Digby at a local book fair, and she signed them all!)

I am neither very jolly or any good with a hockey stick, sadly.

But Laura Ashley is a good shout. I googled "Laura Ashley Vintage Waistcoat 70s" and it came up with this fabulous velvet number, which is basically a black version of what I am picturing

Yes, this is stunning. The big hair really adds a little something, too.
I might just start dressing like this.

No it doesn't help. That is literally nothing like how it would look.

It might be referencing a pussy bow tie, which were quite popular around then. I also wore blouses with a velvet ribbon tied in a bow - about 1/4 inch wide.

Green velvet or fine cord skirt, fairly full. I seem to recall we wore them with white cotton petticoats underneath. The following year it was ra-ra skirts then puffballs.

My image reading that was a big floppy bow thing that some schools had as uniform still in the 90s/00s. (For girls, at keast where I lived)

Luckily for you I was responding to the OP who did find it helpful so... 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks for the thoughts on the tie. I'm a little sad to let go of my office-chic-at-the-party vision, but a big floppy pussy-bow is still great in its own way.

Also remember that Rebecca had long blonde hair (and maybe green eyes?) so it would have looked super-striking

What would it look like?

This is hilarious and, for Antonia Forest fans, up there with Nicola Marlow's long pleated cream dress (also described as looking stunning).

Nothing is as alien as the recent past!

Cream pleats falling from a high yoke … and the dresses they get for Christmas with capes !

I wore a man's tie to a lot of night clubs in the 80s. I think the waistcoat would be a fine woolen (or wool effect) material, like a man's suit. Not fancy or embroidered.

It think the ChatGPT pic is quite accurate, although I woud have worn it more scruffy and less buttoned up. The tie knot would have been lower, under a shirt collar with a few buttons open.