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?

It's exactly what I envisaged and I lived through the 80s

Yes, I was surprised PP was so sure it was wrong.

Antonia Forest is also on my to-read list (I've only read "Autumn Term"). These dresses sound like real show-stoppers

I'm enjoying this thread SO much.

I have a sil who is constantly baffled , most recently by some real howlers she found in a report .

I fondly remember inhaling the description of how the Bobsy twins fashioned their pyjama trousers ( dark yellow from.memory ) into shorts by cutting the.legs down and ironing a crease into them.
This was too create an outfit that they could run away in .

I think because I dared to admit it was AI generated 🙄

Some hopeful googling on the tie front has turned up this vision in wool. It's both not from the UK (German?) and a little bit too school-uniformish for what I want for Rebecca, but I wanted to share it because I'm enjoying the ties and these ladies' head-to-toe commitment to brown.

It was a long dark green skirt and pale green shirt and matching dark green waistcoat to go over it.
I had a skirt / waistcoat combo in the late 70s / early 80s. The waistcoat was single-breasted and very fitted, no lapel. The skirt gave dirndl vibes: very full, mid-length, gathered to a waistband (we had waistbands on the waist back then, low-rise was yet to appear. No elastication, either). The fabric was a coarse wool weave in dark green.

I can't remember what I wore underneath it but I can imagine it was some Lady Di / Laura Ashley / Edwardian revival number. I can also imagine a pussy-bow tie.

@Sluggish Fabulous !!

This sounds absolutely perfect, it's THE outfit. Perhaps sometime in 1979 Anne Digby saw you swirl elegantly by and thought "Eureka!".

Perhaps sometime in 1979 Anne Digby saw you swirl elegantly by and thought "Eureka!".
I very much doubt it.
I don't often venture into S&B, it's not my natural habitat!

That’s more your 1970s Chalet School look. Though I doubt the (excellent) boots would meet with approval.

This is vibrant!

www.myvintage.uk/product-page/1970s-vintage-boho-green-maxi-skirt-waistcoat-2pc-suit-set-size-10-12?srsltid=AfmBOorQp1SD3hYj1MnNTR4i9fTmYwoeeqhOkgcFlXwvpOsUTOG55L3l

Same.

Melons is just being supercilious 🤣

@Sluggishthank you for such an enjoyable post !

Good find! I had a look about in the 70s section of the site and found this velvet version: https://www.myvintage.uk/product-page/1970s-vintage-gina-fratini-velvet-waistcoat-maxi-skirt-co-ord-size-6-8

It was clearly quite a look.

Ah, yes! That was maybe where I was getting the 'school uniform' vibes from - the brown and flame uniform the Chalet girls were somehow delighted to wear.

That feels more like it, perhaps with a floppy silk oversized tie.

I was always a bit sad Trebizon tailed off at the end.

In the 80s I had a blue/ green skirt - yoked, so nipped in at the waist but very long and full. Green shirt that tucked in, sleeves were full but had cuffs. Made of a kind of soft fabric.

Fitted waistcoats were definitely "in" - for both men and women.

Lots of velvet and also fine corduroy.

Oh and thin silk neckties were around too- that's what I imagined rather than a bow

I worked in an old fashioned place in the 90s, the uniform was a pencil skirt with a blouse that had a cravat attached. Had to wear court shoes, too. No elastane back then, either!

Silk shirts became a thing in the second half of the 80s - silk carries colour well - I had a pale green one. And very fine needlecord was used for dresses, skirts, trousers, no doubt waistcoats as well. Had some structure but still draped.

I read all the Trebizon books (and still have them!), and the pics at the beginning of the thread are definitely more Rebecca-esque, and fitting to when the books were published than the ChatGPT-imagined version. I definitely think she’d be more pussy bow than man’s tie.

I had an outfit very similar to the one @StressyMcStressFace posted in the late seventies, maybe '77 ? It was in a kind of burgundy/purple colour, the waistcoat was corduroy and the skirt was heavy cotton, I wore it with a cream pure silk man's shirt I had bought in a charity shop and I'd turned it into a blouse and put lace inserts into the sleeves. I think I got the skirt and waistcoat from Etam !
I don't remember wearing a tie, although I do remember some blouses coming with a very thin tie attached, more like a ribbon or one of those western/cowgirl type of ties.

God I was cool 😁