70s or 80s? which decade committed the biggest crimes against fashion?

[butterfly2015]

I was a teenager in the 80s. I have photos of me wearing pedal pushers, puffball skirts and wearing far to many ribbons in my very perked hair.

Having just watched some show on the 70s and witnessed men wearing pink (dp says it's salmon not pink) flares and spangly shirts I actually think the 70s was far worse and I had a lucky escape (as anything pre 1980 I can blame on my mother buying for me)

'Fess up. What's your worst fashion disaster and am I right? Are the 70s the worst decade in terms of "style"?

I wasn't born til the 80's so most of the fashion passed me by. I did get a Kylie Minogue t-shirt for my 8th birthday, though, and lived in it. And I had yellow and pink fluorescent bermuda shorts, I fell off my bike in the back garden and landed on a dog poo whilst wearing them and they had to be thrown away. My first ever heartbreak.

1980s was worse by a country mile.......Shell suits! And Mrs T.

I was a teen in the 70s. I loved the smock tops but not the oxford bags.

My own 70's fashion (male) "highlights"...

Brown cordhroy
Platform shoes
Safari cardi (a la Starsky)
Penny round collars
Petrol blues/or red baggies
Loons
Safari jacket
Bomber jacket
Very high/thick waistband on trousers ( about 6 buttons high?)
Adidas trainers
Velvet jacket
Massive knots on ties

oh lordy...

Finally. At least something good about being born and growing up in USSR. Never had to witness all the awful clothes in the 80s - everybody were wearing the same clothes for 5 decades. My mum had managed to go to school disco in my gran's teenage years dress and everyone thought it's stylish.
Win!

yy to 80s fashions being middle aged and frumpy. But it was quite lovely being a teenager before grooming was invented! A slick of blue mascara Rimmel spot cover and we were good to go.

EstRusMum that's really interesting.
It was common knowledge in the 80s that you could sell
Levi's in Russia for £200, but you had to cut the labels off otherwise you'd get arrested on entry!

80s teen here too.

70s - Mostly pretty dire IMO. The photos of my mum in her headscarf and flares And the 'glam rock'? Massive sparkly platforms? David Bowie was the only one who mad a cat suit look ok as far as i can tell.

The 80s were full of different styles. Mods made a come back with little skirts and round neck jumpers under the (fashionable again) green parker, grungy rock was there, the beginnings of goth if you were lucky enough to get to the shops which sold the stuff (me), the proper punk from the 70s - mohican hair + torn taren, the Pringle/Lacost label freaks (diamond pattern jumper, pleated skirts and sling backs), the 'pop' look - the famous day glo fingerless gloves, spiky hair, leg warmers and ra ra skirts, the new-romantics with their many scarves and pale faces ... there was so much to choose from

• torn tarten

I had a white boiler suit which I wore with red stilettos, red belt, red bangle, red button earrings and finished off with one of those plastic red bags which were full of holes. Quite possibly the most useless bag ever but every girl had one and the landfill sites are probably full of them. I had the plastic shoes too.

men wearing pink

And? Why can't men wear pink?

70s. Awful awful awful.
I was old enough to buy my own clothes through most of the 80s and some of it was quite fun (coral pink dungarees...)

I've still got a black wool, fully lined skirt I bought in 1985. Classic shape, still looks good (still fits!). I have a few of my DM's things from the late 60s. But nothing from the 70s has made it through...

The whole sentence was pink flares and pink spangly tops. I have no issue with men wearing pink. But the outfit I saw was very sort of glittery and pink and quite frankly, hideous.

Please don't turn this into a gender issue.

The clothes from the 50s and 60s were mainly gorgeous. All those lovely 50s dresses and the geometric designs from the 60s.

Then the while country just lost all sense of taste for the best part of 20 years. Especially the 70s.

My dad had a purple shirt and the wings of his collar stuck out right across to his shoulders. We have photo evidence. He also had sideburns.

Ha Butterfly I'm loving the description of your white boiler suit outfit!

Was your dad wearing a suit of the shade known as 'dog shit brown' or even better a sports coat?

What about those orange paisley shirts? and Chelsea boots?

Even the 40's fashion was better than the 70's and 80's.

Remember the Sloane Ranger/Lady Di look in the early 80's? and all those City Trader wannabes in their red braces?

I have to say Marc Bolan pulled off his look with an aplomb no-one else could ever hope to achieve.

Ooh that reminds me - my mum gave me a pair of her original early 60 'wing side' dark black sunglasses when i was a teen. Plus an original pair of 50s black winkle pickers (high stilettos with a little flare at the bottom of the very thin heel and ridiculously very pointy toe). Where are they now?? I'd love to have them again.

Mid 80s they looked amazing and i was always being asked where i got them. I'd wear them with mini skirt, ripped fishnets, t.shirt, original 60s mans suit jacket, studded belts bright red lips, blond bob and a permanent scowl Fabulous!

Hard to say. I straddled the 70s and 80s and they were both fairly dreadful.

brown cord dungarees (flared of course)
a red velvet dress with huge lace collar - and I mean HUGE. I could have jumped off a cliff and flew with that bugger.
a batwing jumper with a puffball skirt
etc etc

I think my mum dressed me for the laughs.

I have evidence.

Red braces complete with filofax and then a "brick phone". I dated a guy who had the braces and the filofax. He was an estate agent. He did let me drive his Toyota corolla though. About his only redeeming feature really.

I had a Frankie t-shirt. Who didn't?

I'm not sure what my dad was wearing below the purple shirt with wings, he was in a rowing boat. It was probably dog shit Brown though.

Was there a sort of dog shit brown material mountain in the 70s? It might explain a lot. I put the excess of Orange down to people trying to bleach the brown stuff and this was the resulting colour.

I had a lovely brown and orange dress when I was about 8 (1977) which was swirls and paisley and I adored it. I told my mum I was going to keep it and let my daughter have it when I grew up. Same as another lovely dress in a pale blue in Really itchy material and a huge lace collar. It was ankle length. It's fucking awful. If I'd tried to force my kids into them they'd have phoned childline.

fenella, it's not too late to report her for cruelty to children :o

it's really not!

Oh gosh, I remember punk!
My friend had a much older brother and their house was always full of weirdly clad young men trying their best to look menacing

Her brother would rip holes in his perfectly serviceable jeans and get me to sew on his patches and zips.

My best memory is of my 2 year old sister sitting on the lap of a spiky purple-haired mohican while he read her a fairy story - and the rest of his leather and ripped tartan, chained and studded mates listened with rapt attention.
You could have heard a safety pin drop

I would hold the mid to late 1990s in greater contempt, just because the fashions were so beige and nothingy. At least in the 70s and 80s they made a statement with their clothes.

That's mainly what I remember about the 70s. Orange. Clothes, lipstick, curtains, walls, furniture, carpet. All orange.

And maroon. My boyfriend at the time had two-tone maroon and pink loons.

The 70s wins hands down.

Today's fashion is pretty terrible. The artificial fibre stretch fabric dresses that cling and look terrible no matter how expensive they are.
Pencil skirts are pretty awful.

Love that story tanith! Bless their macho little souls