All my friends have one ….. (lighthearted)

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

Inspired by another thread, and being laid up on day 10 of a chesty virus which has put me on my arse, but feeling marginally better so…..

I’m in my 50s so completely out of the parenting / teen trend loop, but the thread about North Face coats took me right back to when I was about 14 and my Holy Grail was a pair of flat black patent ballet pumps with a bow…..

Oh how I begged and pleaded. My DM (rest her soul) was a stickler for rules and sensible footwear, and when we couldn’t get the right sort of sensible shoes one term she even took me to an “old lady” shoe shop for the most hideous pair of clunky T bar shoes I had ever seen…. Obviously very character building….. 🤣🙄

I remember my Step Dad came to pick me up from school when I was pursuing the patent pumps, and he gleefully reported he hadn’t seen anyone else wearing them so I was denied again…..

If memory serves my Nana saved the day in the end, causing minor friction, but I wore those shoes until they fell apart…..

So, back in the day, what was the thing that you absolutely had to have to win street cred among your peers?

Oh wow - so much nostalgia here - brilliant thank you 😊

Been asleep for about five hours because although my cough has diminished a bit I developed light sensitivity and now my sinuses are packed and my ears hurt…. Can’t believe a “cold” can go on for so long….. 🙄

I’m also in the camp of now having too many clothes (mostly secondhand) that reflect the not being allowed to dress up etc which was partly due to money and partly due to weird parental inverted snobbery….. in fact I’m now a hardcore vintage Goth with a sort of Peaky Blinders / Stevie Nicks vibe….

Velvet is my drug of choice….. and I don’t give two hoots when I get called out for being eccentric 🤣

I had to wait till my 40s for my proper teenage rebellion after being a good daughter, wife and mother and everything still going tits up.

By Goddess I’ve earned my fripperies!!

I mean now, I've seen people wearing them now. Obviously when they were new I bet they were lovely. Obviously tastes change I I'm amused that some still wear them now.

A couple of mentions for pixie boots in burgundy! Mine were burgundy too, as were my leg warners. There was a depressing proliferation of burgundy in the early-mid eighties!
When I wasn't wearing pixie boots I'd have been wearing very pointy kitten heeled court shoes to school, heel about 1.5 - 2 inches high. I wore them all day and walked for miles. Doubt I could manage 100 yards in a pair now.

My sister and I DESPERATELY wanted jelly shoes. But we were not allowed them as they would “make your feet sweat”?! I bought some as an adult and instantly got horrific blisters from them rubbing on my feet!

@MistyRock , they weren't lovely like Kickers or Adidas Kick trainers were, and weren't things to nag your parents about but they were different and new enough to wear to school.

I can remember when Air Wairs (Dr Martens) weren't cool. I think they might have had steel toecaps.

I'm really going to age myself here...tartan bondage trousers with ripped T-shirt and DMs.

Oh God burgundy and grey was a definite 80s thing.

I also remember when Diana came on the scene and suddenly that upper class style filtered down.

On a rare shopping trip for a “naice” dress with my Mum I ended up with a sort of drop waisted light grey number with a box pleated skirt and a Peter Pan collar. She used to get a heavy discount at House of Fraser because she and my Step Dad worked there.

I think one of the labels that was remotely youth friendly in our towns big department store was Mondi - one year the collection was all red and a weird sort of khaki / grey……

What was it they called all the Diana wannabes? There was a term but it escapes me …..

Oh my goodness, I was desperate for a pair of these when I was about 8 - my Mum classed them as slip ons still though which were definitely not allowed in her mind.

And the clarks shoes with a key in the heel.

Kickers school shoes. We always got bought Brantano (? Could be wrong on the brand but it was the basic one from a shoe shop) and I always begged and begged for Kickers. One year there was a not very nice pair of Kickers reduced to as low as Brantano and so I was allowed them. I absolutely loved them, although on hindsight they probably didn't look very nice!

For me it was more things I definitely did not want! In the early to mid 90s, shell suits and Naf Naf jackets were the thing at school, I was a teenager and much more alternative. My parents are quite young and they bought shell suits and Naf Naf jackets for themselves and my younger siblings and I point blank refused to be involved. My dad had a video camera and there are family videos from that time with the rest of the family clad head to toe in fire hazard clothing and me skulking around in the background in leggings or tight jeans, band t shirts (usually GnR or similar) and DMs and pretending not to know them 😂

Sloane rangers?

And I love the word 'fripperies'.

Yes! Thank you @Endwalker

Sloane Rangers - that was it!

Hairbands, cashmere crew neck sweaters and little pearl necklaces as I recall…. Very polished…..

I have never been a polished person so I swerved that one …..

I don’t remember anything in particular when I was at secondary school, I think I just wore my own (unfashionable) thing.

however, at primary school in early 80s, felt berets were all the rage and I desperately wanted one. Some of my friends had a few in different colours, I was very envious!

Kickers shoes; Jane Norman PE bag; Helly Hanson jacket; CAT or Diesel pencil tin (that people would then tipex their names all over). Any kind of mobile... They'd only just became a thing when I was at high school! 😱

Anyone elses mum follow up the all my friends have one with... Well if all your friends were walking off a cliff would you do it too?!

How is that the same 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

My sister had those. They were bright red and she called them her Ruby Slippers!

Part of my school uniform in the early to mid 80s was a burgundy jumper.

Do any of you remember ski jumpers? We all had those in the early 80s, all bought from market stalls. They were usually in burgundy or navy and had a white band around the chest with skiers on.

Oh I remember the trend for sheepskins A LA Delboy pref in dark brown though, everyone had one before we moved on to the next must have "a levver" from the market

When I was at high school in the mid to late 70s advertising tote bags were in usually martini or cinzano - yellow was my favourite cover so I had a white horse whiskey one - then hessian bags with slogans such as stolen from….or prisoner number xx Alcatraz
kickers obviously but we weren’t allowed them at school
my parents were actually ok with stuff like that but were strict on other things
I desperately wanted to perm my hair, dye it, have pierced ears or wear more make up than they thought was respectable

Kickers and the bag they came in.
If you had several tags on your little boots you were cool

This. Ridiculously high heeled, clunky, heavy (for a 14 year old school girl) kickers.

Girls wear much more sensible shoes for school now, its a good thing.

Baby G Watch

@MilkyYay , the Kickers boots were flat, and looked like this

I never got a gypsy skirt.
I did get some DMs but I was desperate for the skirt to go all goth. I'd have made a crap goth though.

Yes, lots of burgundy early 80s. I had the suede pixie boots, legwarmers and cord knickerbockers. There was also a craze for gypsy style scarves, usually black or burgundy, with gold thread running through it. Looked like a member of Spandau Ballet. Also waffle jumpers were big around the same time. We also liked to dye our hair burgundy except for the fringe which was bleached blonde. If you had short hair apart from a couple of plaits at the back you were really cool. Hats were big - Boy George style or Duran Duran.

In the mid 90s the big trend at school was for black canvas shoes, basically lace-up plimsolls. My mum got some off the market for me but the lace holes were painted black, which for some reason I decided wouldn't do so scraped off the coating so they were silver! Wore with black tights and a black "flippy" skirt for school uniform with a baggy thick cotton shirt.

Bit later I remember the brown trend and those skirt/trouser combos... seemed to start off as quite hippy/bohemian look but eventually morphed into uniform/business-wear style trousers!?