SPRING THROWBACKS
Want to go retro on your fashion style? The first step is knowing what’s retro and what’s vintage. It’s a bit of a time warp to think that vintage is considered clothing that’s at least 20 years old. Heck, I have some of those items in my closet today.
But there’s some fun bringing back the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and the 90s when achieving a look you favor.
1950s
Who hasn’t watched “I Love Lucy”? You can still catch it today on Amazon Prime.
Lucy wore house dresses to iron, clean, prepare dinner and more. The fitted waste dresses emphasized her hourglass figure with a cinched waist and full skirt. Oh, and remember the apron…every homemaker’s major accessory was the apron. The house dress of the 1950s buttoned down the front all the way to the hem. Today that style is called a shirtwaist dress. The dresses were made of cotton and ranged from gingham check to pastel stripe to plaid through the decade.
1960s
Stats tell the story of the decades: in 1950 one in three women were part of the labor force. By 1998, that number jumped to one in five women. In 2025, 66% of women have a job compared to 81% of men.
“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” caught a wave in the 1960s. Goldie Hahn made her screen debut on this show…mostly giggling. My sister was the only person I ever knew who owned a flower power paper dress in psychedelic blues and purple. It featured sleeves as long as the hem was high. Mini dresses took over thanks to Britain’s Mary Quant who is credited with taking her fashion cues from young people vs. older as had been the template. She also introduced hot pants (short shorts in dressy satin and bright colors.)
1970s
The 1970s knocked fashion on it’s a**.
Schools across the country were loosening up dress codes allowing girls to wear pants for the first time ever. Hippies (first identified at Colorado University in a Newsweek article by Sherry Keene-Osborn, a stringer for the publication when she was an undergrad) were “discovered” on campus. Long flowing granny dresses and bell bottoms stood next to women’s pantsuits with kitten bow blouses and denim dresses, shirts and jackets plus crocheted vests probably made by the same woman who crocheted crazy colored throw blankets to gift to family members as wedding gifts.
1980s
Shoulder pads and more shoulder pads showed up in the 1980s. Better was bigger: bigger hair, bigger shapes, and bigger shoulder pads.
The increasing impact of women in the workplace meant women wanted to dress the part they now owned. Watch “Working Girl” for a refresher on 80s office fashion. Women were working out to Jane Fonda’s workout tapes starting in 1981. They wore sweatbands on their wrists and scrunchies to hold their ponytails. Logos became significant. Windbreaker jackets with the small print MEMBERS ONLY label implied a private club attitude. Brand identification was big…like the shoulder pads. Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, and more labeled wearables.
1990s
‘80s opulence was over. Mortgage rates had risen to 12% in the 80s, but slowed and inched down to 10%+ in the ‘90s. Simultaneously fashion slimmed down to be unfussy with little embellishment. Grunge was a music genre that grew out of Seattle. It found its way into fashion in the form of oversized flannel shirts worn over t-shirts…a durable and even androgynous look.
Slip dresses for dress-up (with heavy boots as footwear) and distressed, torn jeans (shoppers paid $100’s more for the worn look) was edgy dressing. Leather jackets were worn over everything from work clothes to clubbing clothes. Jeans were painted on (that tight) and sweaters were oversized sometimes with one shoulder showing as if it had slipped right off in the rush to meet Y2k.