Call us retro; call us nostalgic; hell…call us dorky. We don’t care! As hip as today’s hottest styles look in the latest issues of Cosmo and Vogue, we long for the good old days of fashion. Give us fluorescent mini skirts, Cavaricci jeans, and leg warmers any day over Lululemon yoga pants, skinny jeans, or matte manicures.
Man, those were the days! Take a trip down memory lane with us (or a new trip down retro lane) and visit the 12 outdated trends that we’re seriously missing.
Velour Tracksuits
Britney Spears wore them; they were favorites of J.Lo and Paris Hilton. Style icons, to be sure.
Thanks to Juicy Couture, everyone was donning bright, uni-color velour sweatsuits and walking around perpetually comfortable and super stylish. We’re not sure why they left but we want them back!
Airbrushed Denim
Your SO’s name, your favorite band, even your favorite candy bar—your denim garb was the perfect canvas to skywrite to the world (in the most artistic manner) what you love the most.
Come on, we know that everyone saved these personal keepsakes. Let’s all bust them out and declare them cool again!
Tie-Dyed Tees
You didn’t have to be a Grateful Dead groupie following them around and selling pasta at every concert to wear tie dye!
The good news is these artsy tees made everyone hip (or hippie). Whether you bought yours or made it, there was color that complemented everyone’s style.
Shoulder Pads
Every (cool) woman in the ’80s looked like a football player with their strong, padded blazers. And we say, why not?!
Let’s bring back the ultimate power move in women’s fashion and stand side-by-side on the sidewalk—and not let anyone pass.
Bows
Thank you, Madonna, for helping us complete our outfits in the most feminine way.
Bows gave us a reason to not have to do our hair in the morning (because the bow made everyone’s hair look better.)
Tied-Up Tops
In the ’80s, no six-pack abs were required for these sexy shirts. Daisy Duke showed us how to do it right, and everyone, regardless of age or shape, was confidently tying up their shirt like a pro.
Be it flannel, fancy button down, or v-neck tee—there was no need to tuck your shirt in when you could tie it up!
Name Belts
This accessory not only looked mega cool, but it was quite handy in helping people remember your name—or say, if you had a hard night and well, maybe forgot your own name.
And who is better than you, baby? Fancy up that name of yours and celebrate it, once again, by wearing it around your waist!
Timberland Heels
Because construction boots and fashion go hand-in-hand… For some reason, we loved the creation of the Timberland heels!
Part rugged, part show…they were the perfect way to appear to be the perfect blend of both Sporty and Posh Spice.
Mood Lipstick
We loved this!! It went on green, blue, or yellow and then, poof! Changed according to how you were feeling.
Pretty handy for your SO, who could now tell whether it was the right time to approach you or not.
Grunge
“It’s not that I don’t iron or wash my clothes, or even fold them—it’s grunge baby!”
Ah, the warm colors of black, brown, and dark green that decorated every grunge fan’s closet still gives us warm tingles as we listened to Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain garbling words to our favorite songs.
Grunge looked like you didn’t care but in reality, it took hours to put together the perfect “I-don’t-care-about-society-and-their-fashion-rules” outfit. We just want to have an excuse to wear that oversized flannel again.
Leg Warmers
So you want to be a dancer, or just look like one? Leg warmers had you covered! Nothing faked grace and beauty like a pair of pink leg warmers to cover the bottom part of your legs.
And just in case your legs got cold (not that warming them was the reason for actually wearing “leg warmers”), you had knit tubes that covered them perfectly.
Skorts
It’s a skirt…it’s a pair of shorts…it’s a skort! Because some days you couldn’t make up your mind and wanted to wear both—you had that option.
Skorts also allowed you to look feminine while doing activities that a skirt normally wouldn’t be appropriate for. We say we need more!
Bandanas on the Head
All we had to do was watch Bret Michaels sing “Talk Dirty To Me” and we all ran out to buy bandanas for our heads. He made them cool and we made them popular. They were pretty handy accessories.
Got a bad hair day? No problem! Forgot hair products? Not an issue! Can’t stand sweat dripping into your eyes? Now you’ve got a trendy solution! We feel that bandanas are the SUV of hair accessories and are a comeback must.
Acid-washed Denim
Heavy forbid your jeans outfit was monochrome without the little spots of white thrown in here and there!
“Mom, don’t you know anything?” But seriously, acid washed jeans rocked. Nuff said.
Scrunchies
Rubber bands are so eww. Enter the scrunchy!
Fifty percent hairband, 50 percent fashion accessory, 100 percent totally awesome.
Fanny Packs
We’re really sad about the loss of these (and the loss of our belongings as a result). Fanny packs ensured that we never lost our keys, misplaced our lipsticks, or forgot licenses somewhere.
With our belongings conveniently strapped to our waist, we were prepared for whatever life threw at us.
Jellies
To hell with the blisters on our heels and fungus that grew between our toes as they stuck to the wet and moldy plastic that cradled our little feet—we loved jellies because they felt like we were walking on pink, purple, or green jelly!
That and we could jump into the pond and catch tadpoles while still looking fashionable.
Slap Bracelets
We could spend all day slapping these fun toys dressed as jewelry on ourselves and on our friends.
Everyone loved them and we don’t see the harm in bringing them back.
Converse Kicks With Everything
Nothings said “dress up” in the ’80s like a pair of Converse high top sneakers.
These stylish (and yet super supportive) sneakers snuck their way into every function. With so many colors available, no event was taboo (not even the Senior Prom).
Swatch Watch
We’re not sure why this fun wrist candy fell out of favor but we miss it so!
Cherries, polka dots, and even pandas were featured and we loved every single sample.
Suspenders
It’s not that we needed help keeping our pants up, but these simple straps made it pretty to pretend that we were!
And we loved that we could wear our boyfriend’s suspenders (and make them look better on us than on him).
Lurex
If you’ve never heard of it, we’re quite sure you’ve seen it. Big in the ’80s (especially on the catwalk), Lurex was a kind of yarn that was woven with aluminum foil and transparent film and made everything have a sort of futuristic modern look.
Between the wool and the metal, the clothing made out of it was not particularly comfortable, but we loved the way it shined when the lights hit it—like we were our own Vegas show. For that, we need it to come back.
