Back-to-School disasters

[Tiki Tom]

Psychedelic!
In the early 1970s I was on the very cusp of turning into a teenager when my mom bought me a pair of boy's bell bottoms for back-to-school. For one brief shining moment ---probably the first and last time in my life--- I thought I was "in style," "hip", and "cool". I even had the helmet hair to go with them! You can finish the story. I made the mistake of blinking and they were gone. Out of style. Sayonara. Only nerds wear bell bottoms!

I learned my lesson. But I have to confess that a (small) part of me still wishes they would come back. Wait long enough and everything comes back into style, right? I must have been at a very impressionable age.

Okay, your turn. Any styles from your formative years that you thought were cool & forever that now, in hindsight, were unmitigated embarrassments? Any back-to-school fashion disasters that, after all these years, you feel you can finally discuss without wanting to run out of the room and hide?

 

[GHT]

Paisley patterned tab collar shirts, pop art, blackwatch tartan trousers, you name it. Here today gone tomorrow. I was seventeen when The Kinks released Dedicated Follower of Fashion. They hit it right on the head.

 

[Edward]

I was never much on mainstream fashion; around about the time I actually started to care much about what I wore, I rejected fashion norms in favour of subculture aesthetics. The Metal Years were first - impossibly tight jeans, t-shirts the size of duvet covers, army surplus, eventually my first leather jacket, which all evolved into a punk rock and grunge sort of look (not that we called it grunge until the media invented that term in 1991, at which point we'd been wearing it for three years or so). My first (black wool) fedora (still got it somewhere!) filtered into that mix somehow. Several pairs of bondage trousers came and went. I still have my licensed repop Seditionaries 'Only Anarchists are Pretty' shirts.

I think the only things I really regret, looking back, were the cowboy boots, cool as they were at the time - all the big metal guys wore tham, but of our set I was the only one that had a pair. They later stood in for Riff Raff's Beatles boots for part of my early Rocky Horror shadow casting days. Outside of a costume, wouldn't be seen dead in them now. And the bikelock chain I wore round my ankle a few times. With the combination lock.

I do have a vague recollection of being bought a pair of silver-grey slacks for a specific occasion in Church when I was about fourteen and liking them well enough until I discovered my mother had bought my brother a pair exactly the same. I remember being very, very angry any time that we were bought something the same, and gonig out of my way to avoid wearing them on the same occasions. No fear of that nowadays: I think he owns one suit, two ties, and mutliple pairs of jeans and hoodies. I like clothes; to him they're warmth and arrest-prevention.

The Hitler t-shirt probably wasn't my finest hour aesthetically, though the historical joke is still sound (and appropriately mocking of the nasty man) - it was done on the style of a band tour t-shirt, with 'European Tour 1939-45' on it. England and Russian stamped over 'cancelled'. Wore it on a school uniform day once and my history teacher thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

 

[shadowrider]

The Hitler t-shirt probably wasn't my finest hour aesthetically, though the historical joke is still sound (and appropriately mocking of the nasty man) - it was done on the style of a band tour t-shirt, with 'European Tour 1939-45' on it. England and Russian stamped over 'cancelled'. Wore it on a school uniform day once and my history teacher thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

Hope you're not the guy who got kicked out of the REM concert!

 

[Edward]

Hope you're not the guy who got kicked out of the REM concert!

No, what was that? This was in Ireland in 1989.... I don't think I'd heard of REM until about 1994.

 

[shadowrider]

No, what was that? This was in Ireland in 1989.... I don't think I'd heard of REM until about 1994.

Apparently, in 1986, a person attending a REM concert wearing the same Adolf Hitler European Tour t-shirt was asked to leave by Michael Stipe.
Crazy, I know!

 

[Edward]

Apparently, in 1986, a person attending a REM concert wearing the same Adolf Hitler European Tour t-shirt was asked to leave by Michael Stipe.
Crazy, I know!

Ah! Guess he took it as expressing support. I was always mocking the Nazis, even during the phase when I wore a swastika badge it was making a joke of them (or intended to be at least; I'm more wary that way nowadays).

 

[Dreamofgilgamesh]

Somewhere around 1970 for some inexplicable reason I thought it would be a good idea to wear a floral patterned shirt paired with a pair of red crushed velvet loon trousers, mercifully no pictures exist but the memory lingers brrrrrr.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I had a hard time finding anything I liked wearing in the stores during the '70s. Most of the trendy stuff was kind of ridiculous to me. And still is.

 

[DavidVillaJr]

1980's nylon parachute pants.

Not the baggy style that popped back up a little while back, the tight, skinny leg, be-zippered ones.

I still miss them...

 

[tropicalbob]

I was never much on mainstream fashion; around about the time I actually started to care much about what I wore, I rejected fashion norms in favour of subculture aesthetics. The Metal Years were first - impossibly tight jeans, t-shirts the size of duvet covers, army surplus, eventually my first leather jacket, which all evolved into a punk rock and grunge sort of look (not that we called it grunge until the media invented that term in 1991, at which point we'd been wearing it for three years or so). My first (black wool) fedora (still got it somewhere!) filtered into that mix somehow. Several pairs of bondage trousers came and went. I still have my licensed repop Seditionaries 'Only Anarchists are Pretty' shirts.

I think the only things I really regret, looking back, were the cowboy boots, cool as they were at the time - all the big metal guys wore tham, but of our set I was the only one that had a pair. They later stood in for Riff Raff's Beatles boots for part of my early Rocky Horror shadow casting days. Outside of a costume, wouldn't be seen dead in them now. And the bikelock chain I wore round my ankle a few times. With the combination lock.

I do have a vague recollection of being bought a pair of silver-grey slacks for a specific occasion in Church when I was about fourteen and liking them well enough until I discovered my mother had bought my brother a pair exactly the same. I remember being very, very angry any time that we were bought something the same, and gonig out of my way to avoid wearing them on the same occasions. No fear of that nowadays: I think he owns one suit, two ties, and mutliple pairs of jeans and hoodies. I like clothes; to him they're warmth and arrest-prevention.

The Hitler t-shirt probably wasn't my finest hour aesthetically, though the historical joke is still sound (and appropriately mocking of the nasty man) - it was done on the style of a band tour t-shirt, with 'European Tour 1939-45' on it. England and Russian stamped over 'cancelled'. Wore it on a school uniform day once and my history teacher thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

My God. I also had that t-shirt.

 

[swinglish]

I was never much on mainstream fashion; around about the time I actually started to care much about what I wore, I rejected fashion norms in favour of subculture aesthetics. The Metal Years were first - impossibly tight jeans, t-shirts the size of duvet covers, army surplus, eventually my first leather jacket, which all evolved into a punk rock and grunge sort of look (not that we called it grunge until the media invented that term in 1991, at which point we'd been wearing it for three years or so)...

...I think the only things I really regret, looking back, were the cowboy boots, cool as they were at the time - all the big metal guys wore tham, but of our set I was the only one that had a pair...

...The Hitler t-shirt probably wasn't my finest hour aesthetically, though the historical joke is still sound (and appropriately mocking of the nasty man) - it was done on the style of a band tour t-shirt, with 'European Tour 1939-45' on it. England and Russian stamped over 'cancelled'. Wore it on a school uniform day once and my history teacher thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

It seems we've shared many of the same 'classic fashion moments' Edward. I didn't go for cowboy boots though... I do remember them being quite the thing amongst people who liked Hanoi Rocks / Dogs D'Amour / early Guns 'n' Roses etc. I'd moved in to Goth and Industrial by that point... which is another story

That Hitler shirt was everywhere as I remember, I had one also. Worn by young kids mainly, I can't ever remember seeing it on a real far-right bonehead though. It was considered 'funny' back then, or at least as a 15 year old I thought it was... not my proudest moment, and as an adult, difficult to defend really.

 

[scotrace]

Dad and I had matching leisure suits, different colors. Chains and all. Ugh.

 

[GHT]

Somewhere around 1970 for some inexplicable reason I thought it would be a good idea to wear a floral patterned shirt paired with a pair of red crushed velvet loon trousers, mercifully no pictures exist but the memory lingers brrrrrr.

Aw man, I wore a floral patterned shirt with a tie that was exactly the same fabric. So cool was it that I didn't even wear a paper bag over my head. I dare not even look to see if it was photographed.