Back to the 80's

[Seb Lucas]

The problem with us old guys wearing 80's is it isn't homage - it looks like we haven't moved on. I recently passed on a cool faded G2 because it would have looked like I got it in '85 and stayed there.

 

[Big J]

@Seb Lucas,

But I haven't moved on! Was I supposed to?

I'm gonna go listen to my mix tapes...

 

[HanauMan]

Regarding a down vest, a la Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, you could check out L.L. Bean. They sell these in the 'retro' hunting / trail styles and they do a nice line in red, orange and brown hues.

 

[Dav]

I've still got my eighties jacket, don't fit no more though!

 

[Edward]

M65 is a jacket from Vietnam War period, Rambo and Rambo II are movies about that particular time, so no matter when those movies were shot - M65 is a jacket from 60s.

It's interesting how military gear can enter fashion much later than its issue period. MA1s are a classic example. To anyone who is not into flying jackets, the MA1 is an 80s, or at a push late 70s, fashion piece - not a 50s USAF jacket. I remember M65s being very popular with the alternative kids, along with a lot of sixties era military gear, in the mid-late eighties; around that time the stuff had all been surpassed and was sold off as surplus. To us it wasn't sixties, but just a cool jacket we could afford.

I can't shake the feeling that most people around here don't actually remember the 1980s. Big J, if you want some retro-styling, you're gonna have to go with dropped shoulders, big chest measurements, and narrow high waists. Pretty much all modern jackets are not going to get it right and you'll look like a 25 year old hipster stylist's idea of what the 1980s was like, i.e. totally f-ing wrong.

I think one of the things I hate most about eighties revivalism is how selective it all is, and that - bad as so much of it looks - it was nowhere near representative of what people wore on the street, which was often worse. There's very little of the eighties for which I have any affection. That said, bits and pieces of early eighties tailoring can be great, from that era of 'eighties does fifties'. Can be had for buttons, too, compared to genuine fifties stuff but the cut is still right.

@Edward, I'm loving that Aero 40's jacket in blue and cream. The raglan sleeves are awesome. I'd need to score some red chenille letters for the 'J' on the left breast and a motto on the back.

Yeah, it's a nice cut, before they got too voluminous.

@Lebowski, Andy from BK wants to take me to court, so I'll have to pass on his jackets.

Wested are worth looking into; they know a thing or two about Indy jackets, having made the original!

Good luck @Big J. Lived through the he 80's and it was questionable that I would make it and I don't wanna go back to the times or the clothes. Of course with the way I dress, people think I got my styling ques from Urban Cowboy but I was dressing this way while Travolta was still spinning on the Saturday Night Live dance floor.

I don't think I'd want to go back and live in any decade other than the one I'm in right now. I didn't have an especially unpleasant eighties personally, but I'm glad I wasn't old enough to deal with that era as an adult. It was an unpleasant time in many respects (and for many, a much worse depression than the Seventies, for all the revisionism in recent years).

Personally, I've always had a soft spot for You Make My Dreams Come True. Especially after this...

I always loved that bit when he has Han Solo's reflection.

Actually, much of the more mainstream gear from that era could be quite flattering for men since it tried to create larger shoulders and narrower waists, a classic "male" body shape, even when the wearer didn't have that shape. By contrast, much of today's clothing for men, especially slim-fit stuff aimed at hipsters and/or youth buyers which is quite widespread, de-emphasizes shoulders and tries to make the hips look as wide as the shoulders, so in that sense attempts to feminize (or infantilize) the male figure. I realize few will agree with me on this, but the difference seems obvious to me. It's a common mistake to look at fashions in MTV videos and think that was the 1980s--it wasn't, it was always the style fringe, and most everday 80s fashions available to the masses were fairly conservative.

The eighties does fifties stuff was often very good. I remember a lot of real horrors on the streets of Belfast, though - older men (30s and upwards) still wearing flares as late as 1988, younger spides in shellsuits.... bumfluff moustaches from the age of fifteen.... urgh.

 

[dannyk]

@Edward to your point about how people don’t remember the 80s and just pick certain highlights or subcultures and it’s not representative of the time. This is key and something that bugs me a lot while watching tv shows or movies that are period pieces. Let’s say it’s a current show that takes place in the 80s. Well a home in that time period would have things in it from the 70s. Maybe even the 60s. Things are passed down, inherited, bought used or thrifted. Of course there should be an overwhelming 80s vibe to it. But a normal average life wasn’t all flock of seagulls haircuts and bright colored vests. Sorry I got on a rant/tangent there ha.

 

[Monitor]

I think one of the things I hate most about eighties revivalism is how selective it all is, and that - bad as so much of it looks - it was nowhere near representative of what people wore on the street, which was often worse. There's very little of the eighties for which I have any affection. That said, bits and pieces of early eighties tailoring can be great, from that era of 'eighties does fifties'. Can be had for buttons, too, compared to genuine fifties stuff but the cut is still right.

This.

 

[Seb Lucas]

@Seb Lucas,

But I haven't moved on! Was I supposed to?

I'm gonna go listen to my mix tapes...

Oh well. How about a reproduction Marty McFly jacket?

https://www.magnoliclothiers.com/mcfly-denim-jacket-by-magnoli-clothiers-casual-p-305.html

I was in my teens and 20's in 1980's but didn't listen to the music and only saw some of the films of that era. I didn't enjoy that decade very much. I have never seen The Breakfast Club or Top Gun nor do I know any '80's songs. I was a blues fan - Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker.

So when people have 1980's parties most of what I see and hear is new to me.

 

[CrazySicilian]

I would suggest a Gerry vintage down vest. I in fact own one in the appropos color that is a ringer for Marty's. Made in the USA (CO) and as legit as the 80's get for down vests.
Check the 'bay and Etsy. You can find one and you will be happy. Mine is reversible to boot.

 

[navetsea]

Digital watch with calculator, i wanted that to wear to school my parents never bought me one, but i got 3 watches that transform into robot, 2 cheap china made plastic bootleg in red and blue for casual events and an original Japan made one from steel in black for formal and church.
And Starcom toys, i wanted them all, especially ones that make hydrolic buzzing sound... i still think they are the coolest toys ever, and so small.

 

[handymike]

Yes, the coolest robot toys!
Shogun warriors....
Micronauts, and robotech/ macross!
still love me a 1987 Toyota 4 runner with removable top.

 

[navetsea]

I like macross!
I remember,shopping for pants with parent and I picked levis silvertab because it was baggy and fashionable, but ignorant kids at school insisted i wore fake copy levis jeans because the tab wasnt red, forced me to carry around the paper pocket flasher inside my pencil case every saturday when we can wear plain clothes to school, kids are horrible.

 

[handymike]

@navetsea not sure if you had the Bugle Boy pants over there, but those were so cool!
You could unzip the sides to reveal a whole other color inside. We used to wear them with pointy boots or creepers.

 

[navetsea]

I dont remember @handymike, but we didnt have adv on our only govrnment owned tv channel up to 1989, in 1990 we had our first private owned tv studio that have adv block, i didnt even know the blue cat toys i have as pencil sharpener and rubber toy was Doraemon, so only source of looking at what cool was cover of cassettes and betamax movie posters at video rental shop (because we dont adopt vhs). Bought lots of toys i didnt know their name because theyre written in japanese, only much later i learned what they were.

 

[red devil]

Macross was such a classic, and quite a few others

 

[Seb Lucas]

What the heck is macross?

 

[Benny Holiday]

Now guys, coming from a guy who was 15 in 1984, Big J the ultimate 80s jacket has to be one of those orange & black Michael Jackson jackets like in his film clips from the era. We all wanted one then but being Australia we had no idea how we could get one, let alone afford it!

 

[Big J]

Mazinger Z! Original and best giant robo anime!

The 30th anniversary Macross mini-series was pretty good, but I hate all of the original series. It's full of Japanese right-wing revisionism, that probably goes above the heads of foreigners who've never lived in Japan.
The peace loving Japanese (oops! I meant 'humans') are attacked without warning by violent invasive foreigners (oops! I mean 'aliens'), who are so physically big, the little 'humans' have to build robot suits to fight them. Thankfully, the peace loving 'humans' win through the power of song, which brings love to the hearts of the 'aliens'.
It's no coincidence that the Super Dimensional Fortress is named such; SDF also stands for Japan's Self Defense Forces, and it ends up rusting as a sad symbol of power in the middle of Macross City (a reference to the powerless post WWII emperor in his Tokyo palace).

No surprise then that against a constant drop feed of revisionist ideology from childhood, that the most recent best selling manga/anime Attack on Titan advocates a fascist state to defend from oversized 'others', with central characters named after convicted war criminals.

The only 'honest' manga/anime to address Japan's real social problems was Akira; drugs, delinquency, discrimination, police state, school violence, states penchant for fascism, lack of democracy, poor workers representation, new religion and an over reliance on technology.

 

[red devil]

Mazinger Z! Original and best giant robo anime!

The 30th anniversary Macross mini-series was pretty good, but I hate all of the original series. It's full of Japanese right-wing revisionism, that probably goes above the heads of foreigners who've never lived in Japan.
The peace loving Japanese (oops! I meant 'humans') are attacked without warning by violent invasive foreigners (oops! I mean 'aliens'), who are so physically big, the little 'humans' have to build robot suits to fight them. Thankfully, the peace loving 'humans' win through the power of song, which brings love to the hearts of the 'aliens'.
It's no coincidence that the Super Dimensional Fortress is named such; SDF also stands for Japan's Self Defense Forces, and it ends up rusting as a sad symbol of power in the middle of Macross City (a reference to the powerless post WWII emperor in his Tokyo palace).

No surprise then that against a constant drop feed of revisionist ideology from childhood, that the most recent best selling manga/anime Attack on Titan advocates a fascist state to defend from oversized 'others', with central characters named after convicted war criminals.

The only 'honest' manga/anime to address Japan's real social problems was Akira; drugs, delinquency, discrimination, police state, school violence, states penchant for fascism, lack of democracy, poor workers representation, new religion and an over reliance on technology.

Mazinger is great indeed, but I grew up with Grendizer the sequel to Mazinger
Funny how some areas of the world got Mazinger and others Grendizer.

Thanks for the insight on Macross, would have never caught all of this!

 

[Blackadder]

What is your view on Space Batteship Yamato and Gundam 0079 then which were before Macross? BTW, isn't Macross also sexist?