Old-fashioned Fashion...

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Let's talk about old-fashioned fashion.

Who remembers bell-bottoms?

Anyone else remember the old polyester shirts with spheres and squares and triangles all over them?

How about paisley? What paisley things did you own?

Frayed-leg jean shorts anyone?

Anyone remember cigarette pants?

How about jumpsuits? LOL!!!

Platform shoes?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I remember most of them but bell bottoms came back a little while ago as flares. Where I lived we wore fringe shirts, halter tops...that's really all I can remember. How you dressed at my school depended on what group you most identified with. ....leather jacketed, lots of eye make up greasers, long straight hair parted in the middle, short skirts, and deliberately ripped up bell bottons, fringe hippies, or collared, nicely pressed preps. You could tell the group you were in by the clothes. We also had lots of kids who shunned groups, like me, but most dressed mostly like the hippies/freaks and some dressed like preps. Greasers were the bottom of the social circle so nobody copied them.

I am short and liked platforms, but not heels. The greasers wore high spiked heels. It was common in the U.S., especially in bigger city schools I am guessing, for the kids to identify with a group and dress that way. I graduated with almost 900 kids! We had little communities! But I was kind of a loner and a rebel and didn't like cliques so I didn't participate in any. I was not atletic so I disliked the snobby preps, as I saw them. They tended to be richer. I didn't do any drugs, including pot, so I had no connection to the hippies although I did have liberal political views but....still. the greasers pretended they were poor (they were more middle class) and did drugs and got into legal trouble a lot....that was horrifying to me. So no respect for or connection there either. I was rather boy crazy as a teen and there was no group for that so I found a few like-minded kids to hang with. I did not try academically so again was not like the prep crowd.

A lot of how we dressed also depends on when we graduated. Those in their early 50s now probably did not dress anything like those in our 60s because they were different times. Also in the U.S. there are regional differences. Where I went to school, only a few greasers had big hair but that was huge in the south.

I like rembering high school and a bit after although I didn't go to college. It was a wild and crazy time.

Here is something that shocks most people, not wardrobe related. Our school had a smoking lounge for students!!! It was huge!!! The kids just lit up. On another note, we also wore bathing suits under our clothes and sunbathed in the courtyard at lunchtime. The kids ran the school.

About ten years later I went back to visit. The smoking lounge was gone and the halls all had monitors and we're quiet. Not in my time there!!! But I feel it was better for the students for the teachers to take back the school.

Anyhow didn't mean to take this is another direction. Also I never heard of some stuff you listed, like smoking pants or jumpers. Fun topic.
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I remember most of them but bell bottoms came back a little while ago as flares. Where I lived we wore fringe shirts, halter tops...that's really all I can remember. How you dressed at my school depended on what group you most identified with. ....leather jacketed, lots of eye make up greasers, long straight hair parted in the middle, short skirts, and deliberately ripped up bell bottons, fringe hippies, or collared, nicely pressed preps. You could tell the group you were in by the clothes. We also had lots of kids who shunned groups, like me, but most dressed mostly like the hippies/freaks and some dressed like preps. Greasers were the bottom of the social circle so nobody copied them.

I am short and liked platforms, but not heels. The greasers wore high spiked heels. It was common in the U.S., especially in bigger city schools I am guessing, for the kids to identify with a group and dress that way. I graduated with almost 900 kids! We had little communities! But I was kind of a loner and a rebel and didn't like cliques so I didn't participate in any. I was not atletic so I disliked the snobby preps, as I saw them. They tended to be richer. I didn't do any drugs, including pot, so I had no connection to the hippies although I did have liberal political views but....still. the greasers pretended they were poor (they were more middle class) and did drugs and got into legal trouble a lot....that was horrifying to me. So no respect for or connection there either. I was rather boy crazy as a teen and there was no group for that so I found a few like-minded kids to hang with. I did not try academically so again was not like the prep crowd.

A lot of how we dressed also depends on when we graduated. Those in their early 50s now probably did not dress anything like those in our 60s because they were different times. Also in the U.S. there are regional differences. Where I went to school, only a few greasers had big hair but that was huge in the south.

I like rembering high school and a bit after although I didn't go to college. It was a wild and crazy time.

Here is something that shocks most people, not wardrobe related. Our school had a smoking lounge for students!!! It was huge!!! The kids just lit up. On another note, we also wore bathing suits under our clothes and sunbathed in the courtyard at lunchtime. The kids ran the school.

About ten years later I went back to visit. The smoking lounge was gone and the halls all had monitors and we're quiet. Not in my time there!!! But I feel it was better for the students for the teachers to take back the school.

Anyhow didn't mean to take this is another direction. Also I never heard of some stuff you listed, like smoking pants or jumpers. Fun topic.
What a great memory you have, SOT. Lots and lots of memories here.

Shocked over your school having a smoking lounge. Never heard of that, ever.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I have heard of smoking areas in high schools.

When I lived in Arizona, a friend who grew up in the town told me that they had one in her high school. That was the first time I had ever heard of one.

In the rural high school I went to for 9th and 10th grades, the males couldn’t even have facial hair. My sweet (and hairy) boyfriend got in trouble one day of not shaving before he came to school one day (was running late or something).

I remember once getting sent to the office for kissing in the hallway. I was scared to death. The principal just said to never do it again, though.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
ApplCori were you at a private school or maybe in the Bible belt? Our boys had beards, sideburns, moustaches, ratty hair etc. Girls often wore little halters. There were no dress codes that I can recall.

When did you graduate? I was 1971. This was when some kids were taking over buildings at colleges. Kids were very bold. I think the staff was afraid of the kids. And some of the teachers who tried to be cool. For the record, I didn't like the kids who took over the school. They we're radicals, very smart and rich. Of they didn't like something they pulled the fire alarm.
 
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AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I graduated in 84, so things were probably settled down from the anti-war turmoil. We didn’t wear any halter tops or show midriff at all.

However, for 11th grade I moved to a poor inner-city school in the same state and boy, was it different. Gang-infested, fights, drugs. It was out of control.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
I have heard of smoking areas in high schools.

When I lived in Arizona, a friend who grew up in the town told me that they had one in her high school. That was the first time I had ever heard of one.

In the rural high school I went to for 9th and 10th grades, the males couldn’t even have facial hair. My sweet (and hairy) boyfriend got in trouble one day of not shaving before he came to school one day (was running late or something).

I remember once getting sent to the office for kissing in the hallway. I was scared to death. The principal just said to never do it again, though.
Our smoking area was anywhere (really), but do remember a spot around the corner that was shielded by the wind by a school wall, and that's where us girls used to hang-out and smoke.

Dress codes along with all the rest, doesn't sit well with me and never did. Providing a student is clean and is wearing presentable clothing, I see no need for special restrictive dress codes and such.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
We had a smoking areas at my high school. I wore bellbottoms (no hiphuggers due to no hips). Other than that, was grunge before grunge was a thing. Flannel tops, braided long hair, bandanna headbands, etc.I wore aviator frames because back then they were the only thing that would hold my very thick lenses.

I was what was referred to as a "freak", basically a peace-loving hippy who carries a knife and who knows how to use it in self-defense...and will.

We had to, due to attacks by jocks. My 2nd boyfriend, the one I wound up marrying, didn't carry weapons, but had been involved in martial arts for 12 years at that time. His response to being attacked for either being a freak or being a theater nerd and running to the bathroom in tights, was to put his assailant(s) on the ground...hard enough to stun them. Most finally learned to leave him alone after a couple of times.

husband to be was into the patterned Quiana shirts with-matching very low-slung bell-bottoms, topped with long, very curly hair and facial hair.

I'm still sort of "grunge" around the house, though with-elastic/drawstring waists these days. I wear long tunics/sweaters out, over pants, and "therapeutic shoes". (Cost like designer--uglier than sin)
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Our smoking lounge was in the school and very large. It annoyed me as there was no place for nonsmoker's. You didn't have to go outside to smoke. Many kids walked across the parking lot to the grass to smoke pot. I never went there, couldn't tell you what it really looked like besides grassy. You couldn't smoke in the bathrooms, but kids did. Even pot smell was in there sometimes.

Old Hand, much of what we wore was VERY inappropriate! Little halters tops. Bikinis in the courtyard to sunbathe. Skirts so high that the drinking fountain was a challenge to lean over. Ripped jeans was the style. I would buy jeans and rip them up. Only the preps wore jeans that weren't ripped or cut in the knees or other places. We looked horrible. My yearbook shows this lack of good grooming. Remember, many of these were rich kids who could afford nice clothes and haircuts. They certainly had nice cars!

It was very chaotic with many drug overdoses in our class and it was hard for a learning disabled kid like me to focus and learn so I stopped trying. I would put my head on the desk and close my eyes or else I acted as class clown. Nobody ever told me to behave better. It was like the teachers were afraid of us.

I didn't care for school and very often cut gym class, which I hated. I'd walk to the closest bus stop and ride to the beach. I would go to gym just often enough to pass with a D. Gym was my last class in my two last years. I didn't see it much.

On the bright side, in the class ahead of me was Merrick Garland, the Obama Supreme Court appointee who never got a chance to be voted on. We had some very smart kids and a high college attendance rate. I was not one of them. Nor did I care. I still don't care that I didn't go to college.
 
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Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
We had a smoking areas at my high school. I wore bellbottoms (no hiphuggers due to no hips). Other than that, was grunge before grunge was a thing. Flannel tops, braided long hair, bandanna headbands, etc.I wore aviator frames because back then they were the only thing that would hold my very thick lenses.

I was what was referred to as a "freak", basically a peace-loving hippy who carries a knife and who knows how to use it in self-defense...and will.

We had to, due to attacks by jocks. My 2nd boyfriend, the one I wound up marrying, didn't carry weapons, but had been involved in martial arts for 12 years at that time. His response to being attacked for either being a freak or being a theater nerd and running to the bathroom in tights, was to put his assailant(s) on the ground...hard enough to stun them. Most finally learned to leave him alone after a couple of times.

husband to be was into the patterned Quiana shirts with-matching very low-slung bell-bottoms, topped with long, very curly hair and facial hair.

I'm still sort of "grunge" around the house, though with-elastic/drawstring waists these days. I wear long tunics/sweaters out, over pants, and "therapeutic shoes". (Cost like designer--uglier than sin)
Loved reading your post!

Oh yes... sign me up for elastic waistband pants! I own many! Love my elastic waistband pants! In fact someone in the family once told me that I looked like an old woman, because I always wore elastic waistband pants/slacks. I guess when life is so utterly perfect for a few, you're within your right to mock, criticize, critique, and put down others.

Being pear-shaped like I am (wide hips, big thighs, and full-bottom), elastic waistband pants fit my figure the best, and what could be more easy and comfortable than wearing elastic pants.
 

Pink Elephant

Well-Known Member
Our smoking lounge was in the school and very large. It annoyed me as there was no place for nonsmoker's. You didn't have to go outside to smoke. Many kids walked across the parking lot to the grass to smoke pot. I never went there, couldn't tell you what it really looked like besides grassy. You couldn't smoke in the bathrooms, but kids did. Even pot smell was in there sometimes.

Appli, it settled down a lot by your year. I would have enjoyed school more without all the drama. I had learning disabilities and school was hard. The chaos didn't help.

I didn't care for school and very often cut gym class, which I hated. I'd walk to the closest bus stop and ride to the beach. I would go to gym just often enough to pass with a D. Gym was my last class in my two last years. I didn't see it much.
Oh yes, I well remember cigarette smoking in the bathrooms. Us girls were the worst for it.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Loved reading your post!

Oh yes... sign me up for elastic waistband pants! I own many! Love my elastic waistband pants! In fact someone in the family once told me that I looked like an old woman, because I always wore elastic waistband pants/slacks. I guess when life is so utterly perfect for a few, you're within your right to mock, criticize, critique, and put down others.

Being pear-shaped like I am (wide hips, big thighs, and full-bottom), elastic waistband pants fit my figure the best, and what could be more easy and comfortable than wearing elastic pants.

Say it ain’t so, OH!

Nope, jeans or active wear for me!
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I don't let anyone, even myself, see my gray hair and I don't deliberately dress in clothes that are just for grandma's, even though I am a grandma. People still tell me I look younger and I want to keep it that way.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Very disappointed in you, SOT and Apple. :p

Last time I wore pants with elastic was those rubber pants over a cloth diaper!

You know, OH, you don’t have a signature.

Tell us about yourself....

How many kids? Ages?

Married? 1st hubby? 4th?

Did you have a difficult child?

Anything you do or don’t want to discuss is fine!
 
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