Some friends of mine have a big theme bash disco party on the beach every year, and this year the theme is 80s prom dresses. (Last year was “Cowgirls and Crossdressers” but that’s another story.)
Any ideas of colors, styles? All I can think of is a bunch of eyeliner only on the lower eyelid, and big bangs sticking straight in the air…drawing a total blank on dresses…pastel, wild, foofy, slinky?? The goofier reference to the sad, sad 80s styles, the better!
Don’t know about the dresses but I do know that my wife was in J. Crew today and it seems knit ties, yes those square things that no 14 year old could ever tie right, are back.
Just shoot me now.
Use the Google 
There are so many retro clothing stores online it’s not funny. I can’t remember where I got the Disco stuff last year but there was a ton of retro stuff online.
the eighties? Like, totally gag me with a spoon.
Brett
My prom date back in the early 80s wore a pastel pink hoop skirted dress with lots of ruffled undergarments (slips)— so many that I had to continually keep my hand under her skirt to shift gears 
as her dress spilled all over the front seats!
As a boomer ager, I really liked the 80’s. In some ways my favorite decade. I just remember the big hair and I was no exception.
One year I wore a pale purple spaghetti strapped, hooped skirt concoction. My date drove a Corvette; I remember it was a problem.
Another year I wore a cream color lacy Jessica McClintock nightmare. My date wore a brown tux with a ruffled shirt. We were not joking.
See, that’s the stuff I remember - pastel Jessica McClintock, with the big ol’ hoop skirts!
But I don’t want to wear that to a beach party…I don’t think…I just can’t picture anything else from the 80s.
Brown tux with ruffled shirt - YOWZA!
I had my 20yr reunion a couple of weekends ago and we had the 84’ slide show, scary, very bad fashion was the order of the day. I did make one observation though, as bad as we all dressed and it was BAD!! no chick in my school with a big ass gut would have worn a half shirt or a short cropped top like these chicks do today. I see these big guts hanging out over jeans on chicks and I think that at least 80’s chicks had better sense. If you had a big ass belly you werent proud of it you covered that baby up with some heinous looking threads:)
Ahhh, this is the era of the pink cowl neck sweater for your senior picture and the painted on Jordache jeans. How I lusted for them.
The “Livonia Look” flip up Farrah hair is de riguer. Pleanty of hair spray. Bigger is better. Do you have any Candies shoes?
For a prom dress pastel is the reason for the season, and remember girl, big shoulders aren’t (weren’t) just for the 50 yard line. We’re looking for an odd morph of Joan Jett and Southern Belle chic. Hard to intigrate, but oh so worth it.
And undergarments…? Oh, the possibilities are limitless here- and alluring. Think Danish porn star or any XXX flick starring “Seca”.
My prom date wore a blue dress, with a pink sashlike thing. Fairly shimmery. Floor length. Not a chance of learning what lingerie was underneath.
Just for a blast from the past we Netflix’d Valley Girl the other night. Watch the final prom scene on slo-mo and you’ll get plenty of ideas. Be careful, the day-glo can cause nauseousness.
Scarier the soundtrack is now in my cd changer!?!
Class of '87 forever!
Don’t forget Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club
.
I’ve found the real reason behind Tom’s lack of personal marketability. His ability to refence womens fashion from the 80s and to include comments about porn (with specific reference to star names) all in the same post has me wondering about him.
Nor Pretty in Pink and Fast Times at Ridgemont High
J.