80's Fashion Essay

Improved Essays
1980 marked the beginning of a revolutionary decade filled with self-discovery and innovative ideas emerging from the general public. With a consistent proliferation of uncanny fashions and creatively original toys the reoccurrence of their popularity into the 21st century created minimalistic surprise. The female fashions were designed to make ground-breaking statements to the male gender and the unique toys of the 80’s spurred a fascination like no other decade. Although the toys of the 80’s were different the fashion caused contradictory reactions.
Outrageous, luminous and extroverted is the paramount description of 1980’s fashion. Though societal views of the 21st century create a contradiction in regards to the popularity of the 80’s fashion movement it is still considered a ‘powerful and trend setting era’ (Carlson, 2014). It was a decade for experimentation and self-expression that
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During the 80’s women were still fighting for equal rights, leaving no room for astonishment when shoulder pads made a reoccurring appearance in women’s fashion. Shoulder pads for women were a statement of equality against their male colleagues and were quoted to be the definition of power dressing. Power dressing was the practice of dressing in a way that provoked dominance and significance within a powerful position such as business and politics, henceforth making it a strategic fashion choice for women to wear shoulder pads. With women’s rights unexpectedly being revoked the association between power dressing and equality was of high importance. With the intent to prove to the male gender that they were not superior women carried out this practice for an extensive amount of time and is still apparent throughout todays 21st century society. Conversely, women still felt the oppression to be individualised which is where dance movies impacted upon

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