Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Best of the 80's

In no particular order, and loved equally by me. I am sure there will be someaddendums as I lament in future days.


1. Swatch. The scratch and sniff, available in three flavors sold at The Limited for $25. I wore mine until it turned yellow. This was my first of several swatches (of which I can only locate one). My brother had the Jellyfish, first men's Swatch.

2. The music. Still the only thing we are really allowed to celebrate somewhat publicly on mocking "80's Nights". But you know those people are loving the flashback.

3. ELLE magazine. Thank you to those editors during the 80's. It was my first fashion magazine and I got it religiously from age 10 until now. I especially remember the one they published backwards because they did a poll and some high percentage of women read magazines back to front. Innovative and I don't think anyone else has done it again to this day. Even Seinfeld copied them on that one.

4. Guess Jeans - the triangle logo on the pocket, zip ankles, and the ads.

5. Micheal Jackson who deserves his own number in this line up. The posters, pins, #1 songs, the dance moves, videos...all fond memories of many sleepovers in friend's basements.

6. Benetton. I love that logo.

7. The Goonies. I had a major crush on Sean Astin. Had I known he would grow up to be 5" shorter than me, I probably would have tried a little harder at age 11.

8. Friendship Pins - the legitimate beginning of my jewelry design happened in my BFF's basement (Melissa). If only I had the arsenal of tools then that I have now. We are still BFF today, and we are still designing jewelry. Funny...

9. Hello Kitty. A trend that started in 1975, Melissa and I really embraced this kitty in the 80s. It was my life's mission to have every bit of Hello Kitty gear out there. The mini colored pencils, every pad of paper, stationary, figurine, stuffed animal. The thing is, now we could not keep up. Target even has a Hello Kitty toaster.

10. My pink Sharp radio. Many many mixtapes from the radio (Open House Party) were made on this beloved treasure. It sat in a shrine to the 80's in the 80's near my inflatable palm trees. Long live FM, pop music, and this plastic radio.
Look at that thing, it's gorgeous.

7 comments:

Mary Campbell said...

I used to wear multiple swatch watches on my arm. It still didn't make me cool in the eyes of my peers, but for a brief, fleeting moment, I felt cool.

Unknown said...

everything listed was so important to me btwn 83-90 this is why we are friends.....a few things i also was obsessed with.....college sweatshirts, ribbon barrettes, boxers shorts, rolled at the top.....fruit roll ups, little house....Miami Vice on Friday nights

Summer is a Verb said...

Love's Baby Soft, wide tooth combs, BeeGee's, IZOD not Lacoste, frosted not highlighted hair, tuck and roll, the center part (horrid), and Teen Beat, not US, mags...

Unknown said...

Do you still have those inflatable palm trees? When I was a kid in the 80's I wanted one sooooo bad but never got one. If you have any for sale, let me know!

Heidi Brueggeman said...

I'm happy to report that I now OWN the pink radio again. I found it on Ebay. Might be necessary to listen to a Thriller cassette on this bad boy sometime this week. Long Live MJ.

MissBliss said...

Wow! Great list!!!

I had a pair of gold benetton logo earrings, as well as that exact pink boom box :)

Loving your blog...

Suze said...

Regarding the gorgeousness of your pink Sharp radio, I totally agree. (Like, totally.)