There's no real reason for listing them here, now, except that the thought occurred to me.
- t-shirt buckles-- We'd gather up the loose fabric on our long t-shirts and feed it through one of these plastic buckles, which were worn off to one side or the other.
- acid-wash jeans
- slap bracelets-- Which were banned at some point...
- French-braided hair-- Not that it's completely out of the question, now, but I think it used to be more common...
- crimped hair-- I think we even had a crimping iron, but it hardly ever got used. Probably not the best thing for the health of your hair, anyway. . .
- banana hair clips-- I seem to remember these things either hurting to wear or falling out. Not practical for elementary-school-age girls with fine hair, I guess.
- clip-on hair bows of all kinds-- At one point, we had a whole basketful of these. Most were ribbons of various kinds and colors, but some were more bizarre-- like the ones made of a bunch of uninflated balloons. (Sounds crazy, doesn't it? What were people thinking?)
- tie-dye tees-- But they've been in style since the 60's, I guess. . . more so sometimes than others, I guess.
- neon / day-glo colors-- particularly neon green and hot pink. . .
- high tops-- Tennis shoes / sneakers with a built-in cuff that went up over the ankle. Oh, and there were all kinds of fancy neon shoelaces to go with them. . .
- Guess brand jeans-- Never had a pair, but they were definitely "cool" for a while.
- denim jackets-- Another thing that was temporarily so cool.
- "pop beads"-- Plastic beads made so that they could be "popped" together, taken apart, and popped back in different sequences. Mostly they were just colorful round beads, but later they came out with hearts and all kinds of different shapes.
- plastic chains and charms-- I think I had a whole necklace of these, for a while. I'd love to look at that thing again. I remember one charm was a bicycle, but I have no idea what all was on it. . .
- "jellies"-- Plastic/rubber shoes, many of them translucent with glitter inside. They seem like torture devices, now, but I think some of them were actually fairly comfortable. (Others, though, were torturous-- sweaty and sharp-edged.)
- jams-- I think these were mostly a boys' trend-- long shorts in bold fabrics.
- pony tail worn on one side of the head
- Hypercolor shirts-- Changed color depending on the temperature of whatever touched them. So, for instance, you could leave a temporary hand print on someone's back. Kind of pointless, really, but kids were of course impressed.
- poodle perms-- I've never had a perm, but every so often in elementary school, a girl would come to school with startlingly different hair.
- rat tails-- Ugh. Why did mothers ever allow their sons to have those hideous things? Not a good look.
- huge glasses frames-- When I see photos of my first pair of glasses, especially, I cringe. The frames were huge-- even more so on my small, young face. (I was in 5th grade, I think.) But apparently that was an acceptable look back then. . . How long until we look back at our current smaller frames and die of shame over them? ;o)
- huge / baggy / oversize sweatshirts & sweaters-- Some of my absolute favorite shirts, at certain times in life, were very baggy. I remember two or three in particular. One sweatshirt's bottom edge probably came down within four or five inches of my knees, and I thought it was perfect. (Ok, yes, I still like baggy shirts, every now and then. Maybe I secretly even want them to become fashionable again.)
- slim fit jeans-- For a while, I was obsessed with my jeans being "skinny" enough. If there was hardly any spare, loose fabric in the jeans, I thought they would make me look fat, and if the cuff of the leg wasn't so small that it was a little of a struggle to get my foot through it, it was too loose. I'm sure that if that me (whatever age I was... 14 or so?) saw me now, glorying in my comfy boot-cut jeans, she'd have been mortified. (g) (Tough luck, kid.)
- "grunge" fashion-- Flannel, plaid, etc.
- leather lace-up shoes
Well, anyway, that's enough of that.
Did I miss anything important?
