Fashion in the 80's broke the mold and took big steps away from traditional styles. There was big hair, accessories galore, nautical themes and layered clothing as essential components. This years runway was full of all these components.You’ve got the nautical trend, layering tees, the bangles, and the bigger your hair is the better. We see it all the time, styles come back decades later in odd haunting forms that are incorporated into current styles creating a nostalgic feeling from yesteryear. People make emotional connections with their fashion and it holds fond memories of special or not so special parts of or lives.

 Leather, metal, chains and black were dominant in the punk scene of fashion. I’m not talking runway fashion now I mean what you saw on the streets, what musicians and teenagers wore. Well now it’s coming out on the runway and it is smoking hot. On Elle’s website you can find 80’s style that showed up on the runway for fall fashion week. Another trend was work wear for women featuring broad shoulders, forgiving fabrics, the masculine pant suit with a modern look and bold hairstyles.

The designers are targeting a market that is slow right now and must make clothing that working woman can wear. By giving women the style of clothing they desire for work the purchase of the clothing is justified as a necessity for work. The emphasis of evening gowns and cocktail dresses just don’t appeal to the working woman who spends more time at home now. It is power dressing in the fullest, a women can show her sense of power through her attire. Demanding attention through your look, respect with your boldly defined eyes and defying gravity with your big hair it is a fierce look. You can see an example of the look in the photo I have posted courtesy of the mindfood website covering the 1980s power dress trend.

The empowerment of women began in the sixties when they strayed away from the safe dress and threw on a chic short dress and a pair of go-go boots. Then in the seventies the trend went further to become more risqué and the population started fighting for their rights. Now the eighties are when the clothing scene really took a twist with bold new style and the masculine pant suit. Of course when Madonna threw on the pant suit the trend was really set off. Fall fashion week was real interesting this year with the jump back into the 80’s with a modern twist.

It is cool to bring back the styles but the designers took it to the next level by adding a modern flair. I know that the spring fashion included a lot of pastels and the summer look kind of went back to the nautical theme. The nautical theme was one that was popular in the eighties as well. You can look at some old Gucci pieces circa 1980’s such as the classic doctor bag in one of my other hubs and find the colors to be of nautical decent. Then some of the summer styles that are no longer in the boutiques for 2009 were also reminiscent of the nautical colors of navy blue, red, and white. Of course white is just a classic color that will never go out of style but red and navy blue are not always as popular as they are when the nautical theme comes into play.

All in all I like what I’m seeing in fashion trends and I anxiously wait to see what comes next. The eighties had some great pieces but there were also some awful trends that came with it. It is as if the designers are fixing the bad to make a new 80’s era of clothing that we can all be proud to wear. I welcome the past and future fashion trends the designers got to keep it interesting. They are doing it in a big way. There are so many talented designers out there with so many ideas. We really are lucky to live in an age where there is so much diversity in our choices of clothing.