What did people wear in the eighties? Anything! See it all.

As far as fashion goes, no decade is quite as no-no-notorious as the 80s. After all, in what other decade could you get away with wearing skin-tight pants one day and baggy “MC Hammer” pants the next? During what other time period could you wear leg warmers, a sweater and a miniskirt all at the same time (and in electric neon colors)? Take a walk down memory lane. Here are the top 10 80s fashion fads we used to love.

In all of these fads, color was the order of the day. The drab khakis, white and black of the 90s do not apply. Big color and color mixed in unusual ways (say, bright yellow with red) were considered totally tubular – to the max.

Shoulder Pads

Shoulder pads may very well be the worst of the top 10 80s fashion fads. In fact, our online polls on this site indicate that you agree with that assessment, with an overwhelming majority of our site visitors rating shoulder pads as the worst of the fashions of the 1980s. Why on earth did we want to make our shoulders look bigger? I can’t quite remember. Maybe it had something to do with woman's lib and the assertion of power that women were beginning to have in the work place? Rank speculation. Whatever the reason, we wore shoulder pads often and we did so with pride. The picture to the right is a beautiful example of shoulder pads in action. Between her totally bitchin feathered hair and the awesome oversized jacket with shoulder pads to the heavens, this 80s babe had it going on.

Mini Skirts
The shorter the better… women and girls loved miniskirts. Denim was the most popular, but miniskirts were made in a number of other materials including knit and leather. These were often paired with leggings. This particular look has made a big comeback recently. The only people who weren’t wearing miniskirts in the 80s were men (ok, well some did) and elderly women.

Leg Warmers
Another of one of the top 10 80s fashion fads that didn’t make a lot of sense was that of leg warmers. Maybe we all had really cold legs because of the miniskirts we wore or maybe we just thought they looked cute. Whatever our reasoning was at the time, at least one or two pairs of leg warmers could be found in every girl’s dresser.

Huge Earrings
You know how cute Christmas ornaments look on a tree? During the 80s we thought the same would apply to our ears. Huge earrings from various costume jewelry collections were all the rage and if your earrings didn’t touch your shoulder, they weren’t big enough.

Fingerless Gloves
Fingerless gloves were another odd 80s fashion fad, and it seems to be coming back into style. From romance enthusiasts to punk-rock fans, fingerless gloves were popular with quite a variety of 80s genres.

Parachute Pants
Oh yes… and then there were parachute pants. They started off skin tight and ended up baggier than a potato sack. Parachute pants may very well be the one piece of clothing that can sum up the ridiculousness of the top 10 80s fashion fads.

Members Only Jackets
Who didn’t want a Members Only jacket in the 80s? If you didn’t have one, you were instantly labeled a dork and you could forget about getting in with the “in” crowd. Members Only jackets were all the rage, and imitations were completely unacceptable.

UNITS
A one-size-fits-all clothing store featuring knit skirts, shirts, belts and leggings in coordinating colors. The clothes were sold in UNITS boutiques located in malls throughout the United States. You could buy six different pieces of UNITS clothing and create an entire wardrobe from them. It goes without saying that UNITS did not make it out of the 80s.

Stretch Pants
The stirrup pants version of this particular fad had to be the worst. Presumably the idea of fashion and being in fashion is to look as good as possible. These pants made NO ONE look good. They created a triangle-leg effect that made even the thinnest person look big. While many of these 1980s fashions are making their way back on the scene and into our stores, the stretch pants/stirrup pants trend needs to stay tucked safely back in the 80s.

Oversized Tops
Last, but not least, we have the 80s fashion fad of oversized tops. Big sweaters, sweatshirts and t-shirts were totally hot and wearing them over a miniskirt or a pair of leggings made them even hotter. These tops were most often belted with big and gaudy, low slung belts with the top bloused over the belt.

Top 10 80s Fashion Trends