Life in the Slow Lane

Life in the Slow Lane

Thursday, November 10, 2005

A Fashion Breakdown Of My Youth

When I was in my last year of high school I went to a school quite a distance from my house. It had a fashion design program and so it was worth it to me to go there instead of the jock filled high school nearby. I used to have to take 2 different city busses to get there and while I was the only passenger on the bus going to my particular school there was another high school along the route and I used to spend many a fun filled minute dissecting the fashion trends of those students. It was most definitely a rocker school and the clothing was mostly tight acid wash jeans with matching cropped jean jackets and Iron Maiden baseball shirts with the black body and white sleeves. Most of the chix (they were metal heads after all) had a feather roach clip attached to their purses at a jaunty angle. They would eye me suspiciously in my punky mod gear and I am sure if it was a yellow school bus opposed to public transit I may have been beaten up on more than one occasion. Best of all was their hair. Even though it was the mid eighties this school was a throwback to the 70’s with seriously tragic feathered hair. I was totally fascinated, almost to the point of slack jawed trance, by this one particular girl whose hair was so buoyantly coiffed that her head was formed to a perfect point. Something like this.




The guys didn’t have cute Sean Cassidy feathered bowl cuts but nasty long feathers like this. They scared me.



On the other hand my high school was a fashion island in the ocean of 1987. You see, my school was almost entirely populated by recent immigrants from China, Vietnam, Honk Kong and Korea with a very um, interesting take on North American fashion.

Our school was the hub of most of the Asian gang activity in the city. I would hear about how some kid had done his gangly duty over the weekend and carved up some poor kid in a gang fight. I would always be surprised to see the villain walking the halls and instead of some huge mean scary gang dude it was some 4’10” kid looking all of 8 years old with MC Hammer crotched pants and his bangs hair sprayed up like a cliff. An extreme version of this.

Basically really funny looking and totally goofy with his Miami Vice jacket and white dress shirt with a girly broach at the throat. Their gang colours so to speak. Not at all looking like the cold hearted killer he actually was. Yes, we had actual murderers in my school and it was not unusual to find cops walking the halls about to make an arrest.

My friend and I who had transferred to the school were two of a total of maybe five white girls in our grade and our lives where threatened and our lockers were broken into on a regular basis until we moved our stuff to the empty lockers right next to the principal’s office. After that we were left alone. Overall it was a very scary year.

This is what I looked like at that time in my favourite buckskin fringed jacket…Exactly like this.


I blame most of my life’s problems on growing up in the eighties.

20 comments:

ScottyGee said...

Ahahahaa! That is a Flock of Seasgulls doo if ever I have seen one!

"And I ran, I ran so far away..."

Opera Gal said...

oh no...I can top that one with some amazing blonde peroxided bangs.
And you know, your shoulder pads arent QUITE football enough!

(grins)
This was the silhouette for women in the 80's:

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Stirrup pants, people.
Enough said.

Opera Gal said...

oh damn, its didnt work! well, trust me, it was funny.

c said...

I had a very close approximation of the hair of the first exhibit. But I really wanted hair like yours. I was just too chicken-shit. I listened to all the music to be a punk or a new-waver, but I totally didn't have the brass ones to dress like it.

You were (and are) ADORABLE!

And I'm actually glad our teen years were spent in the 80s instead of the 70s. Can you image BELL BOTTOMS and doing the hustle?? *shudder*

Anonymous said...

You're precious. I used to get my hair cut just like the drummer in the GoGos. Good times.

KULA said...

You are so cute. And you definitely didn't have a bad case of the 80s.
Asian gangs are the best!

Erin Mc said...

I actually really like your hair here. My big melon can't do short hair. You pulled it off well.

Kassi Gilbert said...

thank goodness you didn't have the tragic pointy feather headed look. you look very cute 80's in a non-Molly Ringwald sort of way.

Anonymous said...

You look adorable.

And 16 Candles was on TV Wed night and I found myself strangely drawn to watch it........

Anonymous said...

Cutiepie!! What do you mean that the 80s caused you bad angst....they rocked, we rocked...I mean boys could walk around with mascara and bigger hair than girls...nirvana

Happy and Blue 2 said...

Once a cutey, always a cutey..

SassyFemme said...

You were definitely a cute HS kid! Growing up in the 80's was the best, though!

Closet Metro said...

You are DANGEROUSLY cute in that pic.

eclectic said...

What?! C'mon... you know, the fringed coat? Tres chic!

Darling picture!

Kranki said...

Scottygee-it was NOT flock of seagulls. It was modified mowhawk! Subtle difference but there.

opera gal-OMG! Stirrup pants. I could never get a pair long enough. I used to pin shoulder pads onto my shoulder pads. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?!

fuel- I know you were wayyy too cool for the 80's. Shame on me...

misfit-I think my parents would have loved the pointy hair more. I did some really ugly stuff with my hair. All in the name of angst.

laura-the Go Gos! You must have looked so cute!

spoonleg-I imagine I will be sporting something like that in the near future. I already have a mini spike going on the crown of my head. The hair just won't stay down there.

dima-I have to admit being more grunge in the 80's but my peers thought I was hideous.

erinmccalla-I didn't ever have long hair until I hit my 20's. I have mostly been a short hair gal.

kassi-I don't think I would have had the patience to coiff something like that. I am too lazy.

circe-thanks! I love those teenage 80's angst films.

pablum-my first boyfriend wore eyeliner and my parents mocked him for it. That made him all the more desirable to me. It was all about the angst.

happyandblue-blush** Thanks!

sassyfemme-the 80's were a very weird time for me. The excess was terrible. I think it is like that now again. Brand names and designer everything.

closet m-I look at that photo and I look soooooo young. And thin. And fresh. And bright eyed. It is a little scary...

eclectic-I LOVED that fringed coat. A friend borrowed it and never gave it back. Bitch!

Sherriatric said...

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Kranki? That is TOTALLY a Flock of Seagulls masterpiece. Totally.

Closet Metro said...

It's not scary to me.

Hey, it's about twenty years too late, but... would you like to go to the prom with me?

Squirl said...

I was going to say you looked adorable in that picture but everyone beat me to it.

Milliner's Dream, a woman of many "hats"... said...

I blamed mine on growing up in the 70's!...but think the clothes were better in the 70's...so perhaps we had a slight advantage. ;) Think the hair was just as bad during both decades!
Hh

ScottyGee said...

Flock of Seasgulls... and you know it!