A 1980s fashion history lesson: lycra, power suits, and clothing as concept

Other designers pushing out the New Romantics look were Rifat Ozbek, Martin Kidman, and Stephen Jones.

Vivienne Westwood’s “Pirates” fall 1981 ready-to-wear collectionPhoto: WWD/Getty Images

Boy George of Culture Club performs on stage at Wembley Arena on December 17, 1984Photo: Pete Still

Clothes as Concept: Japanese Designers Make Their Mark

The 1980s saw the continued celebration of Issey Miyake, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, and Yohji Yamamoto. Each designer had a unique point of view but shared a methodology that flipped fashion on its head. Concept was key, technology was employed, and convention went out the window.

Though Miyake launched his line in 1970, Comme de Garçons was founded in 1969, and Yohji Yamamoto in 1972, by the 1980s, this crop of designers had conquered Paris.

Standout moments include Issey Miyake’s red plastic bustier, the finale of his fall 1980-81 collection; Jean-Michel Basquiat walking the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus spring 1987 show in a tunic-length double-breasted jacket; and Yohji Yamamoto’s red-tulle bustle coat for fall-winter 1986-87.

The idea was to provoke thought—not sex, and Vogue had its thoughts in September’s 1983 issue.

“This year’s clothes from Japan and their offspring—often dark, intentionally droopy, oversized— inevitably inspire conversation. Some of it is rabidly for, some heatedly against. People are saying, at various times: Japanese clothes are a fluke, an influence, an evolution; a new way of looking at layering, deep coloring, natural fabrics, big shapes. But are they affecting what we’ll be wearing?…[they] are going to ease into the mainstream, and we won’t even recognize them. Then evolve—as all clothes do—into memory.”

Grace Jones, c. 1980Photo: Bob King

Grace Jones, 1982Photo: BSR Entertainment/Getty Images

Fashion Gets Physical: A Fitness Craze Begins

A fitness craze took over in the 1980s. A range of Vogue headlines from the decades spoke to the public’s curiosity and fascination with health: 1982’s “Exercise: How to Start,” 1988’s “Should Pregnant Women Exercise?,” 1985’s “How Female Execs Exercise,” and 1988’s “No Sweat Exercise?”

Meanwhile, clothing labels were pumping out clothing made for working out (Lycra body suits were worn over leggings in punchy colors and were accessorized with leg warmers and sweatbands) and celebrities started cashing in with workout videos. Released in 1982, Jane Fonda’s workout video became one of the best-selling VHS tapes of all time.

Linda Evangelista in Martha Sturdy (left) and Beau Bibelot (right) earrings for Vogue December, 1987.Photographed by Irving Penn
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Photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Vogue, December 1988

Top Designers of the 1980s

Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Donna Karan, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Claude Montana, Emanuel Ungaro, Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, Emanuel Ungaro, Geoffrey Beene, Ralph Lauren, Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Oscar de la Renta, Anne Klein, Sonia Rykiel, Missoni, Chloé, Kenzo, Issey Miyake, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Betsey Johnson, Mary McFadden, Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Zandra Rhodes, Bob Mackie, Perry Ellis, Giorgia Armani, Patrick Kelly