Trend Watchers Track the Past and Future of the Frenetic ‘80s

The frenetic ‘80s are half gone--middle-aged--but still in a rush. This aggressive decade already has produced enough trends to offer inklings of what will be remembered in years to come.

So far, designer labels mean less. Chocolate-chip cookies mean more. While we’re munching, we’re aerobicizing, although not as strenuously as we might. The toothpick-thin figure loses ground to a curvier, less contrived female form.

Anorexia is out. The sensible woman is not. We admire the brisk lady who dares to wear flats (or state-of-the-art jogging shoes) and totes the sum of her travel wear in one carry-on bag.

The ‘80s have brought hipness to helping, proved by Bob Geldof’s Live Aid. They’ve brought glamour to looking rich (Nancy Reagan, Princess Diana), chic to being 40 and acceptability to having babies at any age and, at times, regardless of marital status.

The word yuppie came and went. Madonna managed to lend logic to underwear worn as outerwear. All the while, MTV catalogued the trendies, ensuring that nothing and no one would last too long in the jaded public eye.

The ‘80s are nothing if not time-obsessed--reason to call this the decade of the watch. And reason to hold a meeting, while commuting to work, by cellular phone.

The Times talked to an assortment of culture watchers and culture makers, tracking the ‘80s, so far. Their comments:

Cathy Guisewite,creator of the comic strip Cathy:

“I write about contradictions, and the ‘80s are rich with them. The gourmet chocolate-chip cookie outlets; the pasta emporiums; pizza with goat cheese. That massive trend toward being obsessed with new, trendy food, versus the insistence that everybody have perfect bodies. It’s amazing to me that we’re doing this. That’s why the baggy clothes came out--to wear between the pasta and the leotards. Cathy said in one strip that ‘Everybody’s pigging out, but I’m the only one who goes home and gets fat.’

“It also seems that everyone is a parent or about to be a parent. It’s typical of the people I know, who 15 minutes ago were my role models of singlehood or young couplehood and who were never going to be tied down. It’s like lemmings. Suddenly everybody’s having babies. Not so long ago, people were very intent on being independent and self-indulgent. But it does seem as if people are managing to be both self-indulgent and parents at the same time.”

Diana Vreeland,special consultant to the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art:

“The ‘80s haven’t quite started. It takes five or six years to get into something. This century had no special face of its own until 1918, until World War I was over in Europe. Then another look came out: cropped-at-the-knee, backless, sleeveless clothes, which had been unheard of.

“In the ‘80s, there’s a lack of very beautiful fabric. I think fabric is everything.

“The most noticeable thing about the ‘80s is that they are expensive. What will be valued is the designer of clothes that are remarkable and don’t cost too much. I think it’s outrageous what people have to pay. I think that people who can’t pay a big price will be able to have good clothes, and I think they can today, if they’re willing to shop. . . .

“I think the maid is 50% of a well-dressed woman. When I see the return of the maid to look over your clothes and make you feel great before you go out, then I will see a return to elegance. I don’t see why more people don’t want to be maids, handling such beautiful things. I’m talking about a person with exquisite taste who looks after exquisite things. That person somehow has been misplaced, and that’s a shame. You can’t just buy a dress that costs $10,000 and consider yourself elegant.

“You also have to have a place to wear those clothes. The ceilings are not very high, and the entries where you come in aren’t very large. You have to have some space to come into. It also has to be private. I think people will live more and more at home, and that is very hopeful for good dressing.”

Dianne Brill,menswear designer:

“The androgyny thing has been brilliant. But now fashion is going back into masculine and feminine. I like being adored. I like being precious. Goddesses like Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe are role models for me. I hope to promote a look for big girls. Real girls.”

Bill Blass,designer:

“The major trend is a return to more conservative, reasonable clothes; 1985 really established that the best looking clothes were the simple ones. It’s a conservative period politically, and that indicates a return to conservative clothing.

“The thing that will be newest in ’86 will be great fabric, great fit and quality. You still see a lot of glitz. It will be some time before that is diminished.

“Perhaps it’s the body that emerges as one of the prime influences of the time. Certainly women who work hard on their figures want to wear clothing that indicates that. The working woman is no longer news. I think the body is.”

Betsey Johnson,designer:

“The ‘80s are about Live Aid, Fashion Aid. There’s going to be a Jazz Aid coming up . It’s an awareness of people and caring for others that parallels the ‘60s. Going outside yourself, the government, any structure, and doing something for your own people and other people.

“In fashion, the biggest influences are the people of these causes: Bob Geldof is very Rolling Stone-y--successful, powerful, financially secure.

“I think there’s also the need for escapism. More flamboyance and excitement in clothes. After working 9 to 5, I think people can get that excitement through clothes, as they did in the ‘60s. They’re looking for the new. That’s why there’s a response to the crazier things in my collections. There are some years you can’t do bright Pucci prints.

“The ‘60s was a time that didn’t grow old and die, it just OD’d. The ‘70s was the Carpenters and disco. The ‘80s is the Madonna look: total visual, healthy, Monroe-y, out-there sexiness.”

Jose Eber,hair stylist:

“Annie Lennox showed us that a woman can look hot and sexy with shaved head. You never saw as many women with short hair as in the ‘80s. There was also blue, green, purple, pink hair. I mean, this was not done before. Any color of the rainbow went. Nothing was too much. The geometrics were totally extreme.

“But I’m me, darling. I’m the same old style. I happen to be a very recognizable face with the braid and the hat, and I think I should stay that way for a while.”

Gale Hayman,co-owner of Giorgio Inc.:

“Labels don’t mean what they used to mean in the ‘70s and ‘60s. In those days, people would say: ‘Show me your Chloes.’ Today it’s ‘Show me a great black dress.’

“So far, what has come out of the ‘80s is more fashion in hair and makeup. The mousse came out. Everybody started sticking their hair straight up. Makeup has made a terrific resurgence.

“There has been a lot of rehashing in the last 10 years. I would like to see simple, beautifully cut, modern clothes. Ageless design, in wonderful fabrics and colors, taking the ‘60s as an inspiration. We really do need that desperately in America.”

Wallis Annenberg,editorial staff, TV Guide magazine:

“Women are not afraid today to look more real. I’m grateful that the anorexic, Balanchine ideal is beginning to fade.

“This is the era of the single woman. The independent woman is the single greatest force in fashion. Like men, women have to make one suit go from day to evening. I admire women who can organize their wardrobes into those sorts of basic units. I personally would like to come back in the next life as a woman who can carry all her travel clothes on a plane in one carry-on suitcase.

“Flats are in. Nobody wants to suffer those sore feet at the end of the day. This is the decade of the watch. People don’t want to waste time. And it’s certainly the decade of the jogging suit. Those things have taken over.”

Billy Al Bengston,artist:

“I don’t think any trend is going to last a decade anymore. We’re running in two- or three-year cycles now.

“I generally don’t like people who follow fashion. It’s such a rotation. You know what always looks good? A good figure and good posture. That’s the only lasting style.

“There’s a new baby boom--a lot of old babes having babies. Ten years ago, you couldn’t get away with having children and not getting married. Now it seems half the celebs in Hollywood have babies and a year or two later get married. It’s sort of honorable now.”

Sarah Worman,vice president of fashion merchandising, Robinson’s:

“In the ‘70s, you put something on one morning and you had the same thing on the next morning. But the number of women in the work force and their expendable income have totally changed the face of fashion. Women want to look career by day, sexy by night.

“The two-income family has had the greatest impact on fashion. The rest are all cults, groupies, street fashions. Madonna is a fad.”

James Galanos,designer:

“We’re cleaning up a little bit from all the extravagance and eccentricities of the past. We’re going into clean, fewer thrown-together looks. My clients are classic. They like high fashion with drama. The ‘80s look is simplicity: an absolutely simple straight-line dress with a beautiful belt.

“Everyone is on the blue jeans kick again. I think we’re still in a youth-oriented society.

“Fashionwise, young people are still giving the directions, and the couture designers are taking their cues from that particular feeling.”

Nolan Miller,costume designer for “Dynasty”:

“The whole mood of the country started changing in the ‘80s, and a great deal of that had to do with the change of administration. Mrs. Reagan dresses in marvelous taste. We had a pretty low-key administration before that.

“There’s been a return to elegance in the ‘80s--in the way we dress, entertain and everything. Young people have discovered tuxedos and dressing up. As far as I’m concerned, hats and gloves have returned.

“The most important thing about the ‘80s is that it’s the beginning of acceptance of women over 40. Lynda (Evans) personifies that. Our images have always been of beautiful young girls. We went through that period a while ago when they were even using 12- and 14-year-olds as fashion models. All of a sudden, the world has accepted women over 40.

“The thing that has been most unattractive about the ‘80s has been the huge rhinestone jewelry, which I hate.”

Jeff Stein,president Camp Beverly Hills:

“Bruce Springsteen is having an impact. He’s going back to basic, earthy America. Faded blue jeans and a T-shirt. That ‘50s James Dean-Marlon Brando thing looks good again.

“I think the whole country has gone more casual. People mix things up a lot more--an Armani blazer with old khaki pants and Timberland shoes.”

Leon Max, designer:

“We’ve entered the age of instant success and instant fizzle-out. Usually there’s an association between a designer, like Jean Paul Gaultier, and a rock ‘n’ roller on MTV. The look gets absorbed by the viewers, reinterpreted. They get bored with it, then it’s forgotten.

“Before, it was a slow grind from the runways in Paris to the window at J. C. Penney. Now it happens in a year. We’ve entered the age of instant dissemination. When there’s no clear-cut direction, people retreat into something traditional or something minimalist.

“The outfit that speaks of the ‘80s? A knitted dress with a pair of sneakers and a brief case.”

Lynda Carter, actress:

“The only word that comes to mind is boldness, excitement. Certainly, this president has been a part of that. Another person is Princess Diana. She went to a dinner party recently in a tuxedo. Not hers, but Charles’. A young, future queen of England and she is keeping her individuality. She wasn’t sucked into the staid, more dowdy royal image.

“The cellular car phone is in. We have one in every car. My husband (Washington attorney Robert Altman) gets so much business done before he ever walks in the office.

“The ‘80s is a further awakening of individuality with women. It’s our time. There’s a general sense of camaraderie and independence. It’s the best time in our history for women in film, fashion, government, industry.”

Bruce Jenner, 1976 Olympian:

“Physical fitness made its move in the ‘70s, but I see now that it’s going to be around for a while--a part of people’s lives. The ‘80s are more toward health-oriented food. Sneakers are in. You even see them at formal functions. And cellular phones are the ‘80s. All the celebrities have them, and you can see them driving down the highway talking to each other on the phone. Answering machines are out.”

F. M. Esfandiary, futurist:

“I feel us moving toward more colorful, daring, informal and imaginative clothing. America is following the trend of Europe and moving toward nudity, and I see us developing new kinds of clothing that will protect us from some of the hazards of the environment.”

“The average life expectancy for American adults will be close to 90 this decade.

“We can expect helicopter-oriented communities. You can see the beginnings of it already in places in Florida, New York, Texas and parts of Southern California. And we can expect a profound shift in values, from competitiveness toward collaborativeness, from rigid time schedules toward flex-time, away from work ethic to leisure ethic, and from nationalism to globalism.”

Ed Ruscha, artist:

“Fashion is all into revivalism. My son came to me the other day and said his real interest is in clothes of the late ‘70s. They drop and pick up styles by the minute. There’s nothing that’s going to take over the world, is there? Except mini-malls.”

Gene Ewing, designer:

“You’re not going to see women pay as much for clothing in the future. It’s not necessary to pay $2,000 a dress. That’s going to become a thing of the past. People are so trendy that they’d rather get more moderate-priced clothing so they don’t have to wear it so long.

“The trend is it’s better to wash your clothes at home in a washing machine. You don’t ruin the color of the garment. It smells better. We’ll want super-duper washing machines. Bigger units, with remote control.”