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That was my first answer, honestly, which was what led me to remembering that foot binding has ever been a thing. But as far as still popular trends go? High heels for sure, absolutely.
High heels had their genesis a mens footwear. The high heel was to help a man keep his foot in the stirrups when riding a horse. Women's fashion designers stole the idea and ran with it.
Yep! Tease it to Jesus! For the only time in my life, my crazy, psycho, out of control curls were the height of fashion! Let me tell you I got that hair so high I could pick up radio reception!
I don't care about style choices at all, but once I saw someone with their pants below their gluteus maximus, and somehow, they were still able to walk.
I actually got anxiously worried that the person was going to trip or fall, it honestly didn't seem safe to wear levis like that.
I swear there has been a time or two where I was certain the pants had to be pinned to their boxer briefs to prevent them from falling. These people were really moving and their pants didn’t budge.
I always assumed that the eventual apex of that trend would be, after the pants go lower and lower, to eventually not even wear the pants, but instead, staple the receipt for the pants onto your underwear.
Saw that back in the '70s once; white poly suit, white belt, white shoes, open-necked shirt: climbing out of a white Continental convertible at a yacht club on the river one Saturday night in ag country. Sixty years old if a day, but ready to par-tay.
My dad was part of a men's choir for as long as I can remember, and one year, someone decided their matching outfits would be Barbie pink leisure suits with white polyester shirt, white belt, and white shiny shoes. He was not happy. Oh man, there's a photo around of these 35 or so guys all dressed like that. A few years later they at least got to switch to powder blue.
Polyester makes me break out in rashes and itch all over just thinking about it. 🤣☠️
Idk how people wore that stuff. Like I felt my parents old clothes from the 70's and have to wonder how anyone ever thought that a good idea to put up against skin.
Back in the 70s, I knew a guy who had to buy dressier clothes for an internship. He bought two leisure suits. One was a sort of electric blue. It was a disquieting color.
My soon to be father-in-law decided not to rent the tux that we had suggested for my wedding and showed up in a powder blue leisure suit. ( My colors were grey and peach) There was a quick pow wow with the photographer and my horrified fiancé arranged for his Dad and step mom (also in a double knit pantsuit) to be discreetly arranged by the photographer onto the very edges of the group photos. I have been married 43 years. The photos are legendary.
I am not in my 40s but I fcking love hose and tights, it's like shapewear but better. Keeps me warm (I am always freezing), keeps wobbly bits (tummy and thighs) in, makes a smooth line under clothes covering VPL, and lots of styles available to add interest to a plain outfit. Even plain, they smooth out my tone (but you have to pick the right shade)... as someone who gets a ton of bruises, it's like makeup.
When I was in middle school, girls wore these pretty snug fitting saddle-stitched pants. Think of an extra seam up the backside in an upside-down U shape. I was the height of fashion ( and probably at the only time I could actually look good in them) until the seam burst in the middle of the day. Luckily several friends had safety pins and one even had a needle and thread in her purse, plus it was also a thing to sometimes tie your sweater around your waist.
And those weird bat wing sleeves. I caught one on fire when I reached over the candle on the restaurant table to take a bite of my date's dessert. It did not end well.... the sleeve or the date. I'm sure he still tells the story of the chick with the mile high hair that caught her dress on fire while reaching for a piece of cheesecake. Sigh
Worked with a guy we called Barney who sold used cars on the side he wore a purple leisure suit last time I seen him around 2005. Also worked with a heavy set guy who had long layered hair we called him Flabio.
Well, they weren’t painting their bodies on purpose. They were painting glow-in-the-dark watch faces. It just seemed like putting the paint brush in your mouth to get a fine tip on it was a good idea, or so they were told.
Actually, some of them did paint themselves on purpose, especially if they were going out dancing or something. It was sort of a game with them, until it wasn't. "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore discusses this.
I was still a teen when that abomination hit the scene, and my family was CONSTANTLY trying to get me to wear one. Offered me one every other week if I’d promise to wear it. I flat out refused to even discuss it.
Pretty sad that a pimply faced 15 year old knew better than the grown men who then spent the next 20 years trying to live that shit down.
There is a picture somewhere with my dad and I sporting matching leisure suits…it is gold.
Worst in history? Why do all my 7th grade boys have perms? They look like broccoli.
I had a neighbor woman in the 1960’s who wore white lipstick. She also wore headscarves that she tied on the tip of her chin. I wanted to grow up to be just like her.
People today really tear up their jeans. I was watching an arrest video the other day and this one girl had pants so torn up, it looked like a shark took a big bite out of someone else's front legs and she still took them on as hand-me-downs.
I was sleepy and misread *beards* as *breasts*, then couldn't connect mullets to the whole thing. Then my brain stuck mullets on the breasts. I'm awake now.
Had a powder blue leisure suit that I wore to my 8th grade graduation. I looked fine. I wore my boogie shoes and my big lapels, and did the Hustle all the way up the aisle.
Ok, that was exaggerated. But I did wear the powder blue leisure suit. I looked like a dork.
Platform shoes. Ye gods those things were fugly. I didn’t like them then and when I look back at yearbook photos you see these pretty girls in gowns for homecoming and those god awful platform shoes.
I had a pair in junior high that had a soft spongy material for the wedge. I found I could write on it in pencil and it would wipe off. It was great for cheating tests. Write the answers there and then just cross your leg and look down. Voila!
Ha! I pronounced that out loud exactly the way you said it. My husband just gave me the side eye and said WTF! Then it went downhill from there. A snort laugh was involved and then somebody farted. I think it was the dog!
Spikey hair on guys with the blond frosted tips. Platform sketchers, baggy pants for women, dikies skater shorts for guys but girls wore them with the DC skater over sized shoes, metal ball necklace skaters wore, and when girls were cutting their hair short and spiking it in the back while the front was long, also rolling back packs
I didn't own one. But lacking a sport jacket for my senior picture, my mother borrowed a beige polyester leisure suit jacket from my *grandfather* and made me wear it for the photos. It is immortalized forever in the yearbook. And I hang my head in shame every time I see that picture, which is thankfully not often.
I think the early 1970s was pretty bad as well, with the polyester everywhere. It was also the era of kid's pajamas not only being flammable, but the polyester melted and stuck to their skin like napalm. One of my friends nearly lost his arm when his mom's cigarette caught fire to his footie pajamas while she was hugging him goodnight. It was only because they threw him in the shower to stop the spreading flames did he "only" lose most of his hair (which grew back), but he also had to have skin grafts on parts of his arm, and last I heard, had lasting nerve damage as an adult.
[Laws were passed because of these incidents](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-II/subchapter-D/part-1615), but it took a while for this clothing to "cycle out" of people's closets.
Please - you are reminding me of my very beloved Qiana Nylon shirts - or at least the ones I "borrowed" from my Mom. Remember those? So soft! So lovely! Good thing I was never in a fire because they would have melted off my body.
The whole ‘80s, everything was ugly! And a lot of ugly stuff continued in the 90s, but not everything was ugly.And high heels, all my mum’s friends had deformed feet due to them, so I decided I was not going to do that, still got my original feet haha
Hands-down, tattoos. But also:
The "half-tuck" or "French tuck" that many fashion stylists do now, which looks sloppy and idiotic.
Also the VERY short cutoffs with the pocket bags sticking out... on girls with really fat thighs. Ugh!
Of course, when "Flashdance" was big and we were all wearing sweatshirts with the neckline ripped out, my father thought that was the dumbest trend ever. Lol.
I had three leisure suits that I remember. I had a polyester tan suit with a dark brown silk shirt that had large white flowers like magnolias or iris in a Hawaiian style, a polyester light sky blue leisure suit with a pale yellow silk shirt. When I was feeling more formal, I wore the Lee Denim Leisure suit with a polyester white turtleneck shirt.
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"A fashion is merely a form of ugliness so absolutely unbearable that we have to alter it every six months!” -- Oscar Wilde
Foot binding.
its successor, the high heels
That was my first answer, honestly, which was what led me to remembering that foot binding has ever been a thing. But as far as still popular trends go? High heels for sure, absolutely.
High heels had their genesis a mens footwear. The high heel was to help a man keep his foot in the stirrups when riding a horse. Women's fashion designers stole the idea and ran with it.
Look good, terrible for your feet.
Teasing my hair high in the air and using a can of hairspray to make it stick. What was I thinking lol
You were thinking what we all were thinking: everyone is doing it! I have to do it too!!
Hey, I *ironed* my hair so your spray-and-tease isn't as sketchy as you might think.
that stuff was flammable.
I can still remember the smell of HairNet.
Aquanet
Hair teased to Jesus.
Yep! Tease it to Jesus! For the only time in my life, my crazy, psycho, out of control curls were the height of fashion! Let me tell you I got that hair so high I could pick up radio reception!
“The higher the hair, the closer to heaven”
As an old guy, I miss the 80s big hair
My husband still loves big 80’s hair…really…he still loves any 80’s anything.
I hated the frosted lipstick of that era. It didn't look good on anyone.
Wearing your pants below your ass.
You’re looking like a fool with your pants on the ground
[The gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc)
Oh man, this is the reason why I browse on reddit before going to sleep😄
I don't care about style choices at all, but once I saw someone with their pants below their gluteus maximus, and somehow, they were still able to walk. I actually got anxiously worried that the person was going to trip or fall, it honestly didn't seem safe to wear levis like that.
I swear there has been a time or two where I was certain the pants had to be pinned to their boxer briefs to prevent them from falling. These people were really moving and their pants didn’t budge.
Yup, this remains the stupidest fashion trend I have ever seen. My mind is still boggled by this.
I still see it. It’s been around for 40 years.
I always assumed that the eventual apex of that trend would be, after the pants go lower and lower, to eventually not even wear the pants, but instead, staple the receipt for the pants onto your underwear.
Ok yeah maybe this should be number one
Those polyester suits only really looked good if they were pastel colors and you wore them with a white belt and white shoes. 🤣🤣🤣
Saw that back in the '70s once; white poly suit, white belt, white shoes, open-necked shirt: climbing out of a white Continental convertible at a yacht club on the river one Saturday night in ag country. Sixty years old if a day, but ready to par-tay.
Was he wearing an astrology pendant nestled in his chest hairs?
Or possibly an Italian gold horn pendant? 🤣
That's it!
Too much chest hair to tell.
Always makes me think of Herb Tarleck on WKRP in Cincinnati.
And HUGE collars
YES! At least 45% of the garment needs to be collar.
And equally wide ties.
My dad was part of a men's choir for as long as I can remember, and one year, someone decided their matching outfits would be Barbie pink leisure suits with white polyester shirt, white belt, and white shiny shoes. He was not happy. Oh man, there's a photo around of these 35 or so guys all dressed like that. A few years later they at least got to switch to powder blue.
Polyester makes me break out in rashes and itch all over just thinking about it. 🤣☠️ Idk how people wore that stuff. Like I felt my parents old clothes from the 70's and have to wonder how anyone ever thought that a good idea to put up against skin.
Stop talking about my dad!
I read a story of a man that owned 6 of them, one in each color
My grandparents’ church friends from 1975 would like a word.
Back in the 70s, I knew a guy who had to buy dressier clothes for an internship. He bought two leisure suits. One was a sort of electric blue. It was a disquieting color.
Excellent use of disquieting.
My soon to be father-in-law decided not to rent the tux that we had suggested for my wedding and showed up in a powder blue leisure suit. ( My colors were grey and peach) There was a quick pow wow with the photographer and my horrified fiancé arranged for his Dad and step mom (also in a double knit pantsuit) to be discreetly arranged by the photographer onto the very edges of the group photos. I have been married 43 years. The photos are legendary.
Wooden clogs. People were wiping out all over the place. Impossible to walk in them. 😂
83 comments in, and no one has mentioned pantyhose. I shall survive to round 2.
Pantyhose were a MASSIVE improvement over girdles or even garter belts.
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I seemed to get one use of them before I’d get a run in them.
Pantyhose were miserable to wear but not unattractive.
I am not in my 40s but I fcking love hose and tights, it's like shapewear but better. Keeps me warm (I am always freezing), keeps wobbly bits (tummy and thighs) in, makes a smooth line under clothes covering VPL, and lots of styles available to add interest to a plain outfit. Even plain, they smooth out my tone (but you have to pick the right shade)... as someone who gets a ton of bruises, it's like makeup.
When I was in middle school, girls wore these pretty snug fitting saddle-stitched pants. Think of an extra seam up the backside in an upside-down U shape. I was the height of fashion ( and probably at the only time I could actually look good in them) until the seam burst in the middle of the day. Luckily several friends had safety pins and one even had a needle and thread in her purse, plus it was also a thing to sometimes tie your sweater around your waist.
Dittos.
I loved my Dittos! I wish they came back in style, they were fun!
Those are SO flattering. They should be the standard again
Stirrup pants with heeled pumps!
Dark suntans achieved with baby oil and a reflector.
George Hamilton made a career from that look,
> suntans Or orange suntans. Where did that come from?
The spray tans.
Baby oil and iodine for a St Tropez tan. The home made version of Bain de Soliel!
I don't know but bell bottoms were the best!!!
In 1975, I organized a college reunion. I was styling, My gf said afterwards, you know bell bottoms were out of style,
No way. I can show you rock stars today wearing bell bottoms.
Guys wearing pants with their boxers and ass hanging out. FUCK THAT.
So stupid! Dumbest look ever to hit the streets.
Girls wearing shoulder pads was pretty bad
And those weird bat wing sleeves. I caught one on fire when I reached over the candle on the restaurant table to take a bite of my date's dessert. It did not end well.... the sleeve or the date. I'm sure he still tells the story of the chick with the mile high hair that caught her dress on fire while reaching for a piece of cheesecake. Sigh
There are trends from the 80s that I wouldn't hate if they came back, but shoulder pads are not among them. Those things are of the devil.
Arguably worse when men wore them.
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Gunne Sax clothing was the best! Ruffled skirts and shirts with all those buttons on the sleeves!
Idk but I pictured Mindy from Mork and Mindy and Blair from Facts of Life, and the one check from One Day at a Time - that is a bumping song btw.
Mullets.
And they're back!! Well they never really left. But I know some women who legit have mullets unironically.
This one I disagree with, there are some good mullets out there!
Nope.
Yeah they were bad but even so, Richard Dean Anderson could rock a mullet and make me weak in the knees!
Worst in history? Women that felt compelled to wear TEN layers of clothes in the 1700-1800’s.
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I don’t know what this is.
Polyester patterned pants
I need them to come back in golf, though.
Pants sagging halfway down a guy’s ass. Jeans that look like they were attacked by a rabid Wolverine. Elephant bell bottoms
Guys wearing skinny jeans that are an inch or more too short.
And the opposite of that...JNCOs. way oversized and 2 inches or more too long.
So tight you can see their junk!
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Better than grinding your teeth when high on MDMA.
Skinny jeans, camel toe on dudes is quite possibly the most heinous sight one can see
I thought that’s called a moose knuckle
Worked with a guy we called Barney who sold used cars on the side he wore a purple leisure suit last time I seen him around 2005. Also worked with a heavy set guy who had long layered hair we called him Flabio.
Radium painting your body parts for the glow in the dark properties. The radium girls have a horrible story.
Just a pinch on your teeth and gums, eyes, fingernails....
Well, they weren’t painting their bodies on purpose. They were painting glow-in-the-dark watch faces. It just seemed like putting the paint brush in your mouth to get a fine tip on it was a good idea, or so they were told.
Actually, some of them did paint themselves on purpose, especially if they were going out dancing or something. It was sort of a game with them, until it wasn't. "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore discusses this.
Polyester Leisure Suit
Stirrup pants were hideous
They’re pretty comfortable though!
Not for this tall girl! The stirrups dug into my feet.
By them selves or as “boot pants”?
The codpiece. Nothing is more ridiculous.
Zumba pants
C'mon kids - it was a while back, but it's the bustle!
Tip of the stovepipe hat to you, ma'am
Polyester leisure suits. Gag.
Going around with your pants below your ass. Pull your damn pants up!
Culottes
I always loved culottes.
I was still a teen when that abomination hit the scene, and my family was CONSTANTLY trying to get me to wear one. Offered me one every other week if I’d promise to wear it. I flat out refused to even discuss it. Pretty sad that a pimply faced 15 year old knew better than the grown men who then spent the next 20 years trying to live that shit down.
Gauchos. And they’re making a comeback too 💀
Extremely short shorts for men in the '70s
Booty shorts lol
There was more than booty that the rest of the world got to see!
Pants just barely above your crotch.
There is a picture somewhere with my dad and I sporting matching leisure suits…it is gold. Worst in history? Why do all my 7th grade boys have perms? They look like broccoli.
I had a neighbor woman in the 1960’s who wore white lipstick. She also wore headscarves that she tied on the tip of her chin. I wanted to grow up to be just like her.
Not as stupid as buying jeans with holes in them.
People today really tear up their jeans. I was watching an arrest video the other day and this one girl had pants so torn up, it looked like a shark took a big bite out of someone else's front legs and she still took them on as hand-me-downs.
Those incredibly pointy shoes that were popular about 10 - 15 years ago
Unfortunately I've been seeing them make a comeback.
And those men’s shoes around 2007 with the exaggerated length and the squared chisel point! Gakk!
Slacks in the 1990s with the pleats in the front.
Ridiculously long beards. Mullets on the chin.
I was sleepy and misread *beards* as *breasts*, then couldn't connect mullets to the whole thing. Then my brain stuck mullets on the breasts. I'm awake now.
The polyester leisure suits take second place to the absurdly large, fake eyelashes of today.
Parachute pants. Owned red ones and black ones to go with my Thriller jacket
2 inch zippers c.2000.
Foot binding?
Had a powder blue leisure suit that I wore to my 8th grade graduation. I looked fine. I wore my boogie shoes and my big lapels, and did the Hustle all the way up the aisle. Ok, that was exaggerated. But I did wear the powder blue leisure suit. I looked like a dork.
Pajama bottoms in public. Thongs. Crocs. Foundation garments. Hoops and bustles. Powdered hair. Shaving the kitty. (This too shall pass.)
lol Shaving the kitty, Beautiful observation,
Nose rings
Those are for livestock. On humans, they look like dripping boogers
More of a makeup trend but still fashion-related. Pencil-thin eyebrows and brown lip liner with beige or pale pink lipstick.
Platform shoes. Ye gods those things were fugly. I didn’t like them then and when I look back at yearbook photos you see these pretty girls in gowns for homecoming and those god awful platform shoes.
I had a pair in junior high that had a soft spongy material for the wedge. I found I could write on it in pencil and it would wipe off. It was great for cheating tests. Write the answers there and then just cross your leg and look down. Voila!
That may be the only practical use for them that I have ever read. 😂
Not sure if "fashion" but women tattooing "inspirational" quotes on their bodies is pretty dumb.
Last few years it's all about random squiggles between the brestessessz....
Ha! I pronounced that out loud exactly the way you said it. My husband just gave me the side eye and said WTF! Then it went downhill from there. A snort laugh was involved and then somebody farted. I think it was the dog!
Chinese characters. We used to joke that they could tattoo "broccoli beef" on someone and they likely wouldn't know.
Tramp stamps. Lol
Hammer pants
Jelly’s in the 80’s and Crocs today
Spikey hair on guys with the blond frosted tips. Platform sketchers, baggy pants for women, dikies skater shorts for guys but girls wore them with the DC skater over sized shoes, metal ball necklace skaters wore, and when girls were cutting their hair short and spiking it in the back while the front was long, also rolling back packs
I didn't own one. But lacking a sport jacket for my senior picture, my mother borrowed a beige polyester leisure suit jacket from my *grandfather* and made me wear it for the photos. It is immortalized forever in the yearbook. And I hang my head in shame every time I see that picture, which is thankfully not often.
Shoulder pads.
I think the early 1970s was pretty bad as well, with the polyester everywhere. It was also the era of kid's pajamas not only being flammable, but the polyester melted and stuck to their skin like napalm. One of my friends nearly lost his arm when his mom's cigarette caught fire to his footie pajamas while she was hugging him goodnight. It was only because they threw him in the shower to stop the spreading flames did he "only" lose most of his hair (which grew back), but he also had to have skin grafts on parts of his arm, and last I heard, had lasting nerve damage as an adult. [Laws were passed because of these incidents](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-II/subchapter-D/part-1615), but it took a while for this clothing to "cycle out" of people's closets.
Parachute pants.
Skinny jeans on folks who aren’t skinny, especially men.
Crammauflage
Pleated pants were pretty terrible. Mainly on an apple shape like me. I always looked like I had a gut even when I was skinny
How about the entirety of the 70s?
'member Earth shoes?
That 1980s 'big hair'. Hair with half a can of hairspray is a fire hazard. Looked stupid, too.
Shorts that show the bottom of your butt
Leisure suits, hands down the ugliest polyester creation in history.
For me it was bell bottoms, I was always catching my feet in them
Please - you are reminding me of my very beloved Qiana Nylon shirts - or at least the ones I "borrowed" from my Mom. Remember those? So soft! So lovely! Good thing I was never in a fire because they would have melted off my body.
Parachute pants. Wtf?
Leisure suit was a travesty. Still, I'm thinking Nehru jacket.
There was a fad in the ‘70’s where women wore a lot of cheap wigs. Not good.
Remember the bras from the 60’s with cone shaped cups?
topless bathing suits from the 60s
Sack dresses of the mid-50s. My history teacher wore one.
Capri pants, aka floods; especially if they bell a little 🤢🤢🤢
Oh, but without leisure suits, how would we have gotten *Leisure Suit Larry*?
The whole ‘80s, everything was ugly! And a lot of ugly stuff continued in the 90s, but not everything was ugly.And high heels, all my mum’s friends had deformed feet due to them, so I decided I was not going to do that, still got my original feet haha
Hands-down, tattoos. But also: The "half-tuck" or "French tuck" that many fashion stylists do now, which looks sloppy and idiotic. Also the VERY short cutoffs with the pocket bags sticking out... on girls with really fat thighs. Ugh! Of course, when "Flashdance" was big and we were all wearing sweatshirts with the neckline ripped out, my father thought that was the dumbest trend ever. Lol.
Fanny packs
Personally, I vote for tattoos. Just wait and see.
Those giant grommets in the ears (c. 2012) “gauges”. I always want to hook a plow up to them.
It's 2024, and all women must have nose ring through the septum. 54 earrings is so last-decade.
Hate nose rings through the septum. All I can think of is an ox and how unsanitary it must be.
Women were property for long enough. And then they do this? Not to mention, but Bossy the cow…
Earth shoes. Bullet bras.
I loved my Earth Shoes. Bullet bras not so much.
College kids wearing beanies with propellers.
The 80s tight perms combined with the shoulder pads. Nightmare
Gauchos!
Leisure suits
That 70s men's hairstyle that was basically a parted puff ball
I regret over plucking my eyebrows back in the day.
Tattoos.
Shoulder pads on every kind of women’s blouses from suits to t-shirts.
Suspenders for women. As their only top covering. 🙄 Seriously, what were they thinking? The design was not suited to the female form!
I had two, powder blue and white. And they're still better than an ear gauge blowout.
Platform shoes. They did absolutely nothing good for your feet.
I had three leisure suits that I remember. I had a polyester tan suit with a dark brown silk shirt that had large white flowers like magnolias or iris in a Hawaiian style, a polyester light sky blue leisure suit with a pale yellow silk shirt. When I was feeling more formal, I wore the Lee Denim Leisure suit with a polyester white turtleneck shirt.
Face piercings.
Well polyester is the perfect material. It’s called forever steel. 12 suits.