How to Buy '80s Clothing

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Rachel Yauens and I'm a freelance fashion writer and the owner of Austin's style watch dot com street fashion site. And I'm here to talk to you about how to buy eighties clothing. Now if you are a purist and you really want to buy clothing of the era you are going to need to go to some vintage shops. If you are going to look for eighties clothing there are a couple of little trademarks you're going to want to look for. If you are looking at more formal or kind of business wear, first things that you are going to look for is an indicator of the era is shoulder pads. That was definitely the career woman nine to five kind of look of the day, was big thick shoulders. So that's one thing you are going to want to look at to find real authentic eighties clothing. You also might want to look for kind of bizarre, tacky if you will coloring patterns. The next thing you are going to look at if you are looking for real authentic eighties clothing is things that are off the shoulder. You can find a lot of shirts cut in that ballet sort of flash dance pattern where they're cut off the shoulders but there were things made at that time that were made off the shoulder. So looking for things that naturally have that cut of the era, is a good indicator of eighties authenticity. Then next thing we are going to look at for buying eighties are belts. You can find these new in a lot of stores now a days, it's a look that's come back really big. But this is actually a vintage belt from the era. So looking for thick belts, and this was also a popular look a lot with the leather in the front and the elastic in the back so it would stretch with you. And other eighties look we want to talk about, and this is actually a little more late nineties but looking for vintage band t-shirts. This can be everything from Billy Idol to Madonna to NKOTB. Any of the bands of the era, if you want to do a little research online and find out what popular eighties bands were and then looking for the t-shirt section in your local Goodwill you are sure to find some good relics from the era. And finally leg warmers. You can get these new at a lot of places now but again if you are a purist and you really want to get them of the era, Goodwill again is a good place to start looking in the kind of sock and pantyhose section of the store. You might be able to find some vintage leg warmers. So if you are looking to dress authentically eighties this is how to do it."