The Eighties Are Back

There have been some scary sights on the streets and in the stores of Edinburgh lately, and I'm not the only one who's noticed.  Friends have spotted it at parties and on campus, and I caught a segment on BBC news noting it's return.  Yes, it appears to be true.  I'm sorry to say, eighties fashion is making a comeback.

Giant plastic hoop earrings in bright colours or silver or gold and popping up on tv shows like Coronation Street.   While I have nothing against the scrunchie or the occasional hot pink accessory, judging by some of the high street stores geared at the 13-25 market, this trend is going far beyond my comfort level.  Tight, acid washed jeans have been seen in blue and, even scarier, red.   Remember M.C. Hammer?  Well, bright, shiny 'hammer' pants are back, and are definitely a look that I thought would only be remembered when catching "Can't Touch This" on MTV.

There's also oversized off-the-shoulder T-shirts with large neon print for sale.  And what does one wear with these large t-shirts?  Leggings!  Over the past couple months the trend of wearing coloured or patterned tights under a short denim skirt has been giving way to black tights under a long shirt (no bottoms required apparently).  Now leggings of every length, colour and material you can think of have popped up at Topshop and H&M.  There's ankle length, crop length and extra long leggings.  There's shiny black or grey polyester leggings.  There's leggings that look like denim, and there's neon ones (yellow and pink) which can be seen a mile away.  My particular favourite were Topshop's silver leggings, which would have been perfect for my halloween costume last year, when I went as a robot.

To be honest, my friend and I were so overwhelmed by the amount of choice when it came to rediculous leggings that we gathered up several examples for a quick photo before tossing them back onto the rack, staggering outside onto the street and doubling over laughing.  Maybe its because we remember seeing all the cool kids at school and on tv wearing these items, and how silly they looked in retrospect.  It has taken years just to get our guy friends to stop wearing pleated pants with tapered legs.  And now its all threatening to come back.  I think I'll stick with the seventies, myself.