FashBlog.com

As anyone who grew up during the '80s would probably agree, there are a lot of fashion fads that I wish I had never taken part of. When I look at some of my old pictures, I can't believe what I was wearing, or worse, what my hair looked like in those days (how many cans of hair spray did I go through in a month?). Some of the styles I sported were either ugly, ridiculous, or just downright embarrassing. Here are some of my worst transgressions.

Do you remember the fad of wearing boxer shorts as regular shorts? This seemed to be more popular among junior high school girls than anyone else, although I distinctly remember doing the same thing a couple times during my first two years of high school as well. This might sound like a pretty strange thing to do for someone who didn't live through that era, but even major retail outlets like the Gap sold boxer shorts that were specifically intended as outerwear. Most of the shorts had paisley patterns because that was "in" at the time. Being the major loser that I was, however, instead of buying all my boxers from the Gap, I actually just went to the men's department at K-Mart and bought regular boxers from there. This was of course a mistake because these real boxers were made of material that was a lot thinner than the ones sold by the Gap. I don't even want to think about what might have been visible when I wore those shorts!

Another thing that bothers me when I look at my old pictures is that whenever I am wearing a shirt with a collar, the collar is up. I don't remember how that trend started, but it looks pretty dumb when I see it now. The collar up look was made all the worse when coupled with another '80s fashion faux pas, the rolled pants. Remember when everyone rolled up their pants cuffs? At my school, there was a certain artistry involved in rolling your pants. You never just rolled them up regularly. Instead, there had to be certain folds in the right places. You didn't want a loose roll, or one that was too tight. Wow, I can't believe all the mornings spent in the girls' restroom with my friends trying to get our pants cuffs looking just right.

Wearing shoes without socks is one more bad look that I remember from the '80s. This trend was started by the Miami Vice guys. I'm not talking about sandals or flip flops here. I'm talking about not wearing socks with regular shoes, such as loafers (don't forget to add the shiny penny) and even sneakers (like my Keds). That sounds pretty gross now, doesn't it?

It's easy to look back now and say "What was I thinking?" But it's pretty hard to determine which trends will be laughed at in the future. Looking around at what's popular now, can you make a guess as to which styles we will be shaking our heads at 10 years from now? Neither can I!