The 80s power suit is so back. Should we be worried?
Right now, it feels like all the eras are trending at once. 70s hippie spirit through the lens of the nineties and noughties is having a moment as “boho chic”; late 00s and early 2010s messy, indie music-fuelled hedonism is trending under the moniker “indie sleaze”, and mid-century Old Hollywood style, though never really out, is particularly popular at the moment. As if that wasn’t enough, the 80s are enjoying a revival too.
While a variety of 80s trends have been popping up on the runways, from gaudy costume jewellery at Saint Laurent to bubble skirts at Dior, the standout trend of this season is the 80s power suit. Not an unpadded shoulder in sight, the suits coming down the runway this month are notable for their statement-making width. While they’ve been everywhere, significant examples include Acne Studios, Ferragamo, Versace and especially the aforementioned Saint Laurent.
The 80s suit is one of the decade’s definitive outfits, as it became the de facto uniform for career women entering the workplace for the first time. Inspired partly by the imposing, wide-shouldered silhouettes of 1940s Hollywood starlet Joan Crawford, designers such as Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Giorgio Armani and Yves Saint Laurent sent forth suits for women that screamed power. This was reflected and further disseminated by Dynasty, the American TV show which ran from 1981 to 1989 and was a fashion phenomenon. And, let’s not forget the eternal icon Grace Jones, the singer whose androgynous beauty is synonymous with the decade.
It’s no coincidence that the 80s were a time of profit-chasing and conspicuous consumption. The dominant ideology was neoliberalism: from Ronald Reagan in the US to Margaret Thatcher in the UK, it was a time where capitalism and individualism thrived unfettered, government spending was cut and public industries were privatised. Economic hardships were seen as an individual weakness (laziness or stupidity) rather than a systematic societal failing. A successful career and upward mobility became the ultimate priority: it was no longer about working to live, but living to work. The dominant yuppie culture of the time has been satirised in media, famously in American Psycho.
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