Fuck Yeah '80s Mens' Fashions

My little Tumblr blog dedicated to the fashionable man of the 1980s. Think Gordon Gekko, Steff McKee, Templeton Peck, or The Scarecrow. The sort of guy who'd take you out for "sushi and slow dancing," with an apéritif of high-grade Columbian cocaine. Get ready for some Reagan-era sartorial excess!

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It’s been almost 3 years, so here’s a long-awaited (?) update to my teeny tiny niche blog. Here’s the always awesome William Atherton, my favorite hot red-haired bad guy, as Walter Peck in the original Ghostbusters. I couldn’t find any decent pics on google, so here’s some screenshots of him in his dapper three-piece blue suit.

Fashion wise, there’s some great attention to detail here. Not only is he wearing a silk tie, but he is even wearing a collar pin, which should come back into fashion. (Personally I wonder how a mid-level bureaucrat can afford such a tony Brooks Brothers style wardrobe-- check out this gorgeous illustrated catalog from 1983 for similar looks-- but that’s Hollywood for you, I guess.)

And here’s a shout-out to @titleleaf for getting me thinking about this stuff again!

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I haven’t updated this blog since... 2014??? But hey, here’s Sting in a rare non-period film role! He’s Martin the drifter in Brimstone and Treacle from 1982 (which has the most horrifying plot ever, and I wish I hadn’t read the wiki stub). But I’m not going to talk about the awful storylline-- just the clothes. It looks like a modernized version of the period mod outfits Sting wore in Quadrophenia. Anyway, is he really supposed to be a drifter? He’s VERY well-dressed. He’s even got a tie, FFS. 

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James Woods and Debbie Harry star in David Cronenberg's 1983 body horror film "Videodrome." Woods stars as a schlocky, sleazy (and doomed) TV producer Max Renn. How '80s is that? And how the hell can Woods make sleaze so attractive? In terms of fashion, he is rocking that nubbly heather-brown jacket, brown shirt and cream tie.  And the cigarette. Gotta love the ubiquitous cigarette.

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Robert Downey Jr. from The Pick-up Artist (1987), his first starring role. His eyes are so big and soulful, and his hair is so perfectly styled, but I find myself strangely distracted by the pink and blue neon in the background.

[colouredbills]

Don’t Watch Me Watch TV

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My God, that hair is PERFECT!

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Courtesy of the NYT. Cast members of the sketch-comedy TV show “Alfresco,” from left, Hugh Laurie, Ben Elton, Siobhan Redmond, Emma Thompson, Paul Shearer and Stephen Fry in 1983.

To me, one of the odd things about 1980s mainstream fashion, that it kind of looks modern (would you look too much at people on the street if they dressed like this?), but if you really look at it, it's off.  The high-waisted pants... the loose shirts... the feathered hair that could only be attained with special brushes.

Awwww, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry... you're so young! And Emma Thompson is barely recognizable, with her brown feathered hair. Huh.

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Remember HRG from "Heroes"? Here's an extremely young Jack Coleman as Steven Carrington in "Dynasty." I love how Max Headroom his hair looks. And the skinny tie... gotta love the skinny tie.

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The return of 1980s men's fashion, courtesy of McCalls! You've got swanky blond yuppie guys in suits, and a urbane Tom Selleck type in a pedostache. It hits all the bases and then some. 

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Matthew Broderick from 1988's Torch Song Trilogy thanks all you lovely new followers. I'm sorry I'm not the most dependable of posters... I am easily distracted. Yet I have not forgotten this little blog. The '80s lives in my heart.

Anyway, speaking of the '80s, Broderick's scenes in Trilogy are supposedly set from '73 to '79. However this ensemble looks pure '80s to me, what with the shortish blow-dried feathered hair and super narrow preppy collar. I don't really think they were prepared yet in 1988 for truly authentic 1970s costuming.

I remember when this movie came out. I was so excited, because I had a huge crush on Broderick because of his work in Ferris Bueller, Wargames and Ladyhawke. But a serious drama written and directed by Harvey Fierstein about the lives and loves of various gay New Yorkers in the 1970s was not really something that was supposed to appeal to tweeny preppy doe-eyed suburbanites in the late '80s.  And it didn't. 

My tweeny preppy doe-eyed suburbanite self was very sad.

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It's been a long time since I've posted to this Tumblr, but here's some man candy for you faithful followers. It's not a photo-- it's a romance cover done for an old category romance, "Here There Be Dragons," by Marianne Clark, back in 1984. The back blurb is delightfully purple and very "Dynasty"ish:

Handsome and famous TV newsman Gabe Whitfield was everything a woman could want --and everything beautiful Rachel Novak feared. When Gabe took over the old Whitfield mansion, he seemed to embody all the forces of change that threatened the historic town of Cade's Harbor, where Rachel worked to preserve and restore the treasures of the past. Rachel fought him tooth and nail--until her body betrayed her in a night of love that lived only for the moment, in the arms of a man who refused to promise more. Rachel wondered how she could trust Gabe and his glittering, globe-hopping life--until he left, and she discovered how achingly empty her safe haven was without his passion....

There aren't many clothing details here, but I like Gabe's pale straight-cut jeans, and of course his masses of feathered blond hair.

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Remember Anthony Edwards, the balding bespectacled doctor in ER? Well, once upon a time, he had lots of blond feathered hair.  I admit it, this is a look I actually kind of miss.

Here he is, striking a pose in Cold War thriller/comedy Gotcha (1985). You can't see much of his clothes-- well, apart from his suspiciously shiny leather bomber jacket and super preppy popped collar--  but man, that hair! Classic. 

[0rionis]

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Gotta love Bruce Boxleitner from Tron, in his feathered hair and gigantic rectangular early '80s glasses!

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Apparently in Kushiel's Dart the big whorehouse is called "Night Court." Seriously. Of course, I started thinking of the show Night Court and how John Laroquette would make a great pimp. He certainly wore some pimpin' suits, as in this pic. Look at that pocket square! And those clashing stripes! The '80s were certainly a great decade for clashing patterns. 

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No hot guys here, but I find this photo... sadly funny. It's Goldie Hawn in the 1984 comedy Protocol, an extremely dated comedy about an innocent airhead who saves an emir's life and becomes a diplomat. She ends up going to a Fictitious Arab Country with the unlikely name of Otah, and the Emir almost forces her to become his wife, because you know, because she's a blonde and he's a Lustful Arab Male.  And then Hijinx Ensue! 

... Yeah.

Anyway, here's a bunch of nebbishy looking guys in suits. Look, none of them are wearing American flag pins!

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And here's Bruce Boxleitner again in a 1984 promotional shot for Scarecrow & Mrs. King. Hellooo tight jeans! It was so sad, living through the '90s and the first half of the '00s, when jeans were universally baggy. I remembered when they were tight and showed off... a great deal.

I like his '80s sporty parka and turtleneck too, but who's looking at that? In any case, his cheap stretchy cloth belt amuses me.

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Chris Sarandon in Fright Night again, this time in the club scene where he seduces Amanda Bearse's character. I'm much less crazy about the gray sweater he wears here; it doesn't seem very... club-appropriate. But this is a great pic, just for the pure '80s ambiance. Pink and blue lights, yay!

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Here's Chris Sarandon from the original 1985 film of Fright Night, at the zenith of his hotness. Colin Farrell with his unibrow can't compare with the first (and best) Jerry Dandridge and his horrifying suavity. 

If I thought finding a pic of an older pic of Peter Davison not in costume was hard-- that was nothing compared to finding a high-res photo of Chris Sarandon that wasn't a headshot. Here you can see the texture of his coat, and the interesting rosette pattern on his blue-gray shirt. The colors, with the scarf, ties together surprisingly well, though that pattern is much bolder (or louder) than something you'd see nowadays. Compare to the plain dark gray Henley shirt that Farrell wore in the 2011 Fright Night-- I think the costuming in the 1985 movie is more interesting, as the layers and contrast of patterns, colors and textures says a lot more about Jerry's urbane character.