Not so much fashion
as a Costume.
Picture the scene, if you will. It's the day before The big school trip to some random castle. And it's meant to be fancy dress. medievil style, sad, i know.
So as fast as my ten year old hands can go. i take my grey tracksuit and cut off the legs, arms and hood, steal a pair of my sister's tights and cut up the hood to look like a random hat.
I was meant to look like a serf. i didn't
At the time i thought i'd done an amazing job. but in hindsight. i looked a right pillock.

It's not cold in here. just realy small.
( Willwillwritehiswill An arse like a slapped face., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:39, Reply)

Shudder...
Bryanston School, Blandford Forum, c.1987, saw the hip young chaps wearing blue moccasin-style deck shoes with white laces and thick woollen hiking socks. You may know who you are...
( PastorSauce : easy on the anchovies..., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:37, Reply)

Fancy dress
Slight O/T, perhaps? Meh. Try dressing up like Eric Draven, or at least attempting it. However, I ended up looking more like Kiss on a bad day. I walked through Sheffield town centre looking something like this:



By the way, I won the fancy dress competition.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:26, Reply)

Some kind of spiderman, like?
(reposted from fancy dress - even more appropriate here!)
Every few Saturday nights at Rockshots in Newcastle, about 8 years ago, there was a theme night. We'd check the flyers, hit the second hand stores and produce something ridiculous but fun. The tackier the better, the camper the better, the cheaper the better - once the drugs kicked in everyone looked brilliant anyway :)
Halloween and I tried to wrap myself in bandages - you'd think ten metres would be enough but it barely did me arms and legs! Ended up putting on a white dressing down and doing me arms, half me face, and me legs from the knees down! That's about the level of quality of fancy dress we're talking here, okay? Imagine how well safety pins kept it together after an hours dancing and you'll realise how glad I was I'd a dressing gown with me!
So one week, and I can't for the life of me remember what the theme could have been, I had to go as a cat. Couldn't afford a catsuit - we were all on the dole! I ended up with black tights and a black bodysuit, black socks on my arms and hands, a cat "eye-and-ear mask" cut from a cornflakes packet and painted black, black shoepolish on my nose in a triangle, and the piece de resistance, a tail! Or rather a long black sock stuffed with rolled up newspaper and safety pinned to my arse! Fantastic! Gimme a pill, please! Let's go party!
We arrive together and I realise I've forgotten me cash! Fuck! There was only one thing for it - time was short and it was cold out! I flagged down a taxi and hopped in, carefully putting my tail on my lap as I did so.
The taxi driver, to his credit, didn't yell in his best Geordie accent that I get my freakish self the fuck out his car. He just said, "What are ye then? Some kind of spider man, like?" as the pill started to come on and I gigglingly tried to explain that I was a cat, man.
(foolish_child, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:24, Reply)

Yeah!!
I only really found out/noticed peoples dodgy makeshift costumes overt the last year at Uni.

Someone that lived down my corridor decided to go to a pimps and ho's event as Frank-n-furter from Rocky Horror, after scaring everyone and taking part in werid games he got smashed out of his mind and spent the whole evening running round halls with a group chasing him and hiding in showers (one kid went for a pee looked in the mirror and screamed when he noticed frank-n-furter behind him in the shower cubical). He later locked himself in the shower came out later and was restrained in his room!

I went to a services party (come dressed as someone in a service) once as the new Dr. Who, does that count?
(The lord Boo., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:15, Reply)

waistcoats,... so so wrong
Back in 1995 there was something of a fashion for black waistcoats... if you were trendy nightclubbing.... maybe.

SO, being a bit skint I used a pattern and my mums sewing machine to make one. This was to prove a mistake as I wore it during the day. Including on the day I moved into the university halls. A black waistcoat over a white collarless shirt.

Thinking back I must have looked like I was Amish... or had been on a spending spree in "Top Man".
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:05, Reply)

So it's not exactly my story.
But there are many posts on here about the terrible, unforgivable "trends" started by wannabe gangster kids.

Of course, everyone's seen the classics:

- 1 trouserleg tucked in to socks
- Trousers pulled down over bum cheeks
- Baseball caps done up so tightly that they just perch on the head, looking as if they;re going to blow away.

Living in "The Hood" in Hackney, i get to see the new ones, as they come out. Here are a few of my faves:

- Afro comb stuck into your hair, sticking out at a jaunty angle.
- Price tag left on all your clothes. Looks particularly good with baseball caps.
- T-shirt with one arm on, one side pulled up over the opposite shoulder.
- Du-rag worn sideways, covering one side of head.

It's hard not to laugh openly at them.
( 100% Cock Raw like carrots., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:05, Reply)

Flecks
does anyone remember these beauties. Basically looked like your regular black school trousers, but with stylish white flecks all over them. weren't the 80s wonderful?

I used to have a penchant for baggy colourful trousers. used to have a nice blue and black small check pair that I wore in 6th form. used to get the piss taken by the scum on the bus saying they looked like pyjamas. one day I put them on and thought, my god, they feel like pyjamas....

also got my mother to make me a pair of baggy trousers out of this godawful patterned orange and purple fabric....think I wore them twice, once into town (mistake) and the second time I tore the pocket when I caught it on a doorknob
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:04, Reply)

when I was 14 and a bit gothy
I made a little sign that I pined to the back of my T-shirt that said "stare at me, I'm a freak"
(rubber sponge In Austria they call normal bread 'toast', Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:01, Reply)

Invented the Rucksacks in London trend...
..didn't go down with the police well though.
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:00, Reply)

This brings back some hideous memories
Circa Mid Nineties in the height of Miami vice fame....
Yup as a 13 year old in rurual Buck's / Herts I wore a shiny suit from Top Man with a grey shiny shirt, thin black leather tie and espadrils....
I wore it once in Aylesbury Hi Street and had the piss ripped out of me by every youth that passed
( M o D, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 17:00, Reply)

school uniforms: not just for children any more.

QUOTE:
This involved rolling the top of my skirt up many many times,until the bottom of my (rather chubby) arse was hanging out the bottom. This was worn with chunky high heels and knee high white socks... I looked like such a vile little whore!

OK - now I have an answer for the pervert question.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:53, Reply)

my friend wears what his girlfriend describes as

'Care in the Community hats'.

They're similar to this:


(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:50, Reply)

Circa 1986.....They were the days !!!!!
I remember being 14/15yrs old, fashion was...

Y Cardigans
Waffle trousers
Paisley Pattern pink shirts
NFL clothing ('The Fridge' T-Shirt was my fav)
Chino's
and Ocean Pacific T-shirts
(suntoucher, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:50, Reply)

Flake badges
There was a time when confectionary and crisp wrappers shrunk when heated in the oven. They went all 'quaint' and doll's housey, remember that? The writing was still legible, just.

They could be made into delightful badges. Flake and Walker's crisp packets were my favourite. And I wonder why I was bullied.
(Countryslicker, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:49, Reply)

(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:44, Reply)

In the 80s
I thought i was so cool in my black and silver flecked trousers and slip-on shoes.

Later on, i was very avant-garde, wearing my giant grey world war 1 trench coat.

Even later on, i was well sorted in my far too baggy rainbow coloured jumper with a big question mark emblazoned on the front, with my carrot-top-like green dreadlocks sprouting out of my head.

More recently, i have had cropped hair dyed red, and when wearing a beige t-shirt and combats i was asked by some kids if i was meant to be dressed up as a swan match.
( 100% Cock Raw like carrots., Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:43, Reply)

Young whore
I seem to have school uniform issues...

When I was in junior school (would have been about 10) I had a mad crush on a boy,and so did my best to impress him... This involved rolling the top of my skirt up many many times,until the bottom of my (rather chubby) arse was hanging out the bottom. This was worn with chunky high heels and knee high white socks... I looked like such a vile little whore!

On my last day of school,when I was 11,I had to leave early to go to a gig,so my mum came to pick me up. She came and found me in the playground and humiliated me by unrolling my skirt on front of everyone...
(Miharu, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:42, Reply)

Safety pins
I also did the affixing-badge-to-blazer-with-safety-pins trick. My head of year threatened to expell me which was a wee bit harsh I though...
(Miharu, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:36, Reply)

School daze
At our school there was one blazer for 1st to 4th years and then a different one for 4th years and up. The first was made of that foul, thick, felty blazer material and was a kind of royal blue. The older kids wore a normal cotton, dark navy-blue blazer, both emblazoned with a school badge on the breast pocket [Cheerfulness with Industry - I kid you not].

It would have been the fateful year of 1977 when we finished our fourth year and punk had just launched itself swearing and spitting upon the world. Me and my best mate were North London (sub-urban) punks (don't think green mohicans and bondage trousers, they came later; think drainpipe jeans, torn t-shirts, loads of badges on an army surplus bomber jacket, and 10-hole black D.M. boots).

So...the last day of term, the last day of the dreaded blazer, I had a brain-wave: I tore the school badge off the pocket of my hateful blazer and re-affixed it with safety pins: genius!

I think my 'cool rating' soared from about 5% to nearly 15% that day.

My mum gave me a good telling off though.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:24, Reply)

oh god
when i was 11 or 12, i desperately wanted an ellesse tracksuit, like all the other kids. God bless em, poor parents must have sold a kidney to buy a knock off one from the market. It looked cheap, everyone knew it was a copy, and because my mum is a vicious bastard, i was made to wear it to every school outing, cue much piss extraction. to cap it all, i was a roly poly ittle bastard, and it fitted me like a surgeons glove.
which reminds me of the photo knocking about of me in skintight dark navy jeans, and a baggy yellow tshirt. I had to be poured into them jeans.
oooh, and the time we had a french exchange student over, i was about 14 then. baggy jumpers tucked into me jeans with a belt. but being a scuffer, they were invariably cheap nylon ones from t'market, rather than the horrifically expensive things my classmates wore.
I remember I had hair like rick astleys, but even more quiffy and with the sides swept up. much hair spray involved.

just a word of warning to people on average incomes - sending your kids to a grammar school on a scholarship will only result in them developing a hatred for the people you're trying to get them to emulate, with their sports cars and 3 holidays a year and sski trips and band practise and more money than fucking sense (one girl was bought a golf gti for her 16th birthday, so she could practise around daddys estate ffs)

bitter? only after eating asparagus!
(kaptinkurtz, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:17, Reply)

nooooo, too many!
Anyone who actually noticed me at 6th form where we had to wear our own clothes would probably remember. I yearned for the white shirt and blue and yellow tie with blue jumper because otherwise, I had no bleeding IDEA how to wear clothes. Some highlights include:

1. Green kakhi combats with a bright pink fuzzy rollneck angora jumper. ( Think I was attempting punk, but punk only seems to work if you're ickle )

2. Lots of rollneck jumpers despite the knowledge that even getting down to victoria beckham size wont remove my double chin.

3. Bright Green festival ( "rave"? ) canvas trousers with a cream primark men's jumper in XXL and a black and white bobble hat with flaps on the side and tassles down the sides as well. ( I *think* I was attempting skater ).

4. on "smart" days, clown style baggy grey trousers with ANOTHER rollneck jumper.

5. In the spring and summer, a reliance on my mother's clothes before she lost about 4 stone in weight: So lots of what I call "Jesus shirts" ( those linen things without a collar ), one with bells on the tassles.

6. Lots of 80s jackets ( it was 2001 ) with giant padded shoulders and brass buttons off my mother - an attempt at "nautical" I think.

7. Homemade belts from wooly scarfs, random bits of fabric, one time a bin liner...

8. Salt dough brooches - usually a cottage or a doll.

Even with the school uniform I couldn't get it right. My idea of rebellion in a bog-standard comprehensive where most people had mastered the vicky pollard style to school uniform was a giant knee length pleated skirt in year 10 ( I had to *beg* my fashionable mother to get me one ) , knee high blue socks and bright green gortex hiking boots. Going further back, we have my addiction to floral dresses from children's world and mothercare when everyone else in my school were preparing for the vicky pollard stage by wearing makeup and jeans with camisole tops and suchlike...

And the best one? One knitted waistcoat, complete with 70s craftbook style embroidered flowers and birds in primary colours with sewn in circles of "mirrored" plastic. I got it at 11 and kept begging my mother to let me wear it again as a teenager, even up until the age of 19 "oh come'on, the people at college will love it!".

Looking back, I don't regret one IOTA of any of these, even the combo that provoked the response from a friend "if you wear that again I'm not hanging round with you anymore".

Especially since now I work in a nail salon and they like making the nails really long and putting a different design on each one... ;-)
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:14, Reply)

Every little helps...
Not me, but my friend told me recently how her and her sister used to dress up in clothes made out of Tescos bags. Apparantly they used to go swimming in them and everything. Well, they were villagers. And 8. So I think i'll let them off.
(NexusWR Long time listener, first time caller, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:08, Reply)

frankiespencer, I feel your pain
Such was my urge to have trainers a la mode in primary school, when I finally did get them (black Hi Tecs) and the big fluffy tongue was ripped out one day playing football, I used to put it back in and carry on playing.

This went on for about three years - a game of football would stop as my friends would kindly point out a black chunk of fabric somewhere, allowing me time to re-insert it. The shame. Oh the shame.
( prem1um is full of life, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:08, Reply)

Disco twat
One of my first times going to a "regular disco", you know, a nightclub with godawful tunes and too much drink. i think i was 15, and had got the wrong idea about it. from somewhere in the 80s.

so amongst everyone else in their jeans and de rigeur untucked check shirts was me, in black shoes, white socks, white jeans, black belt, white turtleneck, and black shades. i must have looked like some sort of gammy liquorice allsort.

of course, i realised i looked like an idiot after about 2 minutes in the venue when i saw what everyone else was wearing. i hate my parents for letting me go out at the time dressed like that and not saying a *word*. bastards.
( fross Read your email on, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:07, Reply)

My mother made me an outcast
Like any youngster, I wanted to look like my peers, but my parents had the temerity to be poor, and insisted on saving money at the expense of my appearance.

I begged and pleaded for a Star Wars T-shirt, and finally my mother gave in. She bought me a second-hand t-shirt a size too small and with a giant iron mark all but obliterating the image on the front - a perfect outline as if someone had left a hot iron there for a couple of minutes. I was 7 - I wore it anyway.

Next it was Puma trainers. Everyone had them at school and I was wearing some rip offs from the market. Then one day my mother returned from a shopping trip with a spanking new pair of white Pumas. I wore them with pride to school on Monday morning ... when my schoolmates helpfully pointed out that the name written in gold on the side was Tracy Austin (or Virginia Wade, or something). They were girl's trainers. I was 12. I wore them anyway.

Then it was Farah trousers and golf jumpers. My mother picked up a pair of Farahs second-hand. They were shit-brown and two sizes too small. No problem - she sliced a 'V' of material from the back of them and inserted a bigger 'V' of black cord. Result - now I looked like a feckin' retard who'd shat himself! And yes, I wore them.

Now I wear cardigans. My favourite one has leather patches on the elbows and brass buttons, both added by me.

I have no friends and I am a virgin. THANKS, MUM!
(frankspencer, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 16:03, Reply)

Whisked Hair
A few years ago I went through a young teenage obsession with growing my hair and styling it in numerous awful ways.

I had read an article that punks in the 70s used egg whites to gel their hair. Thinking this would make me look extra cool with added retro points I cracked an egg and whisked it up before putting it in my hair.

Of course I had forgotten about not using the yolk and after 2 minutes of convining myself it would work out alright I ran to the shower.

I use my own clippers now.
(cool dry place, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 15:48, Reply)

Embarrassing mum fashion
My mother is an identical twin. She is Charmaine, her twin is Sharon. Charmaine and Sharon. Say it in an Australian accent. Yes. She and her twin sister go out shopping together several times per week. Picture this:

Two identical women (same haircut and make-up style, too), both wearing white skirts, and pink coloured halterneck tops, carrying black handbags, each enquiring as to whether certain items of clothing would look good on "us" (not "I" - "us").

And also please acknowledge the fact that this appearance was made at my place of work (retail store), during my first shift.
(talbo, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 15:47, Reply)

ALF
When I was 11 (so, 1987), I wore an Alf (a television character) t-shirt with red sweatpants (tracksuit bottoms) to school every Tuesday.
The problem with this is that Tuesday was the day that all the "gifted" kids from the entire school were sent to their own special class all day, instead of attending regular classes. So that's all the other gifted kids ever saw me in, the whole school year. I'm so embarassed.
(chase, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 15:40, Reply)

Oh yeah
during my Robert Smith phase when I was in the 6th form, I got my mum to knit me a big, black cardigan
( Weetobix, Thu 24 Aug 2006, 15:37, Reply)