All of us who were old enough to choose our own clothing and dress ourselves during the 1980's should take a moment to pause and reflect. What were we thinking?

The 80s were the era fashion forgot. For a long time, golf was stuck in a 1980s sand trap. The clothes were ridiculously baggy and lumpy.

Few players stood out for their attire in the 80s, with the exception of the late Payne Stewart, who stepped into a fashion time machine, wearing plus fours, shirt and ties, calling it his contribution to preserving the history of the game.

Clothes worn in 80s:

As far as fashion goes, no decade is quite as no-no-notorious as the 80s. After all, in what other decade could you get away with wearing skin-tight pants one day and baggy "MC Hammer" pants the next? During what other time period could you wear leg warmers, a sweater and a miniskirt all at the same time (and in electric neon colors)? Take a walk down memory lane……….

In all of these fads, color was the order of the day. Think big color and color mixed in unusual ways (say, bright yellow with red) were considered totally tubular – to the max.

Shoulder pads may very well be the worst of the top 10 80s fashion fads. In fact, our online polls on this site indicate that you agree with that assessment, with an overwhelming majority of our site visitors rating shoulder pads as the worst of the fashions of the 1980s. Why on earth did we want to make our shoulders look bigger? I can’t quite remember. Maybe it had something to do with woman's lib and the assertion of power that women were beginning to have in the work place? Rank speculation. Whatever the reason, we wore shoulder pads often and we did so with pride.

Mini skirts ….The shorter the better… women and girls loved miniskirts. Denim was the most popular, but miniskirts were made in a number of other materials including knit and leather. These were often paired with leggings. This particular look has made a big comeback recently. The only people who weren’t wearing miniskirts in the 80s were men (ok, well some did) and elderly women.

Leg Warmers… Another of one of the 80s fashion fads that didn’t make a lot of sense was that of leg warmers. Maybe we all had really cold legs because of the miniskirts we wore or maybe we just thought they looked cute. Whatever our reasoning was at the time, at least one or two pairs of leg warmers could be found in every girl’s dresser.

Huge Earrings  - You know how cute Christmas ornaments look on a tree? During the 80s we thought the same would apply to our ears. Huge earrings from various costume jewelry collections were all the rage and if your earrings didn’t touch your shoulder, they weren’t big enough.

Stretch-Stirrup Pants - The stirrup pants version of this particular fad had to be the worst. Presumably the idea of fashion and being in fashion is to look as good as possible. These pants made NO ONE look good. They created a triangle-leg effect that made even the thinnest person look big. While many of these 1980s fashions are making their way back on the scene and into our stores, the stretch pants/stirrup pants trend needs to stay tucked safely back in the 80s.

One of the hairstyles that women coveted in the 80s was called "big hair" or "skyhigh hair." This involved teasing your entire head of hair so that it became about three times its actual size, but the biggest part of your hair was definitely the bangs.

You were to curl them, tease them, and then cover them with enough hairspray that when flattened, they would spring back to attention immediately. Some would say that the Aqua net used to hold this hair in place is a big reason our ozone layer is in trouble.

Another 80s fashion look for hair was the side ponytail. Mallrats and celebrities made this hairstyle popular and what made it even better was not only if you had your hair in the side ponytail, but if you added extra fun to it by crimping it (making it look wavy) or by adding the huge bangs along with the side ponytail. Pop icons like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany wore their hair this way which made it popular among all women in the 80s.

80's fads

Boom Boxes  The "ghetto blaster." The portable radio, with two speakers as a minimum, the heavier and the bigger, the better.

Rubik CubeThe toy that was a real pain in the butt to solve, unless you peeled the stickers or pulled it apart.

Skateboarding Skateboarding really hit a peek in popularity during the 80s, it seemed like everyone was doing it at one point.

Trivial PursuitThe game that made people start memorizing useless crap in order to win. Probably one of the biggest crazes when it came out though.

Video Arcades There are arcades now, but during the 80s, they were the *in* place to hangout.

Wrestling Although it has made a comeback in recent years, nothing even compares with the classic years of the WWF, and the NWA.

Break Dancing

Cabbage Patch Dolls