Corey and I are both very easy breezy people. We were both okay with any topic for our project which was both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing about it was that we had the whole world of fashion open to us. The bad thing was that having the whole world of fashion open makes it hard to narrow it down. Eventually, we did narrow it down though. We have decided to focus on the fashion of ’80s because I hate it and he loves it. I think these conflicting views of the era will keep our project interesting to us both and will help us maintain a balanced view on the fashion at that time.
After deciding on our decade, we wanted to narrow down our topic of research further. What about the ’80s is so compelling? After our discussion in class on ’80s fashion we decided we wanted to explore the relationship between gender and clothing in ’80s fashion. We noticed that women wore shoulder pads to appear more masculine and some men grew their hair long (hair bands) which gave them a more feminine appearance. This was also a prominent time for the androgynous look. We want to explore more of these gender norm bending trends in the ’80s to understand the origins and motivations of such trends.
One thing we had to keep in mind as we narrowed down our topic is the resources we have available to do our research. I had mentioned in class that most school libraries keep an archive of old school yearbooks. We intend to look at those yearbooks to see what people in Fredericksburg, VA really wore during the ’80s because average people tend to have more subdued looks than those of the celebrities at that time.
We will also have to conduct interviews. I plan to interview my fashion history professor to get a scholar’s view on fashion in the ’80s and since he lived through the ’80s he can also give a first hand account of what he saw people wearing and what he himself wore. We will also likely talk to alums about what they wore in the ’80s and maybe even a few current students who are wearing ’80s trends today.
Fredericksburg is also rich in antique shops so perhaps we will be able to find some clothes from the ’80s in one of them to document and try on.
Hi, Abigail. These are great starting ideas. Very interesting. I like the dichotomy between your different views of 80s fashion, too! Something else to think about–your school’s public relations department may have videos they created during the 1980s to showcase the school? What technological resources are you thinking about using? Dr. Brown