The Alternative & Androgynous Side of The 80s

“I really enjoy 80s fashion, especially the more alternative side of it. I usually go for an early to mid-80s look, about 1979 to 1985. Sometimes I wear more conservative, mainstream looks, and sometimes I tap into something a bit more alternative like new wave and goth (although goth wasn’t actually really a term used yet at the time!). I prefer a grittier, more realistic interpretation of the 80s than the neon and spandex fantasy that’s often remembered. I like how androgynous a lot of 80s fashion was, especially once you start to look a bit outside the mainstream.

A lot of my closet is clothes from the 80s or earlier, but sometimes I thrift more modern clothing if I feel it’s timeless looking or I can pass it off as something from the 80s or earlier. You really can do this for any decade of fashion if you truly understand the decade and know what you’re doing. I also regularly seek out clothes from the 40s-60s since it was what was being thrifted in the 80s, and it adds authenticity to my looks.

Fashion is cyclical, and you saw some repetition of 80s looks in the 2010s, and in turn, the 80s were often repeating silhouettes from the 40s and 50s.

80s oversized linen dress

80s cross pendant

black 80s lace dress

80s oversized linen dress

I also sometimes modify or make my own clothes for my more alternative looks because that was the norm in goth and alternative circles in the 80s. There was this DIY attitude about fashion in these circles that I apply to my own wardrobe. I’ve dyed a lot of stuff, cut things up and sewn them back together, knit weird things without using a pattern, worn things “incorrectly” (like wearing a shawl as a skirt or a necklace as a belt) – it’s like fashion anarchy.

When I wear more mainstream looks, I find myself drawn to a lot of the workwear of the 80s or something you might remember your mother wearing in the 80s. The 80s were an important decade for women in the workforce, and I really like the sharp, structured silhouettes of workwear that call back to the 40s (another important decade for women in the workforce!). It’s by far also one of the easiest types of 80s clothing to find in brick and mortar, un-curated thrift stores, because there simply isn’t a lot of demand for it, and offices are much more casual than they used to be.

80s Oleg Cassini shoes

70s Coach briefcase

80s silk blouse

80s Oleg Cassini shoes

I’ve always been a nonconformist in the way I dress, all the way back through middle school, so I suppose the people in my life weren’t too surprised when I started going down the 80s route. Like a lot of rebellious teenagers, I badly wanted to ’dress goth’ in high school but didn’t really understand the subculture or that the music was a critical part of it. I wore whatever black clothes my parents would buy me and ’borrowed’ black greasepaint from the school theater department to wear as lipstick. I got older and experimented more. Little 19-year-old me was cutting my own hair in the bathroom, shaving off my eyebrows, and dyeing stuff in my bathtub.

men’s suit vest

vintage lip brooch

80s loose pants

men’s suit vest

In about 2019, I started developing an interest in 80s fashion and music. Like many Gen Zers, I grew up hearing 80s music thanks to my parents, and I was starting to explore it further on my own. I saw the movie “Working Girl” and was fascinated by the office wear of the 80s. I remember back in 2019 looking for 80s makeup and hair and coming across a YouTube video by Violet Sky. I think she might have been one of the only people in my age group doing 80s-related content at the time.

I have a few books with photos of 80s alternative scenes at the time that I often look to for inspiration. They range from photos of people just out on the street to photos from iconic clubs like the Blitz and the Batcave, which were important clubs in the new romantic and goth scenes, respectively.

There are a few lovely photographers on Instagram who post their personal archives of photos related to these scenes, too; my favorites are @aboyarchive, @mickmercerwriter, and @derekridgers.

80s striped button down

80s pearl necklace

80s striped button down

A lot of what I wear is inspired by the music I listen to and the subcultures surrounding that music. I listen to a lot of 80s new wave, synthpop, post-punk, and gothic rock. Often, the musicians in those scenes inspire my looks. A lot of the looks popular in this scene were rather androgynous, so I look to both male and female musicians for inspiration: Siouxsie Sioux, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Marc Almond of Soft Cell, Annie Lennox of Eurythmics, and Daniel Ash of Bauhaus.

I also listen to what the people who were old enough to be in these scenes tell me about them and what they wore back then.

Most of the time they were thrifting stuff from the 50s and 60s and/or making their own clothes. This was a time before ’off the rack’ alternative fashion was easily available, so people had to get creative. For my more mainstream looks, I like to look through my mom’s 1984 yearbook or department store catalogs from the time.

I like to apply concepts used in art to my outfits. The ideas of line, visual balance, texture, shape, etc. I just mess around in front of the mirror until I find something that looks right.

80s plaid skirt

80s digital watch

80s red jacket

80s plaid skirt

Some of the best secondhand shopping I did was when I took a weekend trip to Richmond. Luxor is curated but relatively inexpensive, Carytown Thrift is incredibly cheap (everything less than $5 if I remember correctly), and Diversity Thrift is a large thrift store with low prices and a big selection. I prefer to shop from small, local thrift stores rather than large chains, and the prices tend to be lower. The little tiny ones affiliated with churches and run by volunteers have been where I’ve found some of my greatest finds. I love Gem, of course, because I can search multiple platforms at once! Some online platforms are definitely better for vintage than others. Ebay, Poshmark, and Etsy are my favorites.

The real trick to finding anything secondhand, online or not, is to look often, be patient, and know what you’re looking for.

You can either find something fast or you can find it cheap. If you want it fast, you have to pay a bit more at something like a curated vintage store, antique mall, or online vintage store. If you’re patient and willing to dig, you can snap up vintage for insanely low prices in thrift stores.

80s plaid blazer

80s swirl brooch

black porkpie hat

80s plaid blazer

It’s rare to find stuff predating the 80s in my local thrift stores, but occasionally I do find gems. I recently found a 40s or 50s slip just at my local thrift store, in excellent condition, in my size! I think it was $4? It probably would be about 10 times that much if purchased from a curated vintage shop or online. I don’t think they realized what they had, and I only found it because I knew what I was looking for and I check that store frequently. The next day, I found a skirt and gloves from the 50s at a different thrift store for about $5 each. I also found a pair of antique carriage boots from about the turn of the century at that same thrift store last year for $15. They’re my size and in excellent wearable condition, but the whole internet yelled at me not to wear them, so they’re just a display piece for now.”

Follow Mallory on Instagram @malloryheartsyou