Eighties Katie
November 10th, 2006 | Uncategorized
My assistant Katie was working here this afternoon. I asked her if she was doing anything fun this weekend and she told me she was going to an eighties party. It took me a while to realize what that even meant…shoulder pads? Cosby sweaters? But then I tried to think what I was wearing in the eighties. 501’s! I dug a pair up for Katie, which she liked. Then I started rifling through my t-shirt and political button archives. Katie chose my Oberlin Womyn’s Collective 1980-81 t-shirt. I also ran across the denim jacket that I bought when I came out. And my gigantic wire-rimmed glasses from 1984. I think she’s going to add a rolled-up bandana headband. But even without that crowning touch, the overall effect was quite eerie.
Katie allowed me to post this only if I promised to also post a picture of her without the dorky glasses.
46 Responses to “Eighties Katie”
Eef, that’s pretty authentic. The effect was heightened for me because as I saw the photos the radio was playing Huey Lewis and the News. I felt the intervening years flatten like tissue!
Oh My God! Your picture makes me realize that it is true, as my friends have told me, that I never escaped from 80’s fashion until about 2002. Literally, I wore that same outfit (including the glasses) almost every day starting in about 1985 (17 years!?), but my sneakers were Nikes, and the jacket was acid washed! In the 90’s I substituted with 90’s T-shirts, like the one with Marcie saying to Peppermint Patty “It’s a queer thing, Sir.” But everything else was the same. You should tell her to get some boxers to wear under the 501s.
Did I date her in 1985???
Good job, Alison and Katie! But … I just noticed her shoes…get thee some Birkenstocks or some combat boots!!
Glad there is some levity in the workplace!
Excuse me? I still look like that.
yeah, the only thing off is the shoes. Shoes that cool didn’t yet exist…..
awesome, though.
and adorable.
THANK YOU, JAIN!! Ditto here.
Why are 501s “80s”? Okay, I know how hard it is to find a pair of jeans that have not been bleached to death before you even get them out of the store, but I still go to Sears or Sunny’s surplus in search of a pair of NEW jeans. I admit, I don’t remember what the numbers on the rear pocket say, but I just don’t understand what is so nostalgic about 501s. Don’t they make them anymore? (clueless here)
if you’d said parachute pants I could see it.
In the early 90s I did buy a pair of button fly jeans and I thought those were pretty cool.
And I will also add that I bought my first pair of Levis around 1969. I bravely went into the men’s section of Sears to buy them. At the time, there were no women’s jeans. Just stupid pants with zippers on the side and no pockets. Having a pair of “men’s” levis was the most liberating moment of my adolescence.
Okay, I cede this discussion back to my honored (young) women co-bloggers now.
She needs some Doc Martins! I am so old……….I bought my first pair of 501’s when they were $4.99 a pair. Gawd! Now that I’ve had kids, they just don’t fit well. She is way so cute! 80’s or not! 🙂
501’s are still made. Bought some a couple weeks ago at Sears. Dark, dark blue too. 🙂
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the glasses. And I see the outfit as kind of timeless. Let’s not be “alternative fashion” snobs!
Allow me to say that as a straight (albeit rainbow-brite) man, that look is just as good as ever it was! The glasses wouldn work on everyone, but…
For those looking for good solid cheap jeans that aren’t too abused, try your local work-wear store–you know, the kind of outfit that sells coveralls for mechanics and quilted vests for truckers.
And yay for Silvio in ’69! I frequently shop the women’s shoe section for casual shoes because I can’t find anything narrow enough in the men’s section. And I still get weird looks. And clothes sold to women are still a disgrace, both in design and quality!
Doc Martens were pretty respectable dyke footwear back in the 80s, I seem to recall (or was that just a UK thing ?)
So.. apparently, I’m not stylistically impaired after all- I was simply born in the wrong decade.
560’s relaxed fit – ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Comfy to the nth degree. And I *still* buy my jeans in the men’s dept. (which requires a trek through the store to try them on) because wtf does ‘size 9’ mean? I want waist and inseam, dammit!
They don’t even make my size in women’s jeans – my inseam is too long. Plus, as Sillipitti said, “clothes sold to women are still a disgrace, both in design and quality!”
Oh, Katie! haha. Bring the 80s party to GA.
Gods yes, on the 560s. I’m not a big fan of jeans (I hike in wet weather, what can I say?) but those are the only ones yet I’ve found that can deal with the wushu thighs.
I was going to put in a vote for Converse high tops, but maybe that was just where I went to school? I think 1987 was the year I buzzed off all my hair and took to wearing men’s clothes…
I looked like this almost 24/7 until last year, when my poor Levis jacket went kaput and no replacement could be found for under $150. WTF is up with *that*? I just don’t understand buying trendy jeans with wear marks and holes pre-made. I want to make my own holes dammit. If that jacket is a two-pocket Levis, you might wanta hold onto that thing. Or sell it on Ebay.
I lived in Baldwin (the Womens’s Collective) 1999-2001, and DTWOF was a staple in the lounge. Now I’m a librarian and if I had the $, I’d mail a complete set to every library in the country. Long live the Collective and DTWOF!
OMG–Kate’s a dead-ringer (albeit 35 years younger) for “Polly,” a longtime local lesbian-feminist therapist with bad boundaries. Or, should I say, 1980’s boundaries. She invited eight of her clients to Thanksgiving one year, I kid you not. And they showed up.
I had a “Cat in the Cream” T-shirt for years and years until it eventually fell into tatters. For non-Obies, that’s a college run coffee house. More comfortable than the beery Rathskellar or too-cool Disco, it was a refuge. At the Cat, you could read magazines and put together jigsaw puzzles, both highly-regarded activities for the 1982 inverted pre-lesbian that I was while at Oberlin.
Years later, I returned for a reunion and gave a reading from my queer humor books at the Cat. I felt I’d redeemed myself, in some weird way.
I always wondered why so many lesbians wore clothes out of styel and thought that maybe they were being cheap. With all due respect to Alison’s assistant (who is wearing it as a costume) I had an ex who dressed like that and it left me with an impression (of being taken to the “cleaners”) that I care to remember. I’m happy to say that all old clothing from the 80’s found its way to a Goodwill box.
I always wondered why so many lesbians wore clothes out of style and thought that maybe they were being cheap. With all due respect to Alison’s assistant (who is wearing it as a costume) I had an ex who dressed like that and it left me with an impression (of being taken to the “cleaners”) that I DON’T care to remember. I’m happy to say that all old clothing from the 80’s found its way to a Goodwill box.
Yes, Doc Martins were the thing in the 80’s and they were so well made, they are still going strong! Not just a UK thing………..! I still love mine….especially with a dress or skirt.
i never knew you had a t-shirt archive! so jealous. that oberlin shirt is amazing! just make sure to tell katie to not let anyone spill a bartles & james wine cooler on it.
um, i’m still wearing doc martens and i’m 23. and no one has ever commented on my lack of style.
they’re just an all-purpose shoe.
(okay, my mom wouldn’t let me wear them to a wedding once.)
Oooh, I *miss* those glasses! The little sideways rectangular ones in style now don’t cover my peripheral vision worth a damn. And trying to squeeze trifocals into them makes them even more impractical. Long live the aviator style!
Just to clarify, I didn’t mean to imply DMs are out of style now. But as someone who came out in the 80s, I do recall them being *especially* in style amongst dykes then. 🙂
And I miss those big round glasses too. Looking both ways to cross the road is doing my neck a mischief these days.
I love the denim jacket – you don’t see many of those these days. I do remember (in Britain definitely) the early 80s were jeans with turn ups (the leg hems being turned up and the size/depth of them a matter of considerable debate). As I remember it had to be DMs or Timberland boots – a style that hit the straight mainstream about ’87 or ’88. Also a big Morrisey-style quiff for boyz or dykes and a pork pie hat was quite popular.
I have to admit that ‘gay’ style (?) doesn’t come into it if I go to an 80s party. It’s all Dallas/Dynasty, or New Romantic or Goth style, with as much attention paid to the party food we had then, a hangover from the 70s: cheese n’ pineapple hedgehogs, bowls of peanuts and ready salted crisps, prawn cocktail, boring salads. It’s really the music we go for. Though Bronski Beat/Communards ‘Smalltown Boy’ is mandatory!
Sillipitti,
Yes indeed, “clothes sold to women are still a disgrace”–you said it!
Now I am glad this discussion has turned to dyke styles. here is my recollection:
Since being a nature girl/hippie/tomboy preceded any awareness of being a dyke, that style morphs into the later dyke style for me:
In the 60s we wore out our own jeans, frayed the edges of the cuffs ourselves, sewed patches in quilt-like patterns (after Neil Young’s album -forget which one–with the picture of his quilted jeans on the back. –was it “Harvest”?)
In the 70s I was living in the mountains, camping, singing in coffee houses, and wearing clothes from Goodwill and the army surplus store. (very servicable, comfortable, practical, and cheap!)
In the 80s I was raising babies, being a post-70s earth mother, and wearing long skirts or dresses that were practical for both pregnancy and nursing. “Sensible shoes” were still preferred.
In the 90s when I came out, many older dykes like me were still in the 60s mode, but the younger women (at least in the Washington DC area) pioneered this look: Timberland or doc maartin boots, yuppie-khaki hiking shorts, STARCHED white button -down shirt with COLLAR TURNED UP, VEST, short moussed hairdo with DANGLING EARRINGS (the conciliatory “feminine touch,” i suppose.)
all the “lipstick lezzie” debates had started about whether it was pc to wear make-up, but you know, there were a lot of high-income women in the bars and they were thin, attractive, and they wore make-up.(They looked nice to me!)
Well the funniest thing is that gay men picked up this look (except for the makeup). I started seeing the same boots, shorts, shirts, and vests (although I don’t think the men turned up their collars.)
I did get a kick out of all this, because mountain women/tomboys/dykes in the late 60s were wearing the work boots (Knapp for instance) that those Timerlands were based on.
Fashions do migrate. Nothin’ wrong with that! I am sure many PhD theses in “Gender Studies” have been written on this subject…
I think there were strong regional variations in Eighties Dyke style, as well as generational and class divisions. During the early eighties, when 70s dyke fashion still held some ascendancy, in my firebreathing political crowd in San Fran we wore Dickies and Carharts in addition to button-fly jeans. (Unbuttoning was its own ritual.) T-shirts but they were usually hidden under layers (turtleneck or river-driver’s shirt, then flannel) because of the climate. Converse All Stars, yes in a range of colors, Birks with wool socks (see climate), Earth shoes, but especially boots, especially Vasqs or anything from the Redwing store (new boots were the one item of clothing acceptable to purchase new instead of from Purple Heart or St. Vinnie’s).
As the 80’s progressed and some of us dyed streaks in our hair, pierced noses, and discovered our ripped out knees were now trendy, a passion for drawstring pants took over. In particular, we’d buy chemical warfare balloon-style pants from an army surplus store in the East Bay, wash them a few times to get off the repellant coating, then dye them bright colors. Eventually a cottage industry arose, selling pre-dyed pants at the Ashby flea market. We’d wear these with shirts from C.P. Shades. The problem with these pants were lack of pockets — lesbians and their pockets. Even if they had front pockets, they were missing that essential tool for displaying your colored bandana, the back pocket. For those of us who wore colored hankies, of course…
katie’s so cute!
Gawd, I forgot about the balloon pants! Yes……..now in Oregon, crisp white t shirts with the sleeves rolled up along with the pants & doc martins. And of course the short hair cuts…….some with short in front but long in back. Birks are still standard as well as the Doc Martins. Red Wing boots were so cool and still are. That was if I was going a little “butch”. Usually I did the hippy skirt thing with the toga……or t shirt and my Docs. Along with tights. Very sexy!
To Katie from a couple of MHC friends:
You look fantastic in Alison Bechdel’s pants.
We miss you. Hope post-graduation is going well for you.
Talking about ancient fashion: Here’s an article published in today’s LibĂ©ration (the french newspaper which pre-released Fun Home). I did a lazy translation, involving Google language tools… also i had to scan the photograph from the “paper” paper.
http://traumfabrik.free.fr/articles.php?lng=en&pg=7
Colino,
thanks for translating that awesome piece! So poetic and introspective…I liked the link between the regulation about lighting more than one match as it applied to those four women.
DEB–please explain the “toga”!! I am envisioning Julius Caesar-like dykes promenading through San Francisco in their sexy tights and hippy skirts…but the effect I am getting is what “artistic” types wore in the late 1800s–picture William Morris’ wife “Janie.”
If you can post a picture, so much the better.
I am enjoying all the descriptions of attire through the ages…
Katie–I see I’m not the only college friend stalking you here, but you look awesome in those photos. I miss you!
Is this the same Katie that writes the As Seen in VT comic?
She looks cute-and hey, at least she doesn’t have a perm like I did! (Ugh!)
It looks to me like the usual Northwest hiker-chic that’s been a unisex standard around these parts for decades– except for the lack of waffle-stompers. I went shopping for walking shoes a few years ago and was horrified to discover that they all look like over-grown tenny-runners. Yuck! And those skinny rectangular specs look like dork glasses to me.
Alison’s t-shirt archive doesn’t surprise me. She appears to be a worse packrat even than I am, and I have at least two t-shirts that I still wear touting causes from the Seventies. As we all know, today’s fashions will look every bit as silly in ten years, or maybe five.
So when is the next Seventies party? I have my “Shirley Chisholm for President” button on hand and ready to wear.
Jana C.H.
Seattle
The conductor changes, the music remains the same –Old Italian Political Saying
well, maybe it’s almost time for a 90s party! I have a kickin’ t-shirt from the first Clinton campaign that says “Thelma and Louise for President!”
Colino, sorry for the word ‘toga’ though the impression you gave was quite nice………*ahem*..I should have said tunic. These were somewhat like a jacket but were much dressier. They were long, mostly sleeveless andvery colorful. The were worn over dresses or skirts and were to meant to be a compliment to the rest of the atire…..sort of coordinating the whole outfit. They looked like robes in a way……….billowing out when you walked. I used to wear them when I did speaking engagements, taught classes or did board meetings. They were classy and really comfortable.
o my goodness . . . I currently live in what I assume used to be the “Oberlin Womyn’s Collective”, except it’s currently in the process of changing its name to “The Baldwin Collective for Women and Transgender People”. amazing.
Hmmm, I was wearing rolled handkercheifs around my head in college, and I was BORN in the eighties…now I understand why my peers started calling me the karate kid. : )
Hi Katy,
I’m not the Katie behind “As Seen in VT”. I’m not a comic artist of any kind, alas.
Miz Katie, you look absolutely fabu. Whoa, snap.
Let me know if you need ever need to crash in Boston, and I’ll try not to be too busy curing cancer to spend some time avec vous.
I was unashamedly (and cluelessly) straight in the 80’s. more than the fashions, I remember the colors — cobalt blue, turquoise, 83 shades of pink (including fuschia), 64 shades of purple, teal, 48 shades of green. I miss them, and the dangly earrings (which I wore until I got my 3rd and 4th piercings).
am still in my infancy as a dyke. am unashamedly bi (maybe less clueless by now?), femme still, and have spent more time celibate since coming out than I care to admit.
I think I’ve said enough here . . .
If you take into account my middle name, my initials are MHC. Which college is it? I used to have a sweatshirt from Medicine Hat College, but I’m thinking it’s not the one you’re referring to ..
Came across your blog in a google search for “oberlin shirts” (looking for some new ones to supplement my Obie husband’s (Keep `90) collection). Looks like pretty much what I wore in high school and college in the late 80’s and early 90’s — definitely need Doc Martens or Cons, tho. Anyway, though you’d get a kick out of another quite different 80’s Oberlin clothing perspective that also turned up in my search:
http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/oamcurrent/oam_summer_00/lastword.html
JS