Holy Crap, 1983--pt. 3

Before you think that 1983 JC Penney catalog was only full of leftover 1970s comedy van crap, check out these cheapo vaguely New Wave-ish sunglasses. There was one tiny page of brightly colored, barely fun fashions for teen girls in this catalog and most everything else in the juniors' section was all very very preppy or secretary-ish and every bit of it was polyester or acrylic and it all stunk on ice. Picking school clothes out of this catalog sucked so much ass when I was in high school it wasn't even funny.

Why should anyone care?

Because I still have a purple pair. I recall they were better as a hairband than as sunglasses. These were rescued from that early '80s time capsule/storeroom of crap I'd left at my parents' house some years back that I hadn't gotten around to tossing. I didn't actually get mine from Penney's, they came from a trip I took with a high school friend to Myrtle Beach I think in 1982 or '83 and she accused me of buying them solely to embarrass her. I think she said the same thing about the spray-on copper junk I used to put in my hair and when I admitted I liked the band KISS in the 6th grade.

I was never embarrassing on purpose, it just happened.

As an added bonus, we have a shirt I had to have back in '82-83 which came from a tiny clothing shop that occasionally had hipper things than the other crap stores I was dragged to and made to shop for school clothes in. Note the boxy shape, asymmetrical fastening & collar, and the fashionable early-80s shoulder flanges. Bitchin'! Strangely enough, it still fits, though it's about 4 inches too short at the waist. I can't imagine that I've grown 4 inches taller since high school.

As soon as I can get some metal snaps I'm totally drafting a more fitted one in black, since I already have the fabric. I used to have an identical blue shirt that I would layer underneath the burgundy one that I think got tossed mid-80s. See, a black one with slightly bigger snaps could function both as Industrial or Victorian Mad Scientist gear.

Yes, it can. Shut up.


I had to have the shirt mostly because it reminded me of the shirt Mike Score is wearing in the 1982 Flock of Seagulls video "I Ran" and I think asymmetrical snappy-fastening shirts were all the rage back in the day. Pretty much asymmetrical anything was hep back in the early '80s. Haircuts, clothes, makeup, one long earring, belts that were 4" wide on one side and 1/2" on the other. Crap like that.

I'll get the 1980s out of my system soon enough and get back to an 1880s beaded watch chain I've been dying to make, and thread on a few more rows on the antique beaded purse.

Or take a damn nap.