1980's Pic - skirts were the norm?

[FranTastic444]

I've just seen this picture of a town center in England from 1980. All but one of the women in the shot are wearing either a dress or a skirt. I wish there was an annual photo from this same spot so we could track the progress of the skirt and dress falling out of fashion as an everyday garment.

Maybe there is bias in this photo - I'm guessing that there is a certain type of demographic that would get captured in such an image on a midweek day in an industrial town. Maybe if it were a weekend there would be a lot of kids around (all wearing jeans, no doubt) as well as adult workers who were off the clock. Or, if the location was somewhere a bit more cosmopolitan (don't talk to me about sophistication - I've been to Leeds) then maybe the rein of the skirt / dress would already have looked to be on the wane (in the UK, at least)?

[Jim]

Are you just assuming that everyone in a skirt or dress is a woman?

[crfriend]

Are you just assuming that everyone in a skirt or dress is a woman?

That would be a fairly safe assumption for the time. But the photo is "unusual" to this US boy's eyes because in the 1980s the dumbing-down of clothing had largely left skirts and dresses off the table for women unless they were at a formal event of some sort.

However, that having been said, the first encounter I had with a guy in a skirt -- who was NOT trying "to pass" -- was in the 1980s on the Boston Metro. So there's that as a data-point as well.

[Myopic Bookworm]

But the photo is "unusual" to this US boy's eyes because in the 1980s the dumbing-down of clothing had largely left skirts and dresses off the table for women unless they were at a formal event of some sort.

I was at university in the UK in the 1980s, and skirts were certainly still widely worn, not just by older women but among my contemporaries. Dresses were perhaps more uncommon, but summer dresses were a thing, and a woman in trousers at a formal occasion would be accepted, but perhaps assumed to be making a feminist point. I had one slightly older female friend who only ever wore a skirt if university regulations demanded it, but she seemed unusual.

[STEVIE]

I've just seen this picture of a town center in England from 1980. All but one of the women in the shot are wearing either a dress or a skirt.

Hi Fran,
Assuming they are actually women, all bar one would appear to be at least, middle aged.
By that token, their "choices" would be narrower than for the younger generations.
Judging by the clothes, it's also a warm day and yes, skirts and dresses, much more in evidence.
1980, I was 22 and still studying and my female peers would have had pretty much all the fashion freedoms available today.
My female elders would rarely, if ever, have worn trousers except in very particular circumstances which by 1980 didn't occur.
It was the fashions themselves that were actually different, girls had the whole repertoire and men even enjoyed a wider spectrum than today.
The 1970s saw a huge shift in menswear that, had it been sustained, we may now have gained the total freedom which should be ours anyway.
Sadly, we are now in a state of bland mediocrity clothes wise apart from some who will resist or go down in glorious technicolour.
Steve.

[crfriend]

The 1970s saw a huge shift in menswear that, had it been sustained, we may now have gained the total freedom which should be ours anyway.
Sadly, we are now in a state of bland mediocrity clothes wise apart from some who will resist or go down in glorious technicolour.

Yes, the 1970s were really the last gasp of hope for male fashion, at least for my time on this miserable rock. And if this means I have to resist or go down in glorious Technicolor I shall. Resist, certainly -- and there was some more friction on the matter of my appearance this evening with two separate women who seemingly want to turn me into a corporate drone. I fought back -- and got backed up by another woman at the bar. Go figure.

[STEVIE]

I fought back -- and got backed up by another woman at the bar. Go figure.

I get it Carl, not happened to me personally, but I'm not surprised either.
My current gripe is even more basic.
Over the past few months, I have been told what a "nice" guy I am and all by women of my own vintage.
Yesterday, I invited one of them to join me for a coffee and, guess what, not even a reply.
I will never try to be Mr MacHo of the Heemans but, hell I see the attraction for some.
To be completely impartial, men are just as responsible for this as women are, perhaps more so, we allowed it by complacency and inertia.
From another thread, am I a feminist, no I am a Mehumanist.
As for figuring it out, down that road lies madness.
Steve.

[greenboots]

I went through high school in the mid to late seventies - admittedly a boys’ grammar school. School uniform for the girls’ grammar was brown pleated midi skirt. Looking back, I think I was curious as to what that might have felt like.

Anyway, back to the topic in hand: I was shocked when, in my 5th year, we went comprehensive and co-ed. Some of the new first-year girls wore trousers :-0. I was also shocked when one of my female teachers wore trousers to school. This suggests that skirts were still dominant but that norms were a-changing.

I can’t remember much about fashions at university. I vaguely recollect trousers being common but skirts still prominent.

[If anyone is unfamiliar with the terms grammar school and the corresponding secondary modern, and the switch to comprehensive, I’m happy to exp, but it will need a thread of its own and will step into politics and educational ideology]

[Barleymower]

GB back in the mid 70s my sister and I wanted skate boards for Christmas. I got a skateboard, my sister got some cowboy boots, brown skirt and a lightbrown roll neck jumper. My skateboard came with knee and elbow pads and a red helmet. I was overjoyed, my sister was miserable. Our mum said it wasn't becoming for a girl to ride a skate board.
It was one occasion I was not jealous of my sister.
My mum passed in 2020 so I had to ask Dad what she would have thought about me. "She would definitely not approve" he laughed.
Looking back I think the behaviour expected of women was akin to the behaviour expected of men now.

[floatingmetal]

I wish my Range Rover still looked that good and indeed driveable.

1980 had me (age 10) at the whatever I could borrow from Mum’s wardrobe/ the charity donation bag and not get caught stage. In many ways I’m still at the ‘not get caught’ stage, since she expressed her disapproval a long time ago and I’ve not re-tested the issue in 20+ years since...

[Grok]

and men even enjoyed a wider spectrum than today.
The 1970s saw a huge shift in menswear that, had it been sustained, we may now have gained the total freedom which should be ours anyway.
Sadly, we are now in a state of bland mediocrity clothes wise apart from some who will resist or go down in glorious technicolour.
Steve.

Well, not necessarily total freedom, but at least not so bland or drab as today.