Thursday, March 18, 2010

Rockin' Early 1980s Accessories

Somewhere between 1980 and 1984, there were four accessories a little girl had to have!  All of us early 1980s fashionistas needed the following:

Feathered Clips - I was told later on that these were actually called "roach clips" -- at age 8, I obviously didn't know this term. I was the oldest of two, so I didn't have an older brother or sister around to borrow one of my many colorful feathered clips and use them to snag a few hits from their joints. Nope, for an innocent child, these were simply clips I could attach to my clothing, hair or Jordache purses. You know, just keeping up with the trends!




Jordache Purses - I had one of these Jordache bags in every color. I remember the purses were small little sacks one could purchase at the mall for a very reasonable price. This meant I could get one to match each outfit. In my case, too young to babysit at the time, my mom was relieved to pay only about $2 per purse to aid in my addiction. If I'm not mistaken, they came in a wide variety of colors and fabrics such as a satiny silver material or leather and baby pink, yellow, red, blue, etc.



Friendship Pins - These cool safety pins were great! I'd load them up (small and golden were by far the safety pin of choice) with tiny colored beads and attach them to purses and backpacks. They were coined "Friendship Pins" because they were often given to or traded with friends.







Braided Ribbon Barrettes - My mom was awesome! She knew how to braid my hair and how to braid ribbon--two things I to this day cannot master for some reason. This also meant I couldn't make friendship bracelets which kinda sucked. Braided ribbon barrettes or hair clips were so hot. I couldn't get enough of 'em. I had to have a set of barrettes to match every outfit I owned. I remember cool color combos of pink and blue, pale green and yellow, pink and white and my most favorite pair - red, white and blue for my red, white and blue mini nautical themed skirt which I loved to pair with a white sailor's hat. There was a time when red and royal blue were my favorite colors. 

I'm quite sure crafty folk are making and selling all of the above '80s awesomeness on Etsy. I'm tempted to head on over there and load up on some!


P.S. I realize that I failed to mention many other hip '80s fashion accessories such as Gummi and jelly bracelets, colorful plastic charm bracelets and necklaces, friendship bracelets, headbands, antennas attached to plastic headbands and other fun items, but I promise to touch on that at a later date...










37 comments:

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

I think I still have a friendship safety pin from the 80's. Why do I get the feeling we are exactly the same age, Ally?
(But I wasn't cool enough for any of the other stuff.)
Cheers,
Robyn

Jerry said...

What about Slap Braclets? I know I am not a girl but I remember those being popular.

Kitty Moore said...

I had the feathered clips - not sure the rest of the stuff made it over to the UK! x

Anonymous said...

I was a kid in the early '90s, but I had a lot of this kind of stuff too. Definitely slap bracelets, and gimp jewelery! Plus, my sis, who had been an '80s kid, handed down all of her treasures too. It was awesome!

Copyboy said...

My sis had the Friendship pin. She stabbed me with it once. She also had clogs and a Flashdance sweatshirt. No wait, that was me. Nevermind.

Ian said...

Holy shit I haven't seen those friendship pins in years!!!!!!!

Hook me up with some Ally!

Bossy Betty said...

Wish those feathered clips would come back in style! Think it would be OK to wear them just around the house?

Beamer said...

I tried to restart the Frienship Pin trend with my daughters 4th grade class, never caught on. I know the teachers didnt want the pins in school because they were dangerous. The colors used to mean different things, dont remember them though. I miss the 80's! Times were simplier then, we had cheap things to collect and share. I remember having purple Kangaroo sneakers with a zip pocket on the side that my grandmother would put a dime into in case I needed to use the pay phone.

Yankee Girl said...

I totally forgot about those friendship pins! I am sure I have a box of them stashed somewhere!

80's fashions were awesome!

Lady Hill said...

you have inspired me to do a similar post on all things 90's.
I was an 80's kid at heart having older brothers and what not... but the 90's had some cool stuff too.
I actually had those feather clips in elementary school

Ally said...

@Robyn I was born in 1972 if that helps!

@Jerry I swear, for some reason I have no recollection of those slap bracelets. I somehow missed that craze yet was totally up on fashions as a kid.

@Kitty now you have made me want to look into "Early '80s UK fashion crazes."

@Mainland very true, all of these things made comebacks over and over again :)

@Copyboy and Ian, I can always depend on you for a laugh :)

@Nikki today they are actually very country ha ha!

@Bossy you can totally sport those feathers but again, they're a little bit country now :)

@Beamer - thanks for your comment! I loved Kangaroos! I remember that pocket too! They started selling them again in like 2001 at Urban Outfitters. I was so tempted to get a pair!

@Yankee, I totally want one now!

Alice in Wonderland said...

Yes, here in the U.K. we had "Friendship Bracelets" and I still have a book on how to braid them.
We also had "Friendship Pins" and each coloured bead meant something, depending on the colour combination.
I can remember then, and I was born in 1979! Feather earrings were fashionable (still!) only a couple of years ago.

Riot Kitty said...

I LOVED those pins! And made the bracelets.

Tracie said...

I haven't thought about feathered roach clips in 20+ years. We actually called them roach clips but had no idea what they were used for. I spent so much money at the carnival trying to win one of these.

Joe Cap said...

Ha ha! Roach clips, I love it!

Anonymous said...

Wow I remember some of these! Like the roach clips! LOL!

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Hey, if those feathers were good enough for Mr. T, then they were good enough for me.

Anonymous said...

Roach clips, we hid ours by using paper clips that were innocent enough looking. It worked at first but we were so stoned looking it didn't matter.

Thanks for following my blog too, I'm following yours as well.

Secretia

Holly Lefevre said...

I totally forgot about the feathered clips...and I was just thinking about the braided barrettes. Too funny. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Lee said...

Saw that you were in the market for a header...if you are...give me a shout!! I did Laura's!

Unknown said...

That takes me back! And don't for get the jelly shoes, too!

Melissa {Suger} said...

Ha! Awesome. I found an old anklet the other day, knotted of course.

Anonymous said...

Hey there! I just popped over here from I Run with Scissors. I totally had tons of roach clips, er feather clips, when I was younger. Let's just say my dad like to partake in a certain green, danky substance and had plenty of these around for the first 5 years of my life!

Jules said...

OMG! I remember those feathers and I used to rock them in every color. Jordache purses were also a must and I remember desperately wanting a denim one. Friendship pins were also so “cool” and people had them on their backpacks in my school.

Jelly bracelets were also a must and I loved snap bracelets, remember those?

This was a fun trip down memory lane.

Unknown said...

HA!! Even boys would make the friendship pins. I used to make them with NFL team colors like orange and blue for the Denver Broncos.

I owned a couple of those roach clip things, but never used them. Neither as a fashion accessory, or um... for other stuff. LOL!

California Keys said...

I remember those friendship pins being everywhere.... I remember one when a group of girls were making some with their box full of beads, and the box fell and beads went everywhere....

Stef said...

I so remember all those things. And Jelly shoes! Thanks for the memories!

Pandorah's Box said...

I loved friendship pins! And gimp! Do you remember gimp? You made bracelets and stuff out of the flexible plastic material.

So fun! I would love to get my hands on some gimp!

xoxo

Mom Mayhem says: said...

Oh my goodness -Yes I remember things like the friendship pins! And slap bracelets and so many other things...

LaraAnn said...

I totally forgot about the braided ribbon barettes until reading this-thanks for mentioning it. I only had a couple of friendship pins. I think that I had a couple of those jelly braclets- is that what they were called- and those fancy thin headband things too.

pika23 said...

i had the ribbon barrettes and did you ever have a charm necklace? It was a plastic chain with all kinds of plastic charms you could buy.

Neon rubber bracelets I loved! We would tie them into long jump ropes

pika23 said...

friendship bracelets!

Alicia said...

I made my daughter a bunch of those 2 color braided hair clips- she loves them as much as I did in the 4th grade!

~ Noelle said...

okay, i am totally in love with your blog...
i have been on for a bit now and i just can not make myself stop reading thanks for the trip down memory lane

CindyWitkowDesigns.com said...

I had all those things! I made my own barettes, I had the purse, I wore the feathered clips (to my brother's dismay cause he knew what they were!), and I had the pins. Love it!

MariGsMom said...

i thought i was reading a page in my very own diary! my room was loaded with all of the above. in my 6th grade class picture i have my dark pink/light pink braided barretts with my pink jordache purse strap across my chest!!! I probably had my pink feather roach clip hangning off my purse and my friendship pins all lined up on the laces of my sneakers, too!! this post is GREAT!!!

MariGsMom said...

I feel like I'm reading a page from my diary! In my 6th grade class picture I'm wearing my dark pink/light pink braided barrets with my pink jordache purse strap across my chest. I probably had my friendship bracelets all lined up on my sneaker laces (where all the cool kids wore them) and my pink feather roach clip was probably on my purse! Your blog rocks!!

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