A Dress A Day

A dress.
Mostly every day.

April 13, 2007

In Soviet Russia, Bow Wears YOU!


80s bow dress

(Does anyone even remember those jokes?)

Nancy sent me the link to this when it was still gloriously for sale on eBay (from seller The Olive Shoppe). Whoever grabbed this is going to wang chung tonight, that's for sure.

I kid, I kid, but only because I love. Or rather, I used to love. I'm sure I would have been all over this (or it would have been all over me) when it originally came out. Although I'm sure I would have preferred the bow to be fluorescent yellow, and I would have accessorized with an armful of rubber bracelets, no doubt. Not to mention playing Sade's "Diamond Life" or The Fixx at full blast while getting dressed. I'm not sure I could wear something like this with a straight face now. (Of course, when do I wear ANYTHING with a straight face?)

But this dress, more than all the hot pink & black electroclash fashions of the past few years, has let me know that I'm finally at the point where I can be the person who ruefully says that she can't see wearing the retread of anything she actually wore the first time it was popular! It's a milestone I'm happy to reach, in fact. Now if only my hair would hurry up and go all the way gray. Gravitas, it's all about the gravitas ...

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posted by Erin @ 7:25 AM  

15 Comments:

  • At Apr 13, 2007 8:11:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    After convincing my 17 y.o. son he would look super in a polo shirt, (after 10 years of tees)now he can't own enough! I however, having graduated in 1985 and owning not one but two copies of the preppy handbook will NEVER wear a polo shirt ever again!
    I guess "preppy" doesn't mean the same thing now as it did then. You'll have to ask a teen-ager.

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 10:09:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I hope that was bought by some ultra-nerd-cool 17 year old who will rock it at prom with sheer black hose and her hair cascading in a banana clip.

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 10:26:00 AM, Blogger Sassy said…

    Just seeing this brings back memories!

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 11:00:00 AM, Anonymous Archivarian (An Archival & Library Mistress) said…

    This reminds me of a dress I was going to wear to my grad dinner & dance, but thankfully I didn't. It had a black bodysuit-like body with a sweetheart neckline. I was topped with big, royal blue puffed sleeves that made me look like I had cataloupes around my upper arms and a puffy royal blue skirt. I think there was a blue bow(s) somewhere...maybe on the sleeves...ah the memories!

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 2:10:00 PM, Blogger JuliaR said…

    You are so right:
    "I'm finally at the point where I can be the person who ruefully says that she can't see wearing the retread of anything she actually wore the first time it was popular! "
    I refuse to wear anything that looks like the 70s. We knew it was ugly even then and I sure won't wear it now.

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 2:34:00 PM, Blogger katana said…

    Oh Man. I just got the biggest kick out of those Russian Reversals- we're not familiar. Hahahaha. That is great. And I would never wear that dress, but i love the idea of it. I would, if I was going to wear it, get elbow length gloves and fishnets. And black heels. And then leave my hair the way it is- shoulder length, slightly wavy, and dark brown.

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 3:00:00 PM, Blogger thombeau said…

    This is totally something Kelly Wearstler would have worn on the last season of Bravo's "Top Design"!

    "Diamond Life"---the perfect reference!

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 3:16:00 PM, Anonymous ambika said…

    Oh, God, total agreement. The first time I saw leggings over pants I just thought, 'Never again.'

     

  • At Apr 13, 2007 8:14:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yesterday I saw a pretty young thing wearing a t-shirt dress and baby blue leggings with stilettos when I was out for breakfast.

    Laughed myself silly!

    I think it is about time we had another decade that style forgot!

     

  • At Apr 14, 2007 12:53:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The 80's fashions that are back now are the things I was too little to wear the first time around. I was born in 1980, so it's the stuff the totally cool girls in my big brother's class were wearing. However, I was a teen in the 90's, when 80's fashion was the ugliest thing ever - and I honestly don't think I'll ever like t-shirt dresses, pointy pumps, or poodle perms. All of which I see the teen girls in town wearing (I live in Gothenburg, Sweden).
    /Monika

     

  • At Apr 14, 2007 4:55:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    That thing is out of this weird! I would happily wear that dress tomorrow, and I was a teenager in the 80s too. Mind you, I never owned anything remotely like it then, I was much too uncool...

     

  • At Apr 14, 2007 9:57:00 PM, Blogger sopka said…

    I am a beginner in sewing with a machine I usually needlepoint and embroider by hand what is a goood machine for a beginner I would like to start on accesories and home decor and work up to clothing.
    when I say beginner I mean no experience.

     

  • At Apr 15, 2007 12:39:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'm too old now to wear the things I couldn't afford to wear then (the 1980s). Oh but I can dream!

     

  • At Apr 15, 2007 10:22:00 AM, Blogger Sarah Louise said…

    Do not remember those jokes, but my parents lived in Poland just as the whole Iron Curtain was unraveling, so I understand. Loved the link, and I must be from the 80s, I WANT that dress.

     

  • At Apr 25, 2007 9:04:00 AM, Anonymous Robinson said…

    Everybody wang chung, indeed.

    And I do remember those jokes.

     

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