by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: February 17, 2008

The 1980's were years of revelation. Already established that women took a valuable role in the career market, women were spending more on clothing, and indeed their careers allowed them to. Not only were they expected to look professional, though those that had taken up careers within the late seventies were beginning to take roles of power.

The 80's saw change, though going away from the rebellion of the 60's and 70's tradition stepped back in and the power dressing of traditional suits came back with a vengeance. With television making the concept of shoulder pads so visibly effective in programs such as Dallas and Dynasty, and the availability of the media to a mass audience, it is hardly surprising that they responded by changing to a style seen as more suited to the day.

The eighties saw women taking to the corporation ladder of success by their thousands, and for those women who preferred a more feminine touch without the power element, the rle models within society were coming from televisions all over the world, making women want to emulate the styles of Diana Princess of Wales and the elegance she portrayed.

Hairstyles were changing in the eighties and this too was influenced by Diana, whose natural beauty sported a style that looked less formal and more swept into place and became popular with women all over the world that turned to blow drying styles rather than the harsh treatment of their hair that rollers and heat had inflicted in past years.

THE REBELS

During the era of Dynasty and the glitz of show business influence, there were always going to be the rebels, and here influence was taken from pop musicians, and the birth of a generation of young people that took to Doc Martens and dark clothing resembling what we now name as Goth gave birth to a new generation of casual dressers less stark than during the punk era, though equally as shocking to a society that was accepting glamor as a norm.

INFLUENCES AND DESIGNER CLOTHES.

The media influences in the seventies were worldwide, and not only did this affect the clothing that women wore day to day, shoulder padded and elegant, dressy and fabricated in delicate materials, but it also affected people's views towards the differences between casual and dressy, giving birth to the ideas of designer footwear for casual use.

There was a definite divide between casual and formal that had perhaps not been as apparent since the 1950's though the casual took on an expensive form with the designer trainers costing

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