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In Defense of Madonna's 80s Style.

I want it back so I can finally rock it.

By Adriana MPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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In Defense of Madonna's 80s Style.
Photo by Pietra Schwarzler on Unsplash

It was 1988, and MTV was all the rage. Music videos gave us a whole other perspective of what looking cool meant. There was Cindy Lauper, with her spiked, orange hair with one side shaved and long skirts with petticoats. Joan Jett, with all black leather and a mean attitude. But more than anything, I wanted to look like Madonna. Her short bob curls tied up with bandanas were the most awesomest-awesome thing I had ever seen. I loved her hundreds of bracelets, the infinity necklaces that made crucifixes look cool, and above all, the way she would wear layers and layers of clothes and still look sexy.

Me, I was fifteen and fashion impaired. Like most teenagers, there seemed to be a tug of war between my mother and me around my clothes. She was never uptight about my wardrobe choices; on the contrary, she had lived through the sixties wearing skirts so short that might as well have been belts. In retrospect, I could have put together better looks than I did. But the thing is, as long as you are not paying for your own clothes, they would always be influenced by whoever holds the wallet. So whenever we went shopping, I would point at something I found amazing, and almost inevitably, she would make a mocking comment about it. Granted, it was the 80s, and whatever I was looking at would probably be considered an atrocity nowadays, but at the time, I would feel embarrassed and let go of the piece in question. We would browse some more, and Mom would point to something I considered not great; she would declare it was beautiful and insist that I get it. So I would go back home with a few good enough pieces, a couple of things I would not have chosen and usually not what I really wanted.

Looking back at those experiences, I know my sulky adolescent opinion colors them. My mother was loving and generous, but at that age, every minor impasse seems magnified. My mom’s family has a habit of mocking each other constantly; that’s why she made little jokes about the clothes. She was not expecting me to feel undermined by it. The other factor in play was peer pressure: most of the things she would choose, like animal prints, were considered tacky by my classmates. I remember liking the prints, and if the item fits, well, it did look good. But in my social circle, many trends were considered unacceptable, and when you showed up to a social event, there would be someone who would tell you in no uncertain terms that your attire was disgusting. Unfortunately, most of the pieces that my mother encouraged me to get fell in that category. In the end, it was about me not feeling comfortable drawing boundaries, either to keep my classmates at bay or to tell my mom that I rather not wear a tiger print blouse.

Needles to say, I was never able to put together an outfit that made me look like I just walked out of the movie Desperately Seeking Susan. That would have been a dream. But looking at the movie stills as I write this piece, I realize the looks were not that hard to copy; I could probably found what I needed around the house. This leaves only one explanation: I was fashion dyslexic, a term I invented to describe my inability to put together an outfit even when looking at the sample picture. I also don’t understand why I never got the right haircut. We used to go to the best hairdresser in town; why did I never show up with a picture from a magazine? That would have been a lot easier than trying to explain what I wanted using frantic hand gestures. For a straight-A student, I was pretty dumb about practical things in life.

And that’s why I want a do-over. Now that my brain is fully mature, the things that seemed impossible back then, like parallel parking and putting together an outfit, come to me with ease. I also don’t care that I’m walking the edge of fifty: I’m sure Madonna would pull those looks off today, and if she can, so can I.

celebrity looks
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About the Creator

Adriana M

Neuroscientist, writer, renaissance woman .

instagram: @kindmindedadri

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