I am not referring to Elle McPherson but to the actual 1980’s piece of clothing, the body. Having just spent the morning looking through stock-pictures for the coming autumn/winter 2007 collections, I was shocked when I spotted a couple of ‘bodies’ from French Connection and Diesel. Not certain whether that was a shock of horror or delight? Perhaps a shock of surprise would be the best way of describing it.

A couple of weeks ago I received quite a nostalgic chain-mail from a friend ‘Do you remember the 80’s?’ I was sitting here with tears in my eyes, laughing and crying when reminiscing about the days that brought so many new things to the fashion-vocabulary. This mail was referring to all from leg-warmers, shoulder-pads and big plastic earrings to permed hair, mascaras in various shades of blue and ‘a piece of clothing called a body with silly buttons in the crotch which was almost impossible to manage, especially after a few glasses of wine at the local disco’.
Not sure if the fashion-world actually benefited from the various garments and accessories but it added to our time and has left fabulously funny and cringe-worthy memories.

I am fully prepared for a comeback of shoulder-pads and permed hair. I am sure it will happen at some point. There are many things we thought we never wear again but we did and we do so I am totally up for a bit of a 80’s revival.� We are already fully accustomed to the leggings, the high-waisted trousers are on the scene, metallics are becoming bigger in the shops at the moment and bright blues, pinks and yellows are on the rails this season even though the colour-scheme may not yet be quite as bright and luminous as seen in the 80’s.

The 1980’s was the era of my innocent teenage-years and the only period I can confidently refer to in fashion-terms. I think I tried most trends worth trying at the time from clothing and jewellery to make-up and hairstyles. A wide luminous pink belt with matching stilettos and massive plastic hoop earrings is probably one of my best memories. It was even the outfit I chose for my interview with the local bank for my summer-holiday job at the age of 16. Believe it or not but I did get the job. I suppose I should have remembered that all the times that I have interviewed young people for jobs whilst in my head criticising their lack of effort at dressing properly for a job-interview. Just like I thought I had made the correct effort at the time, I suppose so did they.

With regards to ‘the body’ I had several. One more uncomfortable than the other. And just like my friend reminded me of, they were almost impossible to manage on a normal day let alone after a tipple of wine. On the positive side, you do not have the problem of them gliding up at the back when you sit down and they fit really smoothly on the body. In fact, we should have known as soon as the high-waisted look returned to the market last year, ‘the body’ is simply the perfect accompaniment to the high-waisted trouser if you are not in the mood for wearing a shirt.

Can’t wait to see the bodies of modern times (for sale mid-end July) with hopes that the crotch-devise has received some innovative improved function for easier handling of. A wireless on/off-devise would be ideal.
In the meantime, get yourself a pair of Firetrap high-waisted trousers. They are nice and light for summer but even perfect for all year around so they will take you in to the autumn-season too. I might not yet have ‘a body’ to wear with them or a perfect body to put inside them but my husband still thinks my bum looks great in these trousers and that means they must be a really flattering fit pair of trousers which does wonders for the female behind so don’t hang about.

Written by Malin Hosie