Your ways are insidious, Sars.

Back in the dark ages of Windows 95 & 98, if you opened a word doc, typed in "Unable to follow directions" and then asked the thesaurus, it would suggest replacing that text with "Unable to maintain an erection."
I loved that!

I could be delusional, remembering how nice and comfy they were, but I think the shaker v-neck is something of a classic, as much as it is an instant marker of 1985. I still have my turquoise Limited shaker v-neck and the turquoise Limited anklets I bought to match it – plus the two JC Penny knockoffs of the same sweater in pink and yellow. I'd still be wearing them if I hadn't gained an entire body-weight since then.

Likewise, I hold on to my dusty rose Outback Red cardigan with the fancy openwork/Battenburg-type front from 1989 or so, which I saw someone wearing in the skyway LAST MONTH. Granted, Outback Red was going for a type of vintage elegance, and that's much easier to sustain as a valid look through the years than, say, parachute pants and a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off.

At any rate, over the years as I've gained weight and sifted through all the clothes I'm saving for when I lose it (yeah, well, there are worse hopeless goals than returning to one's healthy high school weight) it has been obvious in hindsight what I bought because it was right for me, no matter how stylish, and what I bought mostly just because it was stylish, and it's the former stuff that has been saved.

I go now to cut the rebop.

Seriously: I don't really know. I wasn't a religious watcher of this particular show, but I did watch 90210 pretty regularly, and I can remember looking at certain outfits on that show, as a contemporary watcher, and thinking, "I don't know what's going on there."

Looking at it from another angle, Hoffs's attire is an interesting case study, because it just wasn't my style back then; I didn't do the top-to-toe denim/giant earrings/side ponytail thing. But Hoffs looks pretty good in her Bongo jeans and six kazillion pins on her jean jacket. Hasselhoff looked good in his super-dark-rinse Wranglers; the girls on Felicity looked good in their crazy-tight choker necklaces. Those things aren't the style anymore, but at the time, they were, and they were flattering, or could be.

There's a picture of my mom from when I was a baby, and she's wearing this orange belted-jumpsuit…device of some sort, and the jumpsuit is just a function of living in 1974 and trying to keep up with the fashions, so I forgive her for that part of it (and in old photos, generally speaking, Ma may be wearing dated clothes, but they aren't wearing her, at least; they're out of style but she looks appropriate). But the Tangelo Mom In Space look is just REALLY not a good one for her and shouldn't have been attempted, as she will be the first — and second, and 1867th — to tell you.

So I guess it's kind of the difference between "that was the style of the time" and "that just doesn't look good, 'in' or not, and you should have put your foot down." I mean, those big rolled-sleeve blazers have come back in, but they made me look like Bea Arthur the first time around and I ain't paying for that ride again.

Of course, some of that crap really is pitiful and stupid, no matter WHEN it was perpetrated. (See: Above Cosby-sweater photo. LYMAN FARGIN' WARD never dressed like that.)