Getting Physical (Sears, Spring-Summer 1981)

 In the late seventies and early eighties fitness (as opposed to exercising merely to lose weight) became all the rage with women.  Here's a quick chronology covering some of the highlights:

1969: Foundation of "Jazzercise"
1979: Publication of "The New Aerobics"
1980: Debut of "The Richard Simmons Show"
1981: Olivia Newton John releases "Let's Get Physical"
1982: Jane Fonda releases her "Jane Fonda's Workout" video
1983: First "Jazzercise" VHS release

Once aerobic exercise was established as a popular leisure activity the next step was to develop specialised clothes to exercise in.  Luckily Sears was on the ball: the first 47 pages of its Big Book for Spring-Summer 1981 was dedicated entirely to exercise wear and equipment. 

 

 

For outdoors wear "Bright Terrycloth Knits" in cotton/polyester.  These could be worn for jogging or—as depicted here—for cycling.  Lycra bodysuits and bike helmets were not yet in fashion.

 

 

 

For indoors exercise (think of all those aerobic workouts!) we have tights and leotards in nylon.  Still no lycra, and all those synthetics must have made for quite unbreathable active wear!

 

But what about the legwarmers, you might be asking?  Those ubiquitous woolly leggings so typically eighties?  Well the sad news is there are none in this catalogue.   No, not a single pair.  Though legwarmers had been invented decades before (for dancers) it took the movie (1980) and the TV series (1982) Fame to popularise them as amateur exercise wear.  1981 must have just been on the cusp on the trend, because by 1982 no pair of leotards was complete without them.

"Romance In Fashion" (Style Pattern Book, Spring/Summer 1982)

 Oh my!  If the photo on this cover doesn't portray every fashion fad of 1982 it comes close.  

But let's get to the clothes.  We'll start with the knickerbockers, because they were everywhere in 1982.  (The New Zealand Museum of Fashion describes them as "the single most important look of the season".)    Saint Laurent designed them, Princess Diana popularised them and yes, yours truly owned a pair.  

Next, the blouse with the frilled collar (another look made popular by Princess Diana).  It is worn under a brightly striped cropped waistcoat.  The New Romantics (who flaunted a look combining punk with glam rock) obviously influenced this outfit—though it is rather subdued compared to the flamboyant styles which inspired it!   By 1982 domesticated versions of the New Romantic look had emerged from the nightclubs where the subculture originated and made their way to catwalks, mainstream shops and sewing pattern catalogues like this one.

 

Grownup Styles in "Knitwit" Patterns (1983)

 Knitwit sewing patterns were multi-sized and designed to be altered.  Twice a year Knitwit would issue "collection" guides with instructions on how to turn older patterns into the newest looks.  Theoretically, one could cut and remodel a pattern until it fell to pieces... or buy a newly reissued pattern and start again.

These patterns are copyrighted 1983 and the photos illustrate what the resulting garments would have looked like before any adaptations.  These clothes are eighties classics which could have been worn from the late 1970s up until the early 1990s. 

We'll start with the blouses.  On the left is a pussycat bow blouse, popular with career women and female politicians (and most famously worn by Margaret Thatcher).  On the right, another working woman favourite, a front buttoning shirt blouse with open rever collar.

Here we have two pairs of slacks, with pleated fronts, fly fastenings and straight legs.  Styles like these would have been conservative enough to wear in the workplace—or with a change of tops and accessories, for any semi-casual situation. 

"Style for All Seasons" by David and Elizabeth Emanuel (1983)"

 "There isn't a title 'style designer'," the Emanuels say in the introduction to this book:

"but there might well be, for style is not just different from fashion—it is almost its opposite.  We are far more interested in developing individual style in people than in making them follow the dictates of group fashion.  Almost by definition fashion does not last, but style does and it is consistent."

Nonetheless, at a remove of nearly 40 years the styles photographed for Styles for All Seasons seem so firmly of their era that they could easily have the dates they were made embroidered on their bodices.

The Emanuels met and married in art school, and started their own business upon graduating 1977.  In 1979 they decided to dedicate their business entirely to the production of couture, thus beginning their career of dressing the rich and the famous.  The times were with them as their romantic, feminine styles were just right for the zeitgeist of the late seventies and early eighties.

Their most famous design was for Princess Diana's wedding dress in 1981.

 

Described as a "fairy tale wedding" in most of the media and in this book, it's not surprising that the Emanuels would create a fairy princess-style dress for the bride—complete with puffed sleeves and a 25 foot train.  Less romantically, the Emanuels describe the security precautions they had to take in order to prevent the press getting a look at the dress before The Day, including locking the actual dress into a safe, and planting decoy scraps of material in their own rubbish bins to mislead investigators.

 

However, there was much more to this pair of designers than one wedding dress.  Style for All Seasons is basically an album showcasing the Emanuels' designs up to 1983, and while it doesn't go into any depth analysing them it does make it clear what influenced them.  At that stage in their careers the Emanuels obviously had a great love for the Renaissance, 1930s film design, and rococo fashions.  As a result, nearly all the clothes in this book were designed for special occasions—though there are a couple of pages of vibrantly coloured swimwear tucked between the covers!

 

Did I mention that this book is full of lots of pretty pictures?

The authors of Style for All Seasons were both under 30 when it was published, so the book is very much a time capsule focused on the beginning of their careers.  Spoiler alert: they broke up in 1990, and have pursued separate careers since then.  Both the Emanuels are still in design, however, and have branched out from fashion design to designing for the stage as well.  Given their theatrical flair I can only say, "How fitting!"