Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Shoulder Pads

I got a lot of compliments on the colours in today's outfit; there is just something about pink and brown that I love. They look so good together!

This outfit was built around my new-to-me thrifted cardigan:
That's my pink sweater layered under it (see the sleeves peeking out?), and my brown lace skirt that I've had since 2007.

The cardigan was $15.00 in the same store where I got my kickass Skagway boots. I was drawn to the thickly-embroidered wooly flowers on it.
What I was NOT drawn to about this: the shoulder pads! Yikes! They weren't even nice shoulder pads, and they weren't placed very well. When I cut them out of the sweater this morning, I noticed that the thread was  different than in the rest of the sweater. I think this sweater is from the early 80s and someone added her own shoulder pads when they got trendy.

I'm not totally against shoulder pads, especially in garments like coats and blazers - they're needed to help the fabric hang properly and can give much-needed structure. But when they're there because "that's the fashion" and they add nothing to the item, that's when we get into scary territory.

Full confession: when shoulder pads were at the peak of fashion (around 1988), I wore a camisole (with shoulder pads), under a blouse (with shoulder pads), under a blazer (with shoulder pads) and then wore a coat over it that had even more massive shoulder pads! It was madness!

Anyway, this cardigan looks much better without the shoulder pads. Check out the groovy design:
 I thought it was quite nice. A little granny-ish, but I've never been one to shy away from Granny Chic!

The label seems to support my early 80s theory:
It's a figure of a young lady in a hat with a sash across her chest (she reminds me of a suffragette), and the brand is "Jeune Jeunesse," which means "young lady." I couldn't find anything else about this brand online, but I think it might have been one of The Bay's or Eaton's in-house brands back in the day. That rings a bell.

Great details on it - look at the cool buttons:
I like that the buttons look like little glitter-trimmed moons set in a clear pink background. You don't see those kind of buttons on clothing anymore! You can also see the nice pink satin knit edging and the nice marled knit in the body of it.

The stuff:
My fab nude shoes.

And a load of necklaces.
Of course, any time I wear pink, I almost always want to wear my Audrey Hepburn Scrabble tile necklace.

Cardigan (Jeune Jeunesse, thrifted), sweater (Reitman's, consignment), skirt (Planet), shoes (Seychelles, consignment), pearl necklace (vintage 80s, The Bay), earrings (Aldo Accessories), Audrey tile (from trip to Powell River, locally made), chain necklace (Plum).

13 comments:

  1. Yep, I should have collected all the shoulder pads I've cut out. We did look like football players back in the day, didn't we. The buttons ARE fabulous.

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  2. Brown is definitely my favorite pink pairing option. Love your shoes too. They look really comfortable.

    I can't stand anything with shoulder pads - even blazers. I have very broad shoulders (measurement wise compared to "industry standards" of clothing) I pretty much cut out all shoulder pads. I cannot imagine how poofed your 80s shoulders must have been.

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  3. I like the combination and specially appreciate little details like the close up of the moon like button - because i can almost touch the silky threading.
    And I laughed a little when I read the shoulder pad on shoulder pad story, because I myself did the double shoulder pad - but you totally beat me!

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  4. Jeune Jeunesse sounds familiar - it must be from the Bay or Eaton's! I'm convinced the secret to finding out about any brand is to go through my grandmother's closet and ask her about each of the brands. I don't think she's ever thrown anything out (except unnecessary shoulder pads. She and I are with you on that!)
    This outfit is quite demure - I'll have to keep brown and pink in mind. Anything I come up with for brown these days always seems to be purple!

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  5. I really like the brown and pink together, and that cardigan is stunning with the embroidery! :)


    awayfromtheblue.blogspot.com

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  6. I have a similar 80's shoulder pad history! The cardigan is lovely - looks very vintage. Great with the fab nude shoes.

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  7. You look terrific in pink! Who ever said that redheads couldn't wear pink - they just need the right shade.
    I bought a washable suede pencil skirt in an orange/red colour from VVs on Tuesday - thought of you and now I want a jade coloured cardi.
    You are starting to influence my shopping, Sheila, and that is a good thing.
    Peg from Up-Island!!

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  8. Loving those nude shoes - gorgeous!

    LOL - I wonder how most of us weren't confused with gridiron / american football players back in the 80s during the peak of shoulder-pad layering madness.

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  9. That sweater is amazing- the details are incredibly lovely! I'm with the majority on the pink and brown combo- it's a big fave. (I like brown and turquoise or pale blue, too)
    I used to have a vintage pale pink pencil skirt that had brown leather piping (and button) at the waist and on the pockets, but moths got to it, unfortunately...
    I look to real vintage for guidance on the shoulder pads now. If Rosalind Russel would have worn it, then I'll wear it. I have really broad shoulders like Megan Mae, so I have to be careful, lest I look like Chad Henne. Sadly, in the 1980's, I was just so happy to see what I viewed as a throwback to the 1940's come into fashion, that I embraced being a quarterback, and wore shoulder pads with reckless abandon. They DO make your hips look smaller, after all...

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  10. Beautiful color palette! so very pretty on you :) i just rec'd a couple of nice silk crepe de chine shells from my thrifting 'fairy godmother'. they had awful, crusty foam shoulder pads in there which i quickly disposed of! ew!

    oh lordy, shoulder pads! like Megan Mae i have big honkin' shoulders. Megan, the great part of the '80's was i could just take the shoulder pads out of any top and it would fit fine! but i had a nice pair of raglan shaped pads i covered and equipped with velcro so i could fit them in anything required - even sweatshirts. and i did have a football 'practice' top i would wear around at that time!

    people forget that a lot of designers were making big shoulders, true, but with some really pretty treatments - pleating, ruching, etc. i'll see if i can find some examples, that would be lots of fun! thank you for the trip down memory lane, steph

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  11. I just love that pretty pink on you. It's so flattering!

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  12. That cardigan is so awesome! So very, very awesome!

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