Biggest Fashion Brands of the 80s

eBay

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United Colors of Benetton

United Colors of Benetton

In the 1980s, Benetton was a hip, fresh, and uniquely Italian fashion powerhouse that was divers equally much by its socially conscious, multicultural advertising as it was by its endlessly colorful knit sweaters. In 2015, America'southward last standing United Colors of Benetton location — its iconic flagship New York Urban center location — closed its doors. In 2019, the brand opened a pop-up shop in Santa Monica, California, for four weeks between Oct and Nov, but offered no inventory. After looking at the clothes, you were invited to lodge online.

Related: Stores With Comfortable Wearing apparel That Yous Tin Vesture for Years

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Tania S./Yelp

Esprit

The Esprit brand was born in 1968, emerged in the 1970s and by the 1980s was a cultural phenomenon known beyond the world. By 1996, the iconic triple-bar "Eastward" was familiar in 44 countries and Camaraderie ranked No. 28 on a listing of the 100 most recognizable brands in the United states of america. Past 2011, however, tastes had inverse and Esprit reported a 98 percentage drop in profits. The next year, the make closed all 93 of its Northward American stores. Currently, customers from a host of countries ranging from the U.M. to Macau tin buy at the brand'south website — just not the The states. Y'all can get Esprit product, withal, on the ASOS site.

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eBay

Abercrombie and Fitch

Genetically gifted and partially clothed young men greeting customers in stores. Outlets that felt more similar nightclubs than vesture shops. An iconic itemize that could make the careers of aspiring models. This is what characterized Abercrombie and Fitch during its reign of manner supremacy. The company built its empire on tight-plumbing equipment, high-quality preppy chic wearable, but the fickle whims of an always-irresolute manufacture changed all that. A&F closed over 100 stores in recent years, including flagship stores in New York, Milan, and Fukuoka, Japan. Still, don't count out the brand entirely — A&F execs say this is part of a move toward smaller storefronts and a bigger digital presence.

Related: These Catalogs Divers Shopping for Generations — and Now They're Mostly Gone

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Amazon

Cross Colours

With megastars similar Will Smith, Tupac Shakur, TLC, and Marker Wahlberg donning its unmistakeable threads, Cantankerous Colours ruled the "urban article of clothing" boom years of 1990-93. The make'southward unique style was backed by a strong cultural message. Billed as "clothing without prejudice" for an inclusive and ethnically diverse customer base of operations, Cross Colours fell victim to changing fashion sense in the mid-'90s — and a wave of counterfeiting. If you're feeling nostalgic, though, the brand's website has '90s reissues as office of its electric current collection.

Related: Stores and Brands You Thought Were Dead Simply Aren't

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Coogi Sweater by Robert Sheie (CC By)

Coogi

In the 1980s, then-beloved tv and one-act superstar Bill Cosby was so synonymous with wacky-patterned Coogi wool knits that they were affectionately dubbed "Cosby sweaters." x years after in the mid-'90s, Heathcliff Huxtable's cultural polar opposite, rap superstar Christopher Wallace — a.thou.a. Biggie Smalls — endorsed the brand both in his style and in his lyrics. Fast-forwards to today and Beak Cosby is a reviled sometime resident of a Pennsylvania state prison, it's been more than 20 years since the Notorious B.I.Thou. was murdered in a cross-coast rap beef, and the loud colors of Coogi are the stuff of ugly sweater contests. If you still want 1, though, they're available on the Coogi site for around $600.

Related: 12 Places to Sell Clothes for Quick Cash

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Etsy

Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans

A socialite and heiress from one of America's near powerful families, Gloria Vanderbilt launched a fashion empire. Thanks to her, women beyond the world were wearing jeans with her name and the trademark Gloria Vanderbilt swan emblazoned across their hips in the 1970s and '80s. As the designer jeans craze subsided, however, so did sales. Today, the in one case-glamorous Gloria Vanderbilt brand tin be plant at Kohl'south, JCPenny, and Macy's, where you lot can get most items for less than $50 and many for less than $30. Vanderbilt died in 2019 of stomach cancer, making her public persona (ofttimes as the mom of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper) and branding more decidedly by-tense.

Related: Iconic Department Stores Nosotros Miss

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eBay

Versus Versace

In 1989, fashion legend Gianni Versace gave his kid sister, Donatella Versace, a gift: the Versace brand's first spin-off company, Versus Versace. The line, which debuted in Milan, launched Donatella's career and made a major bear upon on how the in-oversupply dressed and the accessories that they wore. The 2000s, however, saw the brand'southward star power fade as a series of defections and takeovers battered the Versus paradigm. Subsequently closing in 2005, Donatella resurrected the make in 2009 with an emphasis in watches, leather goods, fragrances, and limited ready-to-clothing habiliment.

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eBay

Swatch

Wacky bands. Zany faces. That picayune rubber band that was supposed to protect the drinking glass from impact damage. Swatch, which was the "information technology" watch for a brief fourth dimension in the 1980s, was launched past legendary Swiss watchmakers whose market share was being gobbled up by cheap Asian imports. Artistic collaboration with a who'due south-who list of the era'southward biggest stars made Swatch the decade's hippest watch. Today, all the same, Swatch is a relic from a foretime era — although y'all tin nonetheless buy one if you want.

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eBay

Bongo Jeans

Bongo cashed in on the '90s denim craze in a big way, thank you, in large part, to a string of memorable — but now horribly dated — ads featuring emerging star Liv Tyler. Today, however, the luster has worn off, and the only place you'll notice a pair of Bongos is in the discount section of doomed yesteryear retailers like Sears and Kmart.

Related: 25 Must-Haves to Buy at Sears Before It's Gone for Good

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Amazon

Fifty.Eastward.I. Denim

You can even so score a pair of (pre-owned) 50.E.I. jeans at Walmart for less than $20. A bizarre link to L.Eastward.I.'s former website reminds u.s.a. that the acronym stands for "Life, Energy, Intelligence," and alludes to L.E.I.'s heydey as a must-take brand of jeans for kids across the state. In 2002, the dream died when Jones Apparel bought the L.E.I. brand for $310 meg.

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Bebe

Bebe

In the early aughts, Bebe was a fashion standout for its chic women's clothing and lowercase logo T-shirts. While you lot won't observe a Bebe shop at the mall these days (the make started endmost all its retail locations in 2017), you tin detect the brand on its website. In a incomparably non-style-forwards move, the company has recently announced the purchase of several rent-to-own franchises.

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