Does Anybody Remember "The Mexican Dress Craze" of 1983?

I mean EVERY damn Fraulette was wearing them!

Yes, they were everywhere when I was in junior high in Austin. I think they made girls look pregnant.

They wore, along with them, those hideous plastic "jelly" shoes and twist-a-bead necklaces.

That was it!!!! The Jelly Shoes!!!!!!!!! And those necklaces!!!

You've completed their clone uniforms!

Was it just a Texas thing? In Baltimore 1983 girls and boys alike were all wearing pink and kelly green Izod shirts with the collars flipped up and Mia or Sebago Docksiders.

those look damned comfortable when you're fat....

Jellies

Twist a Bead necklace

YES, I grew up in Houston and these hoes were wearing mexican dresses, twistabeads with jellies.

We had just moved to Texas from Spain and we couldn't understand why these white women were in ethnic drag.

Some looked like waitresses at Ninfa's (Bonus points if you know what that is)

The Ninfa's on Kirby was one I often went to when I worked near Rice in 1993 - 1994.

NINFARITA FOREVER

No more Mexican Dress Craze memories????

Baylor gals would dress up their ropas with golden Add-a-Beads!

Maybe it was just a Texas thing. They were all the rage among the sorority gals at Texas Tech that year too. I can't remember if big hair bows were part of the ensemble too or if that was the next year's trend.

And "waitresses at Ninfa's" is a very apt description.

I think it hit the Rice campus in the fall of 86. The only real Ninfa's is the original one on Navigation.

The design is silly for everyone but the colors are worst for whites. Whites should not wear vivid or bright tropical colors. These look better on Brown skin. Whites should wear beige. It's matchy matchy with beige skin.

Love those dresses, and no, R16, Not all whites need to wear beige, some look great in bright colors.

I remember the Madonna look EVERY girl had from 83-85

My babysitter Denise dressed like her and called herself a "wannabe" proudly, she also snuck me to see St. Elmo's Fire, I was 7/8.

I live in Austin and the Texas Hill Country - the Mexican Dress Phase never ended here. And I like it.

Why do people say "matchy matchy"? I know what it means, and probably Tim Gunn popularized it, but hasn't it had its moment? It's so awkward.

Please please please R17. I beg of you. No one has had the heart to tell you before but I'm telling you now. I'm your friend. Desist I implore you.

R20 It's catchy catchy.

[quote]I can't remember if big hair bows were part of the ensemble too or if that was the next year's trend.

The Betty Bowhead fad was a thing at my college around 1988. The biggest proponents of the lewk were the Phi Mus.

Seriously? Discussing female fashion trends from 35 years ago? Damn you guys take the GAY to a whole different level.

You're not gay?

It was so weird to see ALL of those Future Fraus in their Mexican Dress Uniform in Fall 1983!

One of my girlfriends, who is VERY chic, took a white "Mexican Dress" with multi-coloured flowers and had it hemmed and cut down to a length that flattered her, and the $8.99 or so that she spent on that made that dress look like a different dress. I'm just sayin.

R21: I look great in red and Cobalt blue. I also want to let you know that some poc seem to think they can make any color work and look like clowns. I am your friend. Please desist.

No I do not remember this at all. I was in CT/NYC and... nope. Maybe one or two older ladies wore these with espadrilles, but it was not a popular trend at all.

It was popular in California as well.

Hey, Frida Kahlo, a daughter of an European immigrant, started this trend with her own cultural appropriation.

R27, like this? I love this look and would wear it right now.

I'm a man.

Oh yeah, that was a thing at my high school in Mississippi. Probably '85-'86 though.

R24 true. But I remember my babysitter Denise with the,Madonna look because she used to tell me she,really was Madonna.

I was only a kid!

They are making a big comeback among the Fraus!

My mom occasionally wore one. She passed away wearing one.

What is "Frau" in Spanish?

Señora, R38.

They wore them with those canvas espadrillres. Lots of Pierre Deux print quilted purses too. Frausville.

Sack dresses were huge in the mid 80s, even aside from the Mexican ones. I see pictures of my female friends at parties and they are all wearing these shapeless and unflattering Laura Asley things.

The mid-80s were all about hiding your body in fabric--all those clothes had extremely loose and full silhouettes, for both women and men. Men wore double pleated pants and big blousy shirts.

Off topic but 2020 needs to see a muumuu craze. I cannot wait to see the Donald at a campaign rally in a gold plated muumuu.

In 1983 girls at my public high school in Birmingham were still firmly ensconced in the preppy look. The most hardcore prep I knew was a transfer from an actual prep school in Pennsylvania. She rocked shit that the other girls weren't wearing, like loud men's-style Madras blazers, loud wide-wale cords with whimsical embroidered animals, and wool tartan kilts with giant gold diaper pins.

By 1984 and '85 everyone was sporting that totally '80s look of mullets and big sprayed perms, Esprit, Generra, Forenza, jelly shoes, etc.