Eldergays: Were you Preppy or Punk Rock in the 80s?

I was a whore, darlin’.

My mother shopped at Sears at that time so I always looked like I was dressed out of a different time period.

I was a cute melange of the two (with music that was new wave and punk}. Someone pointed out that you can't tell my clothes and hair hair were 80s. I've kept the same style altho I ditched the Fred Perry when the Nazis stole them

I was a mid-80s prep school attending, new wave listening, thrift store overcoat wearing, fun-loving closeted gayling.

i was New Wave, not punk.

Totally different head. Totally.

I was a punk rock 2 year old baby.

At my college, in the 1989s, we wore Izod and then Polo polo shirts in warm weather with khakis and blue or white oxford button down shirts in winter. Sperry Top-Sider was the favored shoe. Women wore skirts. We were preppy to a T.

Preppy for me, that’s the type I wanted to fuck so that’s the look and style I took on. Worked too. In my life and career.

I was a frat boy at a small college in central Texas from '78-'82. You figure it out...

When I was a young gayling, I bleached my hair and with my androgynous looks and pale face looked just like Annie Lennox..

I got some serious “straight” trade, including a swarthy Italian bouncer with a son only two years younger than me.

I was a bit androgynous too, a New Wave/British cappuccino pop kind of gay.

R10 Mmm, swarthy Italian bouncers. I dated a hairy Italian DILF in my bleached hair phase, and I'm pretty sure he was in the mafia.

Fun

Not full-on punk, sort of new wave skater boy. I hated preppies-they were all young Republican assholes and bullies/mean girls. But I did have a few times in the mosh pit slam dancing. (Still like the music but too damn old now--Oow, my back! And it's past my bedtime. Get off my lawn you fucking kids!)

I was 25 yo in 1981 - and I worked for a very conservative company (we had to wear suits and no facial hair). Preppy for sure.

Castro Clone meets New Wave with a few International Male shirts. My wardrobe was all black with some purple and turquoise in the mix. Funny, now as a shriveled old man, those clothes would fit me now! Still have all of my hair, which is all gray. Maybe I'll get one of those angular cuts and finally figure out how to use all the products correctly to make it stand just so.

I was preppy before prep was cool.

I started wearing L.L. Bean clothing as a kid in the 60s and went to a New England all-male school with a dress code in the 1970s. Typical classroom attire was grey slacks, blue blazer, and a striped tie.

I'm still wearing khakis, button-down shirts, and duck boots when it's wet. My style has not changed much at all over 60 years. I moved recently and when going through my closet found wool sweaters and ties from my HS years. I still buy much of my clothing from L.L. Bean

Preppy mostly. Didn't have the money or independence to pull off New Wave. Mind you none of my fellow morning kindergarten class of '85-'86 did either.

It would just depend on my mood and what I was up to that night. It could be Flock of Seagulls or dressed as an extra from Stranger Than Paradise. If I was trying to hook a certain type of guy, it might be a casual Gant shirt look that would creep in. Denim shirt and khaki shorts and I do some version of that today still.

New wave skate punk.

...neither? The preps were all assholes who loved Reagan and dressed like someone's dad, and the punks were scary. Looking back I wish I was a punk but I wasn't cool enough.

My babysitter was a trampy punk rock chick. She said I had a cute "Tush."

New Wave was sort of the meeting ground for these two disparate styles. It had the color and playfulness of preppy paired with the eccentric and shocking aesthetics of punk.

Denim jacket with collar up.

early 80s, 80-83 or so prep - then transitioned to new wave and punk through 86, then I became just more regular fashion oriented.

Both had their peaks of popularity - prep in the mid to late 80s was tragically unhip and not cool.

But I hung out with the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they thought I was a righteous dude.

I went from preppy to new wave to long shaggy haired hippie Michael Stipe-ish lewks in 1987 or so.