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Shoulder pads

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For some reason, in the 80s every woman wished for bigger, sharper shoulders. It was all to do with the trend for power dressing at the time and about womens' attempts at smashing through the corporate glass ceiling via masculinised fashions a la Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and any of the female characters in Dynasty (see picture).

It got to the stage where practically every item of upper clothing for women came with its own set of shoulder pads. Soon, shoulder pads were also adorned with Velcro to enable the wearer to stack them up for added effect.

Of course, with every extreme style statement, it has a limited shelf life, so the 90s saw the demise of the shoulder pad, until the late-noughties again.

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Do You Remember Shoulder pads?

Do You Remember Shoulder pads?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    should have made yourself a cushion or maybe a duvet...waste not want not...
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Came on every dress and top 4-sale! Ended up with a drawer full after I ripped them out!
  • Yellow Watson
    on
    Everything had shoulder pads in them when I was little. Why would a 5 year need shoulder pads? Thank goodness I had a long neck.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I remember the problem of shoulder pad build up. You'd have a blouse with shoulder pads, a suit jacket with shoulder pads and a raincoat with shoulder pads. Ended up looking like you had no neck.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    The wardrobe for all the ladies on the American show Dynasty was centered around shoulder pads. It all signalled power. Women with broad shoulders sent out the message 'don't mess with me'.

Do you remember these?