80s Urban Fashion? - Colors (1988) Discussion

[–] mach3blackbird 17 years ago

Nah, this movie doesn't depict fashion nearly as badly as some movies of the time. Ever seen the James Belushi movie "The Principal"? All the bangers in that movie are on some glam-pop sh!t - jheri curls with tight leather pants and tank tops.

At least in this movie, they're mostly wearing chucks and flannel shirts and sometimes locs with their red or blue raggs, which looks considerably less dated.

"[I've] passed two English exams...I arent 15" - johnny_boosta

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[–] Kelea7 12 years ago

I realize this is an old post but I agree with mach3. The fashion/hair in this movie is not so bad. I was going to mention how much more reasonable this movie was in that regard than others.

R.I.P. Whitney, forever in our hearts. R.I.P. Johnny Otis, Etta James. You will be missed.

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[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Lauraslipstick 11 years ago

All that 80s fashion is making a comeback. I see a lot of old ugly 80 hairstyles and tight white washed jeans these days.

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[–] juanrangel1991 11 years ago

I hadn't seen anybody post this question so I'll start. I thought it was really bizarre to see black gang members dress in a classic cholo style with flannels, headbands, and dickies in '88. I assumed they would have worn starter jackets, baseball caps, or whatever else the late 80s offered that appealed to the black urban youth. Is there anybody old enough here to have lived around the time and area to clarify if they actually dressed like this?

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[–] NiKoDay 11 years ago

Yes, in east los "cholo" style ruled most neighborhoods. LA is notoriously the most multi cultivate city. So this kind of "borrowing" between blacks and Latinos was common. Lots of photos on google.

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[–] Devans00 11 years ago

juanrangel1991
I hadn't seen anybody post this question so I'll start. I thought it was really bizarre to see black gang members dress in a classic cholo style with flannels, headbands, and dickies in '88. I assumed they would have worn starter jackets, baseball caps, or whatever else the late 80s offered that appealed to the black urban youth. Is there anybody old enough here to have lived around the time and area to clarify if they actually dressed like this?

I was a Black teenager in California during the 80s. There was a lot of culture sharing between Blacks, Latinos, Asians and some whites during that time. There weren't the sharp lines between groups like you see on TV shows and movies that supposedly represent the time. Some people kept to their own kind, some freely mixed with everyone and some were somewhere between.

Music (hip hop, R&B, Oldies, rock, punk, goth, pop, etc), dance, clothing, hairstyles, makeup, shoes, cars (sports, lowriders, compact), silly fads - pretty much everything was done by any race in any mix you could think of.

Look for high school and college pictures from that time period. They may give you a more realistic image.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

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[–] migz623 9 years ago

I'm nearly 40 and grew up in San Diego. Black and Mexican (and white) gangsters dressed pretty similar, drove low riders, and listened to rap music (though many cholos preferred oldies). Back in the 80s, they were ALL wearing Cascade jackets, Dickies, Ben Davis, and white T-Shirts. Cholos and black gangsters wore Raiders (nobody wore Chargers in San Diego until around the 90s when they went to the Super Bowl lol). The only real difference is that cholos typically didn't wear red, whereas many black gangsters did. Cholos often wore blue because that was considered a SoCal color, while red is NoCal. When it comes to gangsters, they all dressed really similar. I didn't see many Crips or Bloods wearing Cross Colors or anything like that...that was a different style altogether.

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[–] Devans00 11 years ago

Actually I got a twinge of nostalgia when we first met Frog and Larry's gang. My friends and people I hung around during my teeny bopper years dressed like those kids. Especially down to the girls' hairstyles and makeup.

I can't believe the way we were.

I definitely wore out the Color soundtrack on cassette. Ice-T was the MAN.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

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[–] pumasgoya 10 years ago

The movie depicts gang fashion as it was moving from 60's 70's over to stupid 90's stuff. Khakis and pendletons (wool stripped shirts) were chicano wear starting in the late 60's. This is also the time when cholos stopped ironing their shirts and starting wearing super baggy pants with tennis shoes and bald heads. This would have been unheard of in the 70s. Back then you had to have super creased pants and shirts and shinny leather shoes. That whole long ass shorts with high ass socks thing was barely becoming popular too. By the 90s there would be no more hats either. The blacks started wearing chicano cholo wear too, where before they had worn golf caps and tight pants. I grew up in LA so I'm giving you my eyewitness accounts of this city.