Is it time for the high school hockey championship in Minnesota already!? Man, winter really flew by this year.
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I had pretty big Robert Smith hair but when I think of the over all 80’s esthetic it is closer to the the photos you posted. I didn’t mention in my previous post but the dominant look of the kids at the “80’s” night was what I would describe as early 90’s candy raver in head to toe neon colors. As a weirdo in the 80’s all my clothes were black like my heart and poetry. 
Only exception being my bright red lipstick. 
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I hope it comes back … sadly, I don’t have enough left to pull off those old styles
It be even better if the music, color, and sense of fun returned too
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Neon was definitely around in the 80’s, at least in UK. The real irony is the 80’s revival scene, at least the bits I encountered, had a definite art school kid vibe to it. Exactly the sort of people who would all worn all black and sneered at people wearing bright colours if they had actually been around in the 80’s.
I’m from the UK but spent 9 years living in Portland, Oregon. A few years ago I got to see one of my favourite punk bands, who I never got to see the first time around, as they had reformed and were touring. They were playing at a tiny DIY venue and my friend who told me about the gig told me there was apparently a local scene inspired by the (uk) anarcho-punk scene I had been part of in the early to mid eighties, apparently inspired by the political and diy aspects of it, quite genuinely . When I got to the gig it turned out to be more than just inspired, more like a picture perfect historical reenactment of my youth by people that were the same age I was then, but ay 30 years and 6000 miles distance. It was a strange experience especially given I was probably the least punk looking person in the room and the oldest apart from the band.
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I remember neon being an accent in fashion for sure. But don’t remember people wearing it from head to toe. But everyone I knew wore all black so I was paying too close attention.
I grew up 40 minutes south of Portland and after college lived there for 5 years.
That would be both strange and wonderful. Nice to see they got it right by you.
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Neon clothing was very short lived in the 80’s. Approximately summer of 84 to end of winter 85 (North American seasons). Ultimately, the kids who showed up to your local pub’s 80’s night have a concept in their minds that actual footage of regular people shot in the 80’s can’t dislodge.
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Ok. That makes sense. I was being a 14 year old dweeb in a members only coat and trying to navigate high school. It’s one of those things I know was around but can’t conjure any actual personal memories. More memory as history than personal experience.
ETA: the members only coat might have been a couple years prior. The middle school and high school shared a parking lot and buses and I started taking high school classes in 7th grade. So 7th-9th is a bit of blur.
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It was a huge trend, but died a properly fast death, can’t blame you for it not really sticking out in your memories. I’m a couple years younger than you and recall this being another one of the trends that unnecessarily highlighted that I was from the “wrong side of the tracks” to my shitty junior high classmates. 
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My memory is kind of wonky. I have certain memories that are incredibly vivid but most of my childhood is really foggy or just blank. I know some of that is natural as we age but even in my late 20’s early 30’s I started to notice I didn’t recall things like other people my age. Sometimes I feel like I am in a lame version of Memento.
I was thinking about the neon thing. I’d guess since it flashed by so fast that I probably mostly missed or didn’t think much of it when it happened locally. And then took more notice after it passed and it started to get referenced by adults and media as the thing all the kids are doing (long after the kids had moved on) thus it feeling more like history than something I lived.
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Having grown up in the 90’s i would say bright colors are something i relate to my childhood more than i would with the 80’s. I did own a few neon colored articles of clothing and other stuff. Had a bright green and yellow skateboard, pretty sure i had a neon colored fanny pack (lol), i vaguely recall a brightly colored baseball cap, etc. Looking at pics from my childhood is definitely a trip because its stuff i’d never wear now 
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If i had been into the lolita style at the time perhaps, maybe in an alternate universe. Though that seems more like the rave scene… isn’t that early 2000’s?
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The neon trend stuck around a bit longer in the early 90’s, for sure, but not nearly as long as it’s dragging on now. Bright colors, in general, dominated most of the 90’s. It’s a nicer memory than the brown, beige, rust and orange palette that sticks in my head from the late 70’s to early 80’s.
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My search was for “candy raver” and then “90’s” was suggested. But I don’t know the actual date for this image.
Now I’m doubting all of my chronological memories…
From wiki:
Through the mid 1990s and into the 2000s the city of Seattle also shared in the tradition of West Coast rave culture. Though a smaller scene compared to San Francisco, Seattle also had many different rave crews, promoters, Djs, and fans. Candy Raver style, friendship and culture became popular in the West Coast rave scene, both in Seattle and San Francisco. At the peak of West Coast rave, Candy Raver, and massive rave popularity (1996–1999,) it was common to meet groups of ravers, promoters, and Djs who frequently travelled between Seattle and San Francisco, which spread the overall sense of West Coast rave culture and the phenomenon of West Coast "massives".
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That makes sense, in the 90’s i wasn’t even in the US so i wouldn’t have been exposed to the rave scene at all. Venezuela didn’t really have this kind stuff… or at least where i grew up. I was living in the US after 2001 which is when i started to encounter that subculture a bit here and there.
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