What’s your first reaction when we chat shoulder pads? Power Suits? The 1980s in general? Good? Bad? Politics? There are so many ways to think about, and use, shoulder pads (if you google you will be told the modern shoulder pad comes from the late 1800s when it was designed for football, but if we go back through history a version of shoulder pads have been with us since at least the 1400s) to make statements and outfits.
As someone who was a child in the 1980s (a YOUNG child), I have long associated shoulder pads with over the top outfits. And as I got older, and became a little self conscious about my body, I would cut them out of many a blazer and a dress to make myself look smaller. Irony? A great shoulder pad can actually help make your waist look smaller. The older I’ve gotten, the more in love I’ve fallen with fashion, and the more appreciation I have grown for fashion, my stance on my once hated shoulder pad has changed. I have come to actually love shoulder pads: the shapes that they can take, the way that they can shape us, and the political power we can weld in them.
For the purposes of this discussion, we need to agree on a few things:
-Usually, when we (as women) talk about flattering we are usually talking about clothes that make us look as if we are conforming to the current beauty standard. But flattering can also mean a pleasing outfit- and sometimes that means that the outfit itself makes a shape (that may not conform) or is interesting or in general takes up space. Yet, looking at dresses from the past and even power suits, the shapes are incredibly interesting- and again, ironically a wider shoulder with a nipped waist often makes you look smaller. Or conforms to the “usual beauty standard”. A long way to say that shoulder pads can be flattering even if they make our shoulders stand out a bit!
-By taking up space, changing the shape of our bodies, shoulder pads are inherently political. And with politics comes power. (This is where we agree that the idea of women taking up space is a form of power). If you go back to the first popular modern era of the shoulder pad (the 30s-40s), shoulder pads were not only used to shape the body in interesting and exaggerated ways, but as women entered more into the workforce in WWII the shoulder pad was used to make women a bit more masculine. The power suit of the 1980s? Part of the popularity is that the ’80s were when women were (perhaps more in mass) moving up the corporate ladder and shoulder pads were literally used to take up space. Make it seem as if women belonged in male dominated spaces and could dress the part. Fashion not only tells our stories, but it is a social language and at its very base, shoulder pads take up space- and that is political.
(SideNote: There is an interesting NYTimes article about the shoulder pads both candidates wore in the most recent US election, but I can’t find a free version of it– but you should google it!)
That being said, there are a ton of articles I read, knowing that I wanted to talk about shoulder pads, by people who are smarter than I on this topic that I think are worth a glance!
Wikipedia has a great timeline of shoulder pads in fashion with vintage examples to swoon over!
I love the Style Historian’s take on not only shoulder pads in vintage clothes but how to deal with them if you don’t love them :
Evolution of Shoulder Pads
This WSJ article does a bit of history and touches on the cyclic fashion nature of shoulder pads:
The Little Know History of Shoulder Pads- And Why They Keep Coming Back
And a look at some modern shoulder pads on current runways and editorials:
Oversized Shoulders
I am the first to admit that I used to hate shoulder pads (though- I truly thought that I would hate barrel jeans and I love them! And they have some of the “flattering issue”. Perhaps that issue is worth an in depth convo on its own). The weird thing about that? I have always loved 1930s/40s fashion- and when we look those periods are chock! full of shoulder pads (and exaggerated shapes!). As I age, I have become more open to them (maybe a bit more comfortable in my body) and don’t rush to cut them out of everything. Perhaps, it’s truly that I am more comfortable taking up space. Now, from vintage to modern, when I come across shoulder pads in my clothes I can’t help but think about what shape I’m making, how interesting that is, and how much space I am taking up- and what all that means.
What are your true feelings on shoulder pads? Love them? Hate them? Cut them out? How has your opinion on them changed?
I truly would love to hear any and all things about you and shoulder pads (and bonus if you have amazing 1980s pictures to show us!
XO RA