80s theme fancy dress party - HELP!

Curious_George_2

OH and I have been invited to an 80s themed birthday party at the end of the month and im really stumped for ideas...
most of the girls seem to be borrowing their kids neon legwarmers/ tutus etc so i dont want to do the same
and the birthday girl is doing the "boytoy" early madonna loook, so thats out too...
I actually wanted to buy the thriller outfit from ebay but they dont come in my size
i think OH is intending to roll up his suit sleeves and claim he is in miami vice but im hoping to come up with a fab idea and talk him out of it!

please help with some ideas, hopefully something i can cobble together cheaply rather than spend loads of money (cos if we do that we will look great but wont be able to afford to go out! lol)

pigpen

There is always the slick 'yuppy' look??

Everyone thinks legwarmers and fame but.. there are rara skirts and jumpsuits and leggings and shirts with jackets with rolled up sleeves. Most of which is really easy to come across at the moment. Those awful sqare dresses with a skinny belt, beads and poofy shoulders and shoulder pads!

Scouring charity shops is a good idea.

bertiebots

Everything was big in the eighties...big hair , big shoulder pads, big earings etc. What about wearing a mans suit jacket (role the sleaves half way up your lower arm) with a big belt -over some leggings and high heals. Some big hoop earings and plastic bangles shouldnt be too hard to find and dont forget to overdo the make up! It was very fashionable to wear mens clothes and a trilby type hat would look great too.

SugarSpun

I went all out for an 80s party but someone else stole the show with a polo neck shirt with the collar popped, a pair of mirrored sunglasses and a smear of flour under her nose.

iloveboots

I went on my friends 40th 80's weekend last year as a Rubiks Cube, it was great, i wore black trousers/top and cut out coloured squares and put them around the bottom of the pants and bottom of the top, i got some earrings, necklace, bangle, bag etc off e bay.
It looked good, got loads of people telling me it was good, everyone else was neon etc so i was different.

Miss_Imaginative

My OH and I threw an 80's theme fancy dress party for his 25th birthday in January and it was a roaring success. Some of the guests turned up in leg warmers and such, others came as TV characters from the 1980s (including Button Moon, which was made out of yellow paper that hung over her normal clothes). Another guest made a t-shirt featuring 80s things by buying iron-on transfers from E-bay (including Michael Jackson's Thriller album).

I second the suggestion for looking through charity shops. We scoured charity shops for a morning and managed to get OH an 80s style suit for £7, which he wore with a bright purple shirt (Burtons, £6 in the sale) and a long piece of white lace as a tie. Lots of outrageous make up and made his hair up to look very Adam Ant-esque. I made myself a ra-ra skirt from some old fabric (took less than an hour to make on the morning of the party) which I wore over dark jeans, back-combed my curly hair a ridiculous amount and went all out with purple make-up and jewellery.

Loving the Rubiks Cube idea, that is pure genius!

Miss_I

Emmzi

Totally, totally Dynasty. Silk blouse, stick some shoulder pads in it, giant bling, black pencil skirt, lace tights and outrageous heels, jammy lippy and smokey eyes.

Does OH look more like Blake or Dex?

meece

How about Ghostbusters? Cheap overalls, a rucksack, and a vacuum cleaner hose as the sucky up ghosts thing?
films, Top Gun, ,Ferris Beuller, both easy to do.
Frankie Tshirts

Bubbles911

I to one last year and my group of 4 was wham and pepsi and shirley. the one that won best outfit was crocodile dundee. He just had jeans, a suede waistcoat and a hat on and carried around a crocodile toy which he kept making fake attack (it was hilarious seeing peoples faces!) people then wrestling it to the floor. Sounds lame but it was hilarious!

beckseven

You could go as the Ashes to Ashes girl and your OH could go as the blokey from it (minds gone blank as to any names!) How about new romantic-adam ant and the ant people? I went to an 80s party and one guy had gone as maggie thatcher-very funny! Have a fab time and tell us what you went as.

tandraig

the eighties were also business suit power dressing for women or the (oh dear i can hardly bear to say it) the shell suit!
julia roberts in pretty woman
duran duran
or you could go laura ashley and birkenstocks
check out some youtube videos of 80s music - there was more to it than the new romantics.