Jeans, tights, sweatshirts... they've all been through a stage where ripping them was the fashion. You just hoped and prayed the one you were currently tearing to shreds wasn't that really expensive top your mum bought you for christmas (though you were pretty sure it was). But then, one must make sacrifices to look good!
Actress Jennifer Beals famously wore a grey sweatshirt with a large neck hole on the poster advertising the film Flashdance, and the large neck hole meant that the sweatshirt could slip down to show one bare shoulder. Risque! Best of all, this was a fairly easy do-it-yourself look and many perfectly good sweatshirts were promptly ripped up (sorry mum!). In fact, there are now YouTube videos devoted to showing you how to create the look for yourself.
Apparently Beals said that the ripped sweatshirt look was a complete accident and came about when her sweatshirt shrank in the wash and she had to cut a large hole at the top so she could get it on again! Sounds a little unlikely to me, but I'm not going to argue with an 80s fashion icon - especially one that looks so hot "accidentally".
A close cousin of the ripped sweatshirt was the Batwing top - still around today if you scour the cheaper end of the high street - which took the bagginess of the grey sweater and accentuated the effect under the arms to create something that looked like, yep you've got it, a bat.
Do You Remember Ripped sweatshirt?
Do You Remember Ripped sweatshirt?