Stranger Things: ‘80s Americana fashion at its best

Coined as a love letter to ‘80s classics, was style the Netflix series’ only saving grace? Lee Holmes investigates

The fur-lined denim of the ‘80s is still popular decades later, £69.99, mango.com

It’s a strange thing indeed, when you discover that you’re apparently out of kilter with the current collective zeitgeist. But this is exactly how a smattering of us felt after we’d finished watching the Netflix series Stranger Things. Set in a sleepy community in small town America during the 1980’s, it revolves around a bunch of kids on the hunt for their friend, who has gone missing in mysterious circumstances.

However, the real mystery here, were the rave reviews that the show received online. Because a television plot about small town weirdness and supernatural paranoia isn’t new, especially when the programme turned out to be nothing more than a clever homage to all things Spielbergian. Yes, some of the appeal lay in its nostalgia but this aside what you were basically left with was a threadbare story devoid of any original ideas.

Even the talented Winona Ryder is wasted; she’s not afforded much artistic range, so she spends almost the entire show crying or on the verge of tears. To paraphrase the late Dorothy Parker, the high priestess of the bon mot, Ryder runs the gamut of human emotions all the way from A to B.

But even with such an uninspiring plot and hammy acting, the show wasn’t a total dud, redeemed in part by its excellent synth-driven soundtrack. The clothes weren’t too shabby either. Quilted gillets, baseball caps, striped polo shirts and fur-lined denim jackets – wardrobe staples of that decade – all had starring roles. As did the quintessential Harrington jacket, always with its collar well and truly popped. This was 1980’s Americana fashion at its best, and one of the few things in the show accomplished with any degree of subtlety.