Characters that stuck to a fashion when the rest of the world moved on

[Promethea]

Not a snappy title but you get the idea. You can see how it happens -you start your new show or comic or what have you. How to make it look current? To lend a touch of verisimilitude, you have your charcters sporting some of the fashions of the day. Most of the time as the decades come and go, characters get with the times and update their look accordingly.

But sometimes they dont, making them little islands in a fashion stream until they reach the point where they get defined by their now retro fashion. Jughead from the Archie comic is a nice example - that beanie hat was once quite popular but now he must be the last kid on earth rocking this look. From a UK example, Mickey Pierce from the TV show Only Fools And Horses was an occasional character who was plainly a big fan of the then current Ska trend with bands like The Specials and Madness. To this end he sported a pork pie hat like many other youths did. But he kept this going for a good twenty years. Long after those bands gave them up and indeed disbanded and reformed.

Anyway, drop off any other examples you can think of. I refuse to think these are the only two still roaming the land.

[Sinfai]

First that comes to mind is Bet Lynch, the blousy blonde barmaid who pulled pints in the Rovers Return in the Coronation Street soap opera for twenty years. For most of that time she wore her hair piled up in a sixties style beehive do.

I often smile when I see women who look caught in a time warp. I imagine staying with a particular look reflects a time when they felt good about how they looked, a yearning to cling to days gone by or perhaps a denial of the march of time.

Heh! I should talk. Every passing decade has me thinking it's about time I lopped off my locks for an up to date bob but I'm lazy and don't fancy having to fanny about with it in the morning or visit the hairdressers once a month. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Solfy]

Dagwood Bumstead.

[The Superhero]

Comic strip characters can be pretty bad for this, most especially in the dinosaur "legacy" strips that have been running since God was a boy. Beetle Bailey still dresses like a '50s college kid when he's in civvies. Dennis the Menace wears bib overalls and carries a slingshot.

[Promethea]

Originally Posted by Sinfai

First that comes to mind is Bet Lynch, the blousy blonde barmaid who pulled pints in the Rovers Return in the Coronation Street soap opera for twenty years. For most of that time she wore her hair piled up in a sixties style beehive do.

That's a fantastic example! That style was definitely sort of current when she first adopted it and she just kept it going forever.

[Fromage A Trois]

I've still got my hair in mid-nineties curtains. I keep meaning to do something about it, but, well, I've grown used to it.

[Tickles]

Rachel, Monica and Phoebe on Friends: the show's hair department seemed to consist only of one guy with a pair of hair-straightening irons for years.

Originally Posted by Fromage A Trois

I've still got my hair in mid-nineties curtains.

I'm coming to Cambridge next weekend (Strawb fair! Noodles!) and now I'll be fixing anyone sporting mid-nineties curtain hair with a gimlet gaze, trying to figure out if they look Fromagey or not.

[Khampelf]

Does that mean I should ditch my narrow black ties and unlined textured fabric sports coat? I did take the ephemera buttons off of it. (last year)

As a child of the 80's, I reserve the right to wear white socks with black shoes.

[Promethea]

Bumping an old thread to add Psylocke, sister of Captain Britain who later joined the X-Men for a while. She dyes her hair bright purple in Alan Moore's run back in 1982 and patronises the hell out of her brother explaining that the 'do is totally in and hip, as befits her (then) career as a model. However true that was back in 1982 when that comic was written, it was to get progressively less so over the subsequent 20 years or so. Hell, for all I know, she's still rocking this look.

[Sr. Siete]

Originally Posted by Promethea

Bumping an old thread to add Psylocke, sister of Captain Britain who later joined the X-Men for a while. She dyes her hair bright purple in Alan Moore's run back in 1982 and patronises the hell out of her brother explaining that the 'do is totally in and hip, as befits her (then) career as a model. However true that was back in 1982 when that comic was written, it was to get progressively less so over the subsequent 20 years or so. Hell, for all I know, she's still rocking this look.

Last time I checked, she was still inside the body of a sexy asian assassin...

[Promethea]

Hmnn. I see that even after she had her very ethnicity itself altered at a cellular level by magic or whatever the hell it was the Hand did, she nonetheless emerged still with that same hair colour.

[Phoebe,OrNotPhoebe]

Sorry, because this is about a British soap - but in Eastenders, both Dot Cotton & Bianca haven't changed a bit!

[Borborygmi]

I missed this thread the first time around, and while I don't have much to contribute I need to come in and give major props to an OP that effortlessly mentions both Jughead Jones and Madness. Awesome.

Along the lines of thread theme, I'll say that I like the way they subtly updated the looks of Mystery, Inc. when they brought back Scooby Doo earlier this decade. Most of the clothes stayed the same, but realistically Fred and Daphne really did need to lose those scarfs.

[Muskrat Love]

Originally Posted by Borborygmi

Along the lines of thread theme, I'll say that I like the way they subtly updated the looks of Mystery, Inc. when they brought back Scooby Doo earlier this decade. Most of the clothes stayed the same, but realistically Fred and Daphne really did need to lose those scarfs.

In "Zombie Island", Fred is dressing for dinner and he briefly considers wearing the ascot, and then decides against it.

[Borborygmi]

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't find watching Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island a good use of my time overall, but I gotta say that's funny right there.