Blue jeans with bling – Eighties style

Was this the height of fashion or just a 1980s fashion which is still in dubious taste?

On page 13 of the edition dated 23 February 1983, the North East Leader ran a feature on diamond studded jeans which were reported as trending in Paris.  In her column titled In Style Jaye Walton wrote about a collaboration between diamond merchant Bruce Portner, Californian jeans label Tres Jolie and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to mass produce diamond trimmed jeans.

Former model Jaye Walton was the original host and producer of the popular Adelaide television show Touch of Elegance. Touch of Elegance screened at 11am on SAS Channel 10, from 1968 until 1980. Having a woman as the principle host was a first for Adelaide television.  The show featured fashion and lifestyle segments, musical performances and advertorials. Jaye Walton interviewed a series of special guests, including celebrities and promoted local events.  Some people thought Jaye Walton was stylish and sophisticated but others considered her to be a snob who was out of touch with the average income earner.  She is reputed to have said “If you want to be truly successful, you need to have half the audience loving you and the other half hating you, then they all talk about you”   This strategy probably worked for her. Jaye Walton died in March this year, aged 88.

Hopefully wearing these fancy jeans did not usually result in being grabbed around the waist by strange men.  North East Leader certainly needed more accurate type-setting, printing the not-so-elegant phrase “proving that denims can be a girl’s brest friend”.  “Shrila Chan” is probably well-known Hong Kong actress Sheila Chan. Sheila Chan has appeared in numerous films and on television and she was elected First Runner-up and Miss Photogenic of the 1988 Miss Hong Kong Beauty Pageant.

Though not a mainstream fashion item, it is still possible to buy rhinestone studded jeans online.  However, wearing upmarket denim adorned with precious gems does not seem to have been a lasting trend.  If you could afford to buy the jeans you had to be prepared for the cost of regularly dry cleaning them too.

#waybackwhenwednesdays