Power Dressing
パワー・ドレッシング / 1970s–1980s / Style / Fashion History
Dress that makes workplace authority visible. In the 1980s the sharply tailored, big-shouldered suit became a sign of upward mobility for women and men, enlarging and hardening the silhouette while also carrying the pressure to conform.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Padded jackets widening the shoulders
- A fitted waist and inverted-triangle silhouette
- Dark worsted cloth and pinstripes
- Coordinated suit, shirt, tie or pumps
Best used for
- Giving a character professional authority and decisiveness at a glance
- Showing the 1980s through the shoulder line and silhouette
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Use a strong condensed face and align it with the horizontal of the shoulders.
- Composition
- Keep both shoulders in frame and stress the inverted triangle from a frontal or low view.
- Material
- Dark worsted cloth, pinstripes and firm interfacing, with small controlled jewelry.
- Caution
- Exaggerated shoulders alone become costume. Address both the authority the suit grants and the conformity it demands.
- Further study
- The 1980s big-shouldered suit / Authority and conformity / Women entering the professional workplace
Related entries
- Dandyism (ダンディズム)Same Fashion History lineage.Compare Power Dressing and Dandyism
- New Look (ニュールック)Same Fashion History lineage.Compare Power Dressing and New Look
More from Fashion History
Continue through styles in the same Fashion History family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Spanish Farthingale Silhouette (スパニッシュ・ファージンゲール)Shared effects: Luxury / Trust / Exhilaration.
- Black Dandyism (ブラック・ダンディズム)Shared effects: Luxury / Trust.
- Peacock Revolution (ピーコック・レボリューション)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Luxury.
Browse all Fashion History entries
Cite this entry
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/power-dressing
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