Tribune Archives: Clothes Watching

Apologies for the massive delay in posting. I had assignments due and couldn't justify prioritising blog posts. Thankfully, after a couple of recent events, I'm over that. First was when a friend told me I obviously wasn't as busy as him with college work if I had time to get a haircut. I hadn't even gotten a hair cut. I think it's because I condition my hair. Then I told him about my assignment being over two weeks late and he told me about the UCD policy on late assignments. Basically, if your assignment is only worth 5% and you're over two weeks late, don't stress over it. I have another assignment which was due earlier today, worth 30%, but I've been in constant contact with my professor and he's known for two weeks that I was never going to have that done on time. He suggested Saturday but I decided Monday. I'm having a huge party this Friday. Hit me up on Twitter if you want to invite yourself.

I went into the Tribune offices a while ago a took photos of pages in their archives. This is the only fashion article I came across in the short while I was there. TBH, I was really just in there to strike up some banter with my journalist kin.

I haven't my notes handy (I'm in the Health Sciences library, they're at home) but I think this is 1994. The girl writing it is a bit mean. I was going to pick out quotes, but here's the whole article, scan quickly for what was in fashion:

Clothes watching
Observing the constant fasion parade is someting of a spectator sport in UCD 

THAT IMAGE is something remarkable in UCD is an understatement. What, with a fashion parade that knocks out even the dressiest dressers or Dublin's trendiest set, psychics claim that UCD will continue to reign as the Mecca for a consistent image conscious youth. 

It's laughable the amount of girls you see coming into college made-up like pristine preened porcelain dolls, donning everything but the hand-bag. 

As a sloucher who inhabits the smoking area and general spectator of the passing parade. I can truly observe that week by week and indeed day by the the fads pulsate, hilariously, relentlessly, but above all amusingly. 

Some people, of course never quite get it right.

Believe me freshers you'll actually see, otherwise casually dressed, even pretty young things destroying their whole 'comfortable' look by wearing hairbands and suchlike. Of course, say it to them and far from triggering off the herniae they deserve, these sad bitches, will inform you that their look is strictly retro. Sorry darlings, retro nothing; a hair-band is simply a hairband in its fabric, or even plastic form.

Then you've got those uncanny, perhaps 'shy' lads who are afraid of projecting their inner tiger. Eager to camouflage such reticence, last years fad was a pair of drab 'slacks' as they are called, accompanied by a tucked-in checked shirt, Something else popularly adopted by the same crowd were and l'm almost afraid to say the word........waistcoats. These are surely the fodder of nightmares, the worst trip ever. Waistcoats have been strangely intertwined with the repulsed joke that they are simply so cringeworthy that they are actually funny, in a pathetic kind of way. Oh dear.

Then coloured socks, white, yellow, peach etc, often went foot in foot with black -would you believe- tassled moccasins -there actually exists a UCD student who daily wears such combinations, but harping on about such men may be a bit too frightful. 

Especially reserved for the freshers amusement, however is the funniest trend which hit the corridos of college last winter: the unisex puffa strait jacket, buoyant, yet strapping, this item of clothing was originally modelled in full ensemble by the Marshmallow Man in 'Ghost-busters'. Available in a delightful variety of loud colours from Big Bird yellow to vomit orange, (a particular favourite among UCD's braver lot). Each person as puffy as a fresh vol-au-vent; these jackets did look scarifyingly adorable and were an absolute scream, Who knows what this year will hold? 

Getting back for the moment to UCD's ladies. 

Arguably girls do have nicer bodies than men - even if they are unfortunate enough to be average, ( by the Irish standard, a big overall but small in all the wrong places kind of package). This begs the question, why, oh why do so many at UCD's pretty faced girls still continously accentuate the bad and conceal the good. Think shoulder bulging denim shirts, sported with ill fitting courtesy of Benetto Dunné or the even more camp, Michel Guniéa. 

Not that there is anything sinfully wrong with dressing front these stores. Alas, the so-called funkier types think that they know better, but do they really get the balance right? 

Having said all that though, remember to dress whatever way you want, whether its to make a statement, be an embarassment or blend in with the furniture. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not we are all entertaining somebody.

By Miriam Fahey 

The only Miriam Fahey in Dublin I could find with Google is an accountant. Hopefully she's lightened up a bit in the past few years but I have to be thankful she took the time to document UCD fashion for me way back when. I liked her Dunnes Stores/Michael Guiney pun. It went over my head and it wasn't until I googled Michel Guniéa to see if there should be an accent on the e that it hit me. Apart from that there's a lot of hate and a lot of typos. Maybe she'll read this article and send us in a photo of her in her college days.

I'll try get some pictures up of people wearing unisex puffa strait jackets around college. They're so in!