Something that’s not talked about much on this site is fashion. Pop culture happens to be more than just a collection of fads and trivia for bar night.
Fashion and pop culture go hand in hand, influencing each other. Thinking along those lines, there are several fashions and accessories that have entered the pop culture lexicon and haven’t left. Let’s talk about a few of those, shall we? (RELATED: check out these trendy Grand Seiko watches.)
The Zach Morris Phone
You can call it the “brick phone” or its proper name, the Motorola DynaTAC, but it will always be affectionately known as the “Zack Morris phone”.
Since these were the early days of cell phones, there was no storing this in your back pocket. No, Zack usually kept this in his locker, and only used it when it was absolutely necessary, seeing as how airtime cost about $2 per minute back then.
Dwayne Wayne Glasses
A lot of folks only know A Different World as ‘that show that used to come on after Cosby’. If you ever watched it, however, the first thing you probably noticed were Dwayne Wayne’s flip-up glasses. Played by Kadeem Hardison, Dwayne was a computer whiz who came across as one of the first cool black geeks.
Just like wrestling teaches us that folks with goatees and/or bald heads are evil, nothing says “geek” like a pair of glasses. Not to be outdone, however, Dwayne didn’t have just a regular pair of glasses. No, he had sunglass lenses that he could flip up when he was indoors. No one has pulled off that look since, (though some have tried) so it remains attributed to him.
I remember when I got my first pair of glasses, I wanted some like that SO badly! Instead, I had to settle for the clip on sunglasses things, and I was almost laughed out of school the first day I wore them…
Cosby Sweater
People tend to forget that, like Too Close for Comfort’s Henry Rush, Dr. Cliff Huxtable had a habit of wearing collegiate sweatshirts. When he wasn’t wearing those, however, he was usually in one of Dutch designer Koos van den Akker’s masterpieces.
It’s been said that the styles were always so odd because the colors had to mesh a certain way to show up on film properly. The sweaters are so iconic that just last month, BillCosby.com had a competition to vote on the best Cosby sweater worn during the show’s run.
Hitler ‘Stache
You can’t have a list on the internet without mentioning Hitler somewhere. It’s like Rule #387 or something. Anyway, this particular mustache was actually popularized by Charlie Chaplin, but then Hitler came along and Seig Heil’d it right out of our collective memory.
His nefarious deeds are known by enough folks that he pretty much put the nail in the coffin of that look. No one could ever bring it back – or could they? Air Jordan himself tried to revive the look in his Hanes ads, but even he couldn’t unsully the ‘stache.
The Rachel
Though Jennifer Aniston now calls it ‘the ugliest haircut she’s ever had‘, her hairstyle from the middle seasons of Friends sent countless young women to the salon in search of the same look.
If you Google “The Rachel” not only are you served images of Aniston’s iconic hairstyle, but the next most popular search is ‘The Rachel Haircut Updated’, meaning people still want this cut, but don’t want to look too ’90s (I guess).
BONUS: Herb Tarlek Suit
I have to confess that this one hasn’t happened yet. To paraphrase Mean Girls, I’m trying to “make ‘fetch’ happen.” If you’ve ever seen WKRP in Cincinnati, then you already know about the wild and crazy suits worn by ad man, Herb Tarlek.
I feel like there’s not enough WKRP reminiscing to begin with, but I especially feel like “Herb Tarlek suit” is something that could be used to describe an old outdated suit, or even some of the fashions worn by professional athletes and Steve Harvey. So, join me and help make “Herb Tarlek suit” happen. You can say you got in on the ground floor of something!
William Bruce West is the William Bruce West behind WilliamBruceWest.com. He also sells toys. You buy toys. Buy toys from William Bruce West.
Sorry, but you forgot the Miami Vice pastel suits
No one could ever forget those. Or the rolling of the sleeves.
Zack had competition from then NWA/WCW manager Paul E Dangerously and his equally giant cell phone.
I forgot about that awesome thing he used to carry