a pendulum swing so far to one side, it swings back to the other. >> and the world changes. profoundly. ♪ style is how you want to project yourself. >> i look different and i think that was good the way i dressed. >> style is what's happening in the larger society, economy, the culture, politics. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> it's how we express ourselves. through our clothing, how we live, things that surround us. >> in the '80s, it was a lot of excess in every way. >> the me and more generation living to the max. >> we had our calvin kleins and our ralph lawyurens and our don

karans. >> a woman who wants to get to the top has to work very, very, very hard. >> as women are going into the workforce, they're looking for clothes that will make them look like they could be the boss rather than the secretary. >> greed is good. >> this is capitalism american style. the haves and the have nots. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ the shall beiness of the '70s was stylistic, but also more than that. we were in a real recession. we had a real oil crisis. we went to school in the dark. new york city was a dangerous, criticism-ridden gangland. >> certainly the drug scene got a little bit intense there. so i think there was just rebellion against living like that. >> people were just looking for, let's fix this country, like let's get things back on track. >> i know that the economic program that i have proposed for this nation in the next few years can resolve many of the problems that trouble us today.

>> i think people want to get back to the basic values that made our country strong and great. >> reagan was very effective at helping the american psyche recover from the shocks of the '60s and '70s. he called a time-out on all this and said, we can be normal again, we can pull together again. >> for the people who voted for ronald reagan, they shared the optimism that reagan himself embodied and expressed in his speeches. >> reagan, of course, is known for make america great again. >> ronald reagan coasts into washington, and there was a sense of, okay, now we've dealt with the earnestness and the hostages, now let's just have a good time. daddy's here. ♪ >> ronald reagan, nancy reagan,

brought hollywood glamor to the white house. you could also say they brought bling back to the white house. >> the whole image of nancy reagan and ronald reagan are both hollywood fixtures. both people who had been in front of a camera, around a camera, understood the power of image. >> i've got an idea for another picture. i've got the chainsaw. no, and you're blocking me off. >> they're from california. they have no cares or worries. half of their kids don't even speak to them. but they're having a wonderful time with their rich friends and they enjoy the good life. and that was really clear. >> the reagans were all about being stars. and they understood incredibly well how to use image and how to communicate through image. which is really what fashion is about. it's about, what is this dress going to tell the watching world about what this administration stands for and what this country stands for?

>> it was the reagan white house that had an excessive amount of state dinners, and they were all celebrity studded. it was hollywood's east coast home. >> when i was miss america, at my first state dinner i remember standing in the line after i was presented and halston was next to me, and there was martha graham and ginger rogers. and i was like, oh my god. i was 20 years old but talking about style and elegance and presence and icons. >> that brought a kind of attention to white house events that i don't believe the white house has had since the kennedys. >> nancy reagan personified this kind of new american aristocracy that was rooted in the republican party, that was rooted in southern california, and that was rooted in hollywood. >> nancy reagan was a rebuttal of what had been going on in the '70s. i think of her in like chanel-type suits, very tailored and elegant.

>> decked out in adolfo and having her own big hair and lots of jewels and being a movie star. i mean, she knew -- she knew what to do. she'd been working with stylists and makeup artists. so she knew how to look grand, and she did. >> she was instrumental in turning red from being the color of communism to the color of republicanism. she had those beautiful red dresses. and that certainly became part of a kind of reagan look. >> the reagan model of, let's all be grand and beautifully dressed and at least look like we've spent a lot of money, certainly had a huge impact on how americans wanted to dress and how they wanted to live. >> the '80s had this extravagance, this excessiveness.

everyone wanted to be shiny and wear sequins and have big hair and excessive makeup. >> jewelry was big. earrings were big. >> the bigger the hair, the smaller the hips looked. volume was in with the big puffy sleeves and the big poof skirts. >> shoulder pads were bigger than new york giant shoulder pads with nipped-in waists. >> it was about things being ov overscale, and it was vulgar in a way. >> as someone who suffered through the 1980s, we really lost our way from a style perspective. ♪ >> you know, you think about what's popular on television. "dallas." "dynasty." i mean, these are programs about families with a lot of money. and they're not ashamed to show it. >> "dallas" and "dynasty" are caricatures, but not that much of caricatures. >> everything was just this

over-the-top glamor. like they're just lounging around in evening gowns all the time. and you couldn't have had a better villain than joan collins. >> are you insane? >> no, perfectly sane. so take this junk and your blond trap and get out of my home. >> everything is being held up by having a lot of money is the answer to everything. that's how you need to live. >> i sell very great condominiums in new york. >> what donald trump does, of course, is make a lot of money. and makes sure everybody knows it. a yacht, a mansion, a bigger mansion, an airline, two casinos, a bigger casino. >> that is really incredible. there's nothing like this place. >> the trumps were able to achieve the real thing and have real jewels and really big hair and be really gross and vulgar.

>> everything was gold, big, loud, more is more is more is more. >> it was like they were at a costume party, we were all watching it. we weren't really invited to the costume party. ivana trump wore these clothes which struck me as very unflattering to her. also her hair-do, which was kind of like a drip castle. and big jewelry. and it was as if some very shrewd salesperson had said, darling, you've got to wear this. and she just looked absurd. >> trump is a pure 1980s figure. the mogul who goes far by just being brash and getting his name put on as many buildings as humanly possible. >> trump tower is basically a temple to the excess of the '80s. it's basically gold plated on the outside. and they have gold toilets. >> in the '80s, people were

talking about money in a way that wasn't pooh-poohing it, that wasn't saying, i'm going to work and do something meaningful now and maybe one day i'll have enough money to buy a house. oh, no. i want a jaguar, i want gucci this, i want money, and i want it now. >> it was a sort of rebellion against the traditional american way of life, which was to be discreet. >> instead of saying, let me go get the car, people would say, let me go get the beamer. oh, yeah, my chanel unless the other room. i mean, i really saw a kind of dependance on those labels to validate one's existence. i realize i love you, but as long as you're with jessica, there can never be anything between us. listen cassie, there's no need to cry. besides, i've got really great news.

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even if you went to east overshoe high school these days, you can be a preppie because it as mania that is sweeping the country thanks in large part to lisa bernbot, editor of "the prepty handbook" which came out eight months ago and now has sold about 1 million copies. >> in 1980, i had a meeting at workman publishing. and they were looking for someone to write a book about preppies. and i had to tell america what preppies were. because people would say, where'd you find people who look like that? and dress like that? and i said, well, you just insulted all my friends and my brothers. so we thought only a few people who graduated from exeter and st. paul's would ever be interested in the book. and the book was sold out within

a week of its appearance. it told the secrets of a way of life that had never been spilled like that. the book was absolutely tongue in cheek. the subtitle to the official preppie handbook was, "look, muffie, a book for us!" i was trying to make funny something that could be construed as very obnoxious. but people took it quite seriously as their self-help. >> growing up in the 1980s where style was like all over the map, i was having trouble connecting with something. and so when i saw what was considered preppie style, i was like, that's close, that's getting there. >> if you wear 100% cotton shirt and a pair of khakis and a pair of loafers, you look like you know what you're talking about. it's sort of an overall

improvement of one's prospects and style. >> whether it's the polo grounds of connecticut or the yacht clubs of cape cod, lauren's true talent lies in creating a desire for a certain lifestyle and selling the wardrobe to match. >> american style conjures up a democracy of taste. and ralph lauren is the most american american. >> one of the things the american aesthetic is about is taking lots of disparate elements and mixing them together. like our own culture. ralph was the first on so many fronts in terms of just showing somebody, oh, you can wear a sport jacket with a pair of jeans? you never saw a european pull clothes together like that, ever. >> ralph embraces everything that is american, whether it's the old west, whether it's nantucket or cape cod, whether it's san francisco society, whether it's beverly hills.

one day he wants to be on safari in africa, and the next day he wants to be in the boardroom on wall street. >> i worked with him, and he created movies in his mind. he was probably the best movie director in the history of hollywood that never directed a movie. >> having parents who were immigrants, they really come to embrace this country and the freedom that they have in america, and ralph was one of those people. >> he wasn't just selling clothes, he was selling a lifestyle. he was selling a dream. >> the message from his world about the difference between style and passion and the idea that one should have an arm's-length relationship with fashion because fashion is something that changes, his point of view is you should be trying to buy clothes that are going to be with you for a long time. >> he never compromises. he is all about integrity. integrity of product, integrity

of manufacture, integrity of detail. >> in a time when people in this nation were less confident about how they were dressing, they really wanted to be led. and oh, i'm head to toe ralph lauren, people will accept me, i must be okay. >> i asked my friend, so who do you think is the most influential designer of the last sps 50 years? people came up with armani, calvin klein, a number of people. well, who do you think has more clothes being worn that's five or ten years old? if you ask that question, there is no other answer but ralph lauren. ♪ >> you want to know what comes between me and my calvins? nothing. >> the calvin klein brooke shields ads were really revolutionary in terms of making

overt sexuality part of advertising. >> he found like the sex in things, you know, which is such a touchy subject for americans, right? and he like hit that button every damn time. >> calvin klein's advertising was rather scandalous. people were saying, you're sexualizing this underage minor, what are you doing? >> but it woke people up. >> there were many times there would be an ad for calvin klein where there weren't many clothes involved. but it made you want to buy them. >> his underwear ads stopped traffic in times square. that was just revolutionary. this image of masculine sexuality. that was just absolutely galvanizing. >> suddenly men's underwear became a cigna fire for the first time that wasn't just a boring commodity like buying white bread or milk at the grocery store.that wasn't just commodity like buying white bread or milk at the grocery store. >> he made every man, whether they looked like that or not, feel, if i pie that underwear,

i'll look like that. >> in the studio we had these long johns and cut them off. we showed to it calvin, he thought it was amazing. david geffen was visiting. he sends over mark wahlberg. that was the beginning of the boxer brief. >> calvin klein really deserves some credit for making objectification a two-way street. that women had been and still are objectified, but now men are. >> this was the first time that it was done in such a mass advertising way. >> the whole idea of a man taking care of his body, looking good, caring about the way he looked and the way he was groomed, broke the mold for how goods could be advertised and how far the envelope could be pushed. honey treasures from whole blends.

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television came along and gave us the gift of sight. but it was cable that gave us the freedom of choice. >> in the 1980s, deregulation opened up a wild west for media environment, which is cable television. >> ladies and gentlemen, rock 'n' roll. ♪

>> i'm martha quinn. the music will continue nonstop on mtv music television's newest component of your stereo system. ♪ >> i remember to the day that mtv launched. because everybody was so eager for it, that people were throwing parties. >> there was such a fervor for the new video and you had to see it. and what are they wearing? and what are the backup dancers wearing? >> we watched music videos avidly. that was where you got most of your fashion news. >> music videos allowed people to interpret fashion completely out of this paris, milan, new york, london ecosystem. it took control away from the magazines and gave to it a whole new legion of creatives. >> style came to be increasingly more important, and the artists who really took advantage of this is the king pop, michael jackson. >> the jacket from "the thriller," it was like a super seller. >> when you think of this era you think of someone like

prince. he's pushing lines around race and gender. >> the hair of the hair bands was huge. aqua netted up. >> most of them laugh about that period of time for sure, you know. >> i think of blondie and new wave and punk and just this kind of interesting marriage of commercialism and art and fashion. >> and that revolutionized the way that people listened to music, because now there was a visual component. >> mtv came about, and whether it was cinyndi lauper or madonn the fashion business followed. >> mtv was it at the time. and that really to me had the biggest impact on '80s style. >> are you the designer of your look, your hairstyle, the clothing? >> oh, yeah. do you think someone else could come up with this? >> madonna is a creature of the '80s and of music video because that's where she created this chameleon fashion persona.

>> she was trained as a dancer, not as a musician. >> interesting to watch her start taking so many influences from the new york club scene and turning that into madonna's style that then got emulated by girls everywhere. she would wear mesh over a bra, you know. you had the "desperately seeking susan" period. so you saw her lingerie. >> it's this play on her catholic-italian bruin upbringing of layering crucifixions over crop tops. >> that was very much coming out of punk. were you were doing it yourself, mixing up all kinds of things that didn't fit together. >> an artist of madonna never would have come to the forefront of culture unless she had a platform like mtv. >> madonna resonated because she helped to break stereotypes of feminism. a female identity and a female sexuality in particular.

>> this was shocking in the 1980s. the kind of free-wheeling sexuality that you see when she's doing the performance of "like a virgin," for instance, she's writhing on the floor in marital dress. this is like shocking at the time to people. "papa don't preach." songs like that. she's talking about abortion. >> in the 1980s you wouldn't necessarily have a conversation at your dinner table about feminism, but you would have a huge debate about madonna. >> madonna had her own interpretation on what was happening that wasn't so concerned with trends and that was deeply personal. >> these mass cultural artists, these people who challenged style and sensibility, they were the people who pushed forward the conversations on identity. >> she is being compared today to jackie robinson. vanessa williams, a college junior from new york who has broken one of the nation's last remaining racial barriers. she is the first black miss america.

>> when vanessa williams was crowned miss america, i mean, we were like, what? you know, it was -- it was -- it was awesome. we were very proud. we were excited. she was beautiful. she was classy. she looked like a beauty queen. >> vanessa williams becoming miss america was like obama becoming president of the united states. >> the first black anything is a big deal. but a miss america? >> being a black person, a beauty was never acknowledged because of the color of our skin. >> you hear throughout time, you know, black is beautiful, black is beautiful. you know, she validated that. >> it was a huge honor and responsibility. women who were elderly came up to me and thought they'd never see it in their lifetime. >> it's about time we had a beautiful black girl representing new york city. >> women that were my age kind

of cheered along because they knew that there was a color barrier that had been broken. >> i was thrilled, actually. i couldn't stop my heart from beating when she won, yeah. >> since roughly the mid to late 1950s, the miss america beauty pageant is the standard of american feminine beauty. you can understand how someone like vanessa williams, as incredibly beautiful as she is and was, would still arouse resentment. largely in racial terms. >> yes, a barrier was opened. but then there were people that were my own african-american contemporaries that said, well, it's not good enough, she's not dark enough, she looks like she could pass, she looks like she's mixed, it's not really a win for us. and that was actually more painful than the racism that i kind of anticipated from white people that said, you're not. this is my own community. >> any time you have a cultural

shift and part of that cultural shift involves the question of race, there's going to be some vocal, try gent pushback. >> death threats, i had snipers on top of rooftops when i would do outdoor parades. at one particular parade i couldn't even be outside. i had to be inside the car because there were threats. >> she may have been accepted in terms of the pageant and the title she won, but that didn't mean that she was accepted throughout society. it's never a good idea in this society to be the first black anything. >> it is one thing to face up to a mistake that one makes some youth. it is almost totally devastating to have to share it with the american public and the world at large as both a human being and as miss america. >> it took away her crown. for them pictures. them pictures ain't nothing.

>> it is not at all surprising that the first african-american miss america would be dethroned after the emergence of photos that many people considered inappropriate. >> a lot of racists took great satisfaction in the scandal, the taking of the crown away from vanessa williams, because they were able to say, told you so. >> as we break barriers, we break hearts. people just can't live with the fact that somebody who doesn't look like them is all of a sudden breaking the images that they have placed before them. >> it's amazing how far we've come as a country, and then it's amazing how many times we take ten years' steps backwards. whes supposed to be quitting. i thought, i should try something that works. i should try nicorette. nicorette mini relieves sudden cravings fast. anytime. anywhere.

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the drug epidemic is as dangerous as any terrorist that we face. it is serious. it is an epidemic, and it can kill. >> it's tearing the cities apart. >> black communities in the 1980s dealing with a lot. there was a lot of social marginalization. this was reagan's conservative america. and there was an entrenched gap between the rich and the poor. >> it was the haves and the have nots. people always talk about how great, oh, reagan, those great reagan years. i said, phht. man, i can't tell, not where we're from. >> right now all around us and so compelling you never miss the

fact there's no melody is a music that is all beat, strong beat, and talk. it's rap music, and it sounds like this. ♪ when you hear is not a test i'm a rapping to the beat ♪ >> the sugar hill gang song "rapper's delight" might be the most important hip-hop song. and not just because it was the first, although that's a big part of it. i just remember how excited we all were. ♪ it helped young, burgeoning rappers like us, it allowed us to start dreaming. >> hip-hop was the authentic expression of a group of people who didn't have a voice in any other way. >> they saw it as a form of art, but also as a powerful means of self-expression and as a means of visibility. >> from a segment of the population that was largely invisible. >> the power of rap in hip-hop becomes where the protest

movement moves from, and it's about speaking the heart of oppression. >> so much of the energy of hip-hop is about inscribing yourself into culture, whether that's using music to establish your identity and boast and let people know who you are and what your skills are, whether that's through dancing, deejaying. or rapping. ♪ >> when you talk about hip-hop and style, the beginning is the group run dmc. they had some cool songs, but what was really cool about them was their style. because their glasses that they wore, the goliath frames. if you're into the frame game, these are legendary. but also black leather, and of course they made a famous song called "my adidas." the adidas shelto is in some ways the legendary shoe

throughout culture. >> you had oversized clothes, you had a lot of big chains, youed had gold teeth. all of that was kind of the excessive style. >> what you're trying to put forth and portray is confidence, strength, affluence. >> this look at first was mocked. but believe me, it was picked up by high fashion really early on. for chanel couture, the big gold chains, only now they were big double cs on them. >> it probably was the most influential style change in american fashion in that decade. bigelow goes became very important. >> y'all, this is fab five freddie, welcome back to your mtv raps. we're here hanging out in dapper dan's all-night boutique on 125th street in harlem. who are some of the celebrities that come up here to get their clothes made? >> ll cool j, the fat boys, salt-n-pepa, and of course eric b. and rock kim. >> danner dan is a new york legend.

dapper dan early on tapped into black culture's fascination with labels. >> i' start playing with logos probably around mid '84, '85, like that. i had to come up with something that was unique and real, so i said, if i can print on leather, which nobody else was doing, i think that would be a phenomenal thing to do. >> he appropriated fabrics, some of the shapes, and it was completely underground and none of it was approved bit brands. >> he started making clothes that the companies themselves hadn't thought of doing yet. and he made this incredibly powerful, really postmodern look. >> eventually the outfits and the look and the music all got popular at the same time. >> the way that dan used brands fed the kind of the rapper culture that was happening at that time and coming out of harlem. >> once again it goes back to that hip-hop culture wanting to

be exclusive. you know, you wanted to get an outfit from dapper dan because nobody else had it. >> the new designer at gucci, alessandro vicali, found one of these early homages dapper dan had done, and effectively remade the exact same garment. he's now ripped off the rip-off. and alessandro vicali gucci got in touch with dan. they had a collaboration together, they sponsored his shop, and he's become very popular again. [ somber music playing ] he's passed away six times this year. [ cheering ] [ upbeat music starts ] let's go! let's go! let's go! and we don't even have an uncle edward. and yet somehow, i think this is what he would have wanted. [ cheering and screaming ] the volkswagen atlas.

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♪ ♪ (clap, clap) olly. i remember a time when gym class and exercise were pretty undesirable things for women. nowadays women realize exercise can make us feel better, look better, think better, and even keep our bodies from aging. >> whoo! get ready to work out. stand with your feel parallel a little more than hip distance apart. you should have your good workout shoes on now. >> jane fonda, when she started to do her exercise videos, it

actually kind of redeemed her. she was still dealing with the hanoi jane situation. there were lots of people, especially veterans, who wanted no part of jane fonda. and yet when you looked at her and you looked at how great-looking she was, you know, women said, especially housewives, i want to look like jane fonda, she looks great, i can relate to her. this happened right at a time when vcrs and videos started coming out. >> suddenly we have workout clothes. and women are out on the streets, not going to workout, but wearing a leotard, wearing leg warmers, wearing sneakers everywhere. and you think, what's going on? >> of course you had to have a leotard. you probably had some sort of tights. you might have even had a pair of briefs over it. you might have had a belt. you have leg warmers. there were even like, god help us, like the headbands.

the cut of the leotard just kept getting higher and higher and higher up on the hip as women tried to adhere to a new, fitter ideal. >> what's interesting about exercise is it used to be for centuries that your clothes would create the shape. of course it would squeeze you into certain shapes. and then as clothes showed off more of your body, you couldn't rely on the clothes to push the fat around, you had to try and do something to get rid of the fat. >> i consider us a team, december. and as such we have a uniform. simple, elegant, impeccable. dress shall beily, they notice the dress. dress impeccably, they notice the woman. >> as women are going into the workforce more, at somewhat higher levels, they're looking for clothes that will make them look like they could be the boss rather than the secretary.

>> the power suit of the '80s was comprised of a strong shoulder jacket that was paired with a pencil skirt or a pair of pants. so it was basically, what would a man wear if he was a woman? >> this was a time when women were adopting masculine traits. because masculinity is so inextricably correlated to power at that time, there were no female role models in corporate america. >> when we think about the '80s power suit, it is melanie griffith in "working girl." big shoulders. impeccably tailored but also confining. and rather masculine in a manner of speaking. donna karan was the antidote to that. >> women may wear high fashion, but they are very seldom the designers. one exception, donna karan. she's now the undisputed leader among american women fashion designers with a $30 million a year business.

>> i'm a woman who works. and most working women were wearing suits, shirts and ties. and that wasn't really me. i had an idea. seven easy pieces and really simple. >> the seven easy pieces revolved around a centerpiece that is a body suit. there is a skirt and a top. there's a draped cape of sorts. there is a pant. and they're all made out of jersey, either wool or silk. so everything has a wonderful stretch. >> it was separates on a very sophisticated level. you can mix and match them, you could travel with them. >> her seven easy pieces were created because she said, this is all you need to feel secure and confident. >> we have a new power dressing that is distinctly feminine, and quite frankly, very alluring. they're owning their gender.

>> i think i was a shock to working women. you know, that you could feel sensual and comfortable and tailored and day to night. if you're a working woman, you >> it's tough. i remember worrying about what am i going to wear to work today? you have to get to work, say hello to the kids, good night to the kids and be able to go from workout. >> female designers make clothes for women. they think about the woman and the comfort and i did, donna did, norma did. >> it was the perfect timing. it was the perfect moment and women loved it. and embraced it.

there i was. my 7 pieces were in the windows and it was an amazing success. i didn't expect it. i really didn't. >> there's three moments in 20th century fashion and each one of them was created by a woman. do humans like overpaying with verizon? don't they know they can get the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines free with sprint? (paul) yeah that means sprint's unlimited plan gives you 5 lines for just $20 per month, per line. (mom) really? (atlas) yes and you can save more than $1,000 over verizon and at&t with sprint. (mom) no way! (dad) robots don't lie.

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in the 80s, men's clothes had an ibm style of dress. white shirts, suits, red ties. on wall street you had a maverick breed that did a little bit of their own thing. people in the investment world made money and they wanted to look like they made money and in those days, the way to look like you made money was to wear tailored clothing and there were all of these similar -- symbols. at some point, people make a enough money and they can dress how they want to dress in that own little circle.

>> win a few, lose a few, but you keep on fighting. if you need a friend, get a dog. >> when i did the wall street movie i went to visit michael douglas. i was wearing what i was typically wearing in those days which was a double breasted suit, horizontal striped shirt, and he looked and said that's exactly how i want to dress. just like that. so it was easy in a sense. >> we made him a wardrobe, in some cases the shirts were bolder, maybe the pat terns stronger so on camera they would read that way. what kind of ring he was going to wear. those were all chosen with thought in mind of how to project this guy that could do whatever he wanted and was beholden to nobody. somehow it hit such a nerve, we had people coming in from europe and california that literally

just wanted to look like him. intimidating, strong, they wanted [ bleep ] clothes. >> greed for lack of a better word is good. greed is right. greed works. and greed, you mark my words, will not only save our paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the usa. thank you very much. >> in the film, he is saying basically basically, i'm rich and i'm not ashamed of the fact that i'm rich and you should want to be rich too and if you really want to be rich, you should follow my lead. this in a lot of ways summarizes certain aspects of the 1980s. this ego driven pursuit of fame, status, wealth, and material

possessions. it's sort of capitalism run amuck. >> on wall street there was panic. >> the stock market went into a free fall. >> the worst one day decline ever. >> it's the chickens coming home to room. >> in the late 80s you get hedge fund operators and phony companies and people that are pirating things and it's too mainstream. >> our bipartisan bill is a 25% reduction over three years. >> reagan used optimism as an oxygen. tell people things are great and people will believe it. the problem with it is there was a callousness that belies the feel good smile that he always

projected. >> in the 80s there was a lot of i want this and i'm bigger than you, and i got this. >> people convey political ideals, political positions, political strategies through style. >> the 80s youth culture is almost always music culture. >> music videos revolutionized the presentation of music. >> hip hop was thought to be a fad that would pass, but it's influence has been profound throughout culture in america and eventually across the globe. >> sexual and gender dynamics are becoming much more complicated as both men and women for different reasons are exploring other aspects of the sex-gender con tcontinuum. we were the world number one. we were the only super power. >> the currents that existed in the 80s were suddenly not there

and american fashion didn't know what it wanted to be. >> style is how you project yourself. >> it's about coming into stores like this and finding your favorite thing and just putting it all together. >> it's places you go to eat and the people that you hang out with and the magazines you read. it's a lifestyle. >> it's about creating something that's your own and saying here i am, look at me today. >> by the 90s and 2000s, things have become increasingly less formal. >> she shows you it's not about the dress, it's about the woman that wears it. >> it's become a lot more free form. >> hello, lover. >> style no