All language subtitles for American.Style.S01E03.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

Style is how you want
to project yourself.

I want to be different,
and I think I look good

the way I dress.

Avila: Style is what's happening
in the larger society,

economy, the culture, politics.

Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.

Gunn:
It's how we express ourselves,
through our clothing,

how we live,
the things that surround us.

In the '80s, it was
a lot of excess in every way.

Reporter:
The "me and more" generation,
living to the max.

Man: We had our Calvin Kleins
and our Ralph Laurens

and our Donna Karans.

Woman: Women that are really
trying to get to the top

have to work
very, very, very hard.

Steele: 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.

Birnbach:
The shabbiness 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,
crime-ridden gang land.

Truhler:
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."

Reagan: I know that the economic
program that I have proposed

for this nation,
in the next few years,

is going to 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 timeout
on all of that and said,

"We can be normal again.
We can pull together again."

Avila: 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."

Birnbach: Ronald Reagan
coasts into Washington,

and there was a sense of,

"Okay, now we're done with the
earnestness and the hostages,

and now let's just have
a good time.

Daddy is here."

Avila:
Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan,

brought Hollywood glamour
to the White House.

You could also say they brought
bling back to the White House.

Flusser: The whole image of
Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan

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.

Chopping.

Birnbach:
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 enjoyed the good life,
and that was really clear.

Friedman: 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, "Okay, what is
this dress going to tell

the watching world about what
this administration stands for

and what this country
stands for?"

Gunn:
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.

Williams:
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 then 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.

Avila:
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.

Flusser:
Nancy Reagan was a rebuttal of

what had been going on
in the '70s.

I think of her in,
like, Chanel-type suits

and very tailored and elegant.

Gunn: Decked out in Adolfo
and having her own big hair

and lots of jewels
and being a movie star.

I mean, she knew what to do.

She'd been working with stylists
and makeup artists,

so she knew how to look grand,
and she did.

Steele: She was instrumental
in turning red

from being the color
of communism

to being the color
of Republicanism.

You know, 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 have 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 look.

Volume was in with
the big, puffy sleeves

and the big, pouf skirts.

The shoulder pads
were bigger than

the New York Giants shoulder
pads with nipped-in waist.

It was about things
being overscale,

and it was vulgar in a way.

Truhler: As someone
who suffered through the 1980s,

we really lost our way

from a style perspective.

Boyd: 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.

Truhler: Everything was just
this over-the-top glamour.

Like, they were
just lounging around

in evening gowns all the time,

and you couldn't have
had a better villain

than Joan Collins.

-Are you insane?
-Oh, no.

I'm perfectly sane,
so take this junk

and your blonde tramp,

and get out of my home.

Everything is being held up.

Like, 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.

Reporter: What Donald Trump
does, of course,

is make a lot of money and make
sure everybody knows it --

a yacht, a mansion,

a bigger mansion, an airline,

two casinos, a bigger casino.

Trump: That is
really incredible.

There's nothing
like this place.

Gunn: The Trumps are able
to achieve the real thing

and have real jewels
and really big hair

and be really gross and vulgar.

Hilfiger:
Everything was gold, big, loud.

More is more is more is more.

Birnbach: It was like
they were at a costume party,

and 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 hairdo,

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.

Douglas:
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.

Birnbach:
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 discrete.

Birnbach: Instead of saying,
"Let me go get the car,"

people would say,
"Well, let me go the Beemer."

"Oh, yeah, my Chanel
is in the other room."

I mean, I really saw
a kind of dependence

on those labels
to validate one's existence.

Even if you went to
East Overshoe Falls High School

these days,
you can be a preppy

because it is a mania
that is sweeping the country,

thanks in large part
to Lisa Birnbach.

She's the editor
of "The Preppy Handbook,"

which came out eight months ago

and now has sold
about a million copies.

Birnbach: 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 did you find people
who look like that

and dress like that?"
and I said,

"Well, you've just insulted
all my friends and my brothers."

So, we thought only a few people
who'd graduated from Exeter

and St. Pauls 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 Preppy Handbook"

was,
"Look, Muffy, 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.

Truhler: Growing up in the 1980s
where style was just,

like, all over the map,

I was having trouble
connecting with something,

and so when I saw what
was considered preppy style,

I was like, "That's close.
That's getting there."

Birnbach:
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.

Woman:
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.

Gunn: American style conjures up
a democracy of taste,

and Ralph Lauren is
the most American American.

Flusser: One of the things
the American aesthetic is about

is taking lots
of disparate elements

and, you know, 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 sports
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
and Cape Cod,

whether it's
San Francisco society,

whether it's Beverly Hills.

The one day he wants to be
on safari in Africa,

and the next day,
he wants to be

in the board room
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.

Banks: 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.

Flusser: The message from
his world about the difference

between style and fashion
and the idea

that one should have
an arm's-length relationship

with fashion because fashion
is something that changes,

his point of view was 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 manufacturer,
and integrity of detail.

Gunn:
In a time when people of 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
in the last 50 years?"

People came up with Armani
or Calvin Klein

or, you know, a whole number
of people, and then I said,

"Well, who do you think
has more clothes being worn

that's 5 or 10 years old,"
and 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.

Steele:
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.

And 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.

Steele: 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 signifier.

For the first time, that wasn't
just a boring commodity

like buying white bread
or milk at the grocery store.

It made every man, whether
they looked like that or not,

feel like,
"If I buy that underwear,

I'll look like that guy."

I was head of design
at Calvin Klein,

and one day
we were in the studio,

and we had these long johns,
and we cut them off.

We showed it to Calvin.
He thought it was amazing.

David Geffen
was visiting Calvin.

He goes, "I have somebody
that would be incredible,"

and he sends over Mark Wahlberg.

That was the beginning
of the boxer brief.

Savage: 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.

Truhler: 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.

Man: 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.

Man: Ladies and gentlemen,
rock and roll.

I'm Martha Quinn.

The music will continue nonstop
on MTV Music Television,

the newest component
of your stereo system.

Allen: I remember 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.

Picardi:
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 it to a whole
new legion of creatives.

Style came to be
increasingly more important,

and the artist who really
took advantage of this

was the King of Pop,
Michael Jackson.

Dan: One of his jackets
from "Thriller"

was, like, a super seller.
-When you think of this era,

you think about
someone like Prince.

He's pushing lines
around race and gender.

Truhler: The hair of
the hair bands was huge,

Aqua Net-ed up.

Most of them laugh
about that period of time

for sure, you know?

Hauser: I think of Blondie
and in new wave and punk

and just this kind of
interesting marriage

of commercialism
and art and fashion.

And that revolutionized the way

that the people
listened to music

because now there was
a visual component.

MTV came about, and whether
it was Cyndi Lauper or Madonna,

the fashion business followed.

MTV was it at the time,
and that really, to me,

had the biggest impact
on '80s style.

Man: Are you the designer
of your look,

your hairstyle, the clothing?
-Oh, yeah.

Do you think someone else
could come up with this?

Steele: 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.

Truhler:
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.

Picardi: It's this play on
her Catholic-Italian upbringing

of this, like,
layering crucifixes

over these crop tops.

Steele: That was very much
coming out of punk.

You were doing it yourself,

mixing up all kinds of things
that didn't fit together.

And artists like 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, of female identity,

and of female sexuality,
in particular.

King:
This was shocking in the 1980s,

the kind of freewheeling
sexuality that you see

when she's doing the performance
of "Like a Virgin,"

for instance,
as she's writhing on the floor,

you know, in a marital dress.
This is, like,

shocking at the time to people,

"Papa Don't Preach,"
songs like that,

when 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.

King:
These mass-cultural artists,

these people who challenge style
and establishment 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.

Reid: When Vanessa Williams
was crowned Miss America,

I mean, we were like, "What?"

You know, 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 Miss America?

Being a black person, our beauty
was never acknowledged

because of the color
of our skin.

You hear it throughout time.
You know,

"Black is beautiful.
Black is beautiful."

You know, she validated that.

Williams: 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.

Williams:
Yes, a barrier was opened,
but then there were people

who 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 good enough,"
because this my own community.

Boyd: Well, anytime
you have a cultural shift

and part of that cultural shift
involves the question of race,

there is going to be
some vocal strident 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.

Boyd: 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 in youth,

but 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.

They took away her crown
for them pictures.

Them pictures ain't nothing.

Boyd:
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.

Savage:
A lot of racists took great
satisfaction in the scandal,

taking 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 10-year steps backwards.

Reporter: 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
were 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, man, Reagan.

Great Reagan years."
I said, "Pshh."

We were like, "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.

♪ What you hear is not a test

♪ I'm rapping to the beat

Reid: The Sugarhill Gang song,
"Rappers 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 and hip-hop

becomes where
the protest movement comes from,

and it's about speaking
one's heart to 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.

♪ My Adidas

♪ Walk through concert doors

♪ And roam all over
coliseum floors ♪

Boyd: 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.

The CAZAL glasses
that they wore,

or 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 shell toe is,
in some ways,

the legendary shoe
throughout hip-hop culture.

Steele:
You had oversized clothes.

You had a lot of big chains.
You had gold teeth.

All of that was
a kind of excessive style

What you're trying to put forth
and portray is confidence,

strength, affluence.

Steele: This look at first
was mocked, but believe me,

it was picked up
by high fashion really early on.

For Chanel Haute Couture,

Karl Lagerfeld
had the big, gold chains.

Only now, there were big
double "C"s on them.

It probably was the most
influential style change

in American fashion
in that decade.

Big logos became very important.

Yo, this is
Fab 5 Freddie.

Welcome back
to "Yo! MTV Raps."

We're here hanging out
in Dapper Dan's

All-Night Boutique on
125th Street in Harlem.

Tell me, who was some of
the other celebrities

that come up here
and get their clothes made?

LL Cool J, The Fat Boys,
Salt-N-Pepa,

and, of course,
Eric B. & Rakim.

Reid:
Dapper Dan is a New York legend.

Dapper Dan, early on,

tapped into black culture's
fascination with labels.

I started playing with logos
probably around

mid-'84, '85, like that.

I had to come up with something
that was unique and rare,

so I said,
"If I could print on leather,"

which nobody else was doing,

"I think that would be
a phenomenal thing to do."

He appropriated the fabric,
some of the shapes,

and it was completely
underground,

and none of it was
approved by the brands.

Steele:
He started making clothes
that the companies themselves

hadn't thought of doing yet,

and he made
this incredibly powerful,

really postmodern look.

Dan: Eventually, the outfits
and the look and the music

all got popular
at the same time.

Friedman:
The way that Dan used brands
fed 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 Michele,

found one of these early homages
that Dapper Dan had done

and effectively remade
the exact same garment.

He's now ripped off the rip-off,

and Alessandro Michele at Gucci
got in touch with Dan,

and they had
a collaboration together.

They've sponsored his shop,

and he's become
very popular again.

Woman: I remember a time
when gym class and exercise

were pretty undesirable
activities for women.

Well, today,
we women have realized

that a regular exercise program
can make us feel better,

look better, think better,

and even keep our bodies
from aging.

Women: Whoo!

Get ready to work out.

Stand with your feet parallel,

a little more
than hip-distance apart.

Now, 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 the time

when VCRs and videos
started coming out.

Gunn: Suddenly, we have
workout clothes,

and women are out
on the streets,

not going to work out
but wearing a leotard,

wearing leg warmers,
wearing sneakers everywhere,

and then 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.

Steele: What's interesting
about exercise is,

it used to be for centuries

that your clothes
would create the shape.

That corset 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, Tess,
and as such,

we have a uniform --
simple, elegant, impeccable.

Dress shabbily,
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.

Truhler:
The power suit of the '80s

was comprised of a strong
shouldered 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 were
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."

Gunn:
We have a new power dressing
that is distinctly feminine

and, quite frankly,
very alluring.

They were owning their gender.

I think I was a shock
to working women,

you know, that you can feel
sensual and comfortable

and tailored and day-to-night,
and if you're a working woman,

you have no time to keep
changing your clothes.

It's tough.
I don't want to worry about,

"Oh, what am I going
to wear to work today."

You got to get to work,
say hello to the kids,

good night to the -- you know,

and then be able
to go from work out.

Furstenberg:
Donna Karan, very important,

female designers
make clothes for women.

They think about
the body and the woman

and the comfort and use jersey.

I did. Donna did.
Norma Kamali did.

It was the perfect timing.

It was the perfect
zeitgeist moment,

and women loved it
and embraced it.

And the next thing I know,
I'm in Bergdorf Goodman,

and there I am.

My seven little pieces
are in the windows,

and it was an amazing success.

I didn't expect it.
I really didn't.

Gunn: I say that there are
three seminal moments

in 20th-century fashion,

and each one of them
was created by a woman --

Chanel, McCardell,
and Donna Karan.

In the '80s, mens clothes still
had an IBM culture of dress.

Big corporations were still
mandating the white shirts,

blue suits, red-type ties.

On Wall Street, you always had
a kind of a maverick breed

that did a little bit
of their own thing.

People in the investment world
made money.

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 maybe suspenders.

There were all these kind of,
like, symbols of having made it,

something that you couldn't buy
ready-to-wear.

So, Wall Street had always been
an interesting place

because at some point,
people make enough money,

and they can really dress
how they want to dress

in that own little circle.

Win a few, you lose a few,

but you keep on fighting,

and if you need a friend,
get a dog.

Flusser: When I did
the "Wall Street" movie,

I went to visit Michael Douglas

on his Upper West Side
apartment.

I was wearing what I was
typically wearing in those days,

which was
a double-breasted suit,

horizontal-striped shirt,
handkerchief, whatever,

and he just looked and said,

"Yeah, that's exactly how I want
to dress, just like that,"

so it was kind of easy,
in a sense.

Money itself
isn't lost or made.

It's simply, uh,
transferred.

We made him a wardrobe
that a dresser would wear.

In some cases, the shirts
were a little bolder,

maybe the patterns
a little bit stronger,

just so on camera,
they would read that way.

The ring, what kind of ring
he was going to wear,

those were all chosen
with thought in mind of how to,

again, project this guy
who could do whatever he wanted

and was beholden to nobody.

Somehow it hit such a nerve,

we had people coming in
from Europe, from California,

who literally just wanted
to look like Gordon Gekko --

intimidating, strong,

and they said they wanted
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
Teldar Paper,

but that other malfunctioning
corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.

Boyd: In the film, Gordon Gekko
is saying basically,

"Look, 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 sort of ego-driven
pursuit of fame, status,

wealth, and
material possessions.

It's sort of
capitalism run amok.

Reporter: In trading rooms on
Wall Street, there was panic.

Reporter: The stock market
went into a free fall.

Reporter:
The worst one-day decline ever.

But it's the chickens
coming home to roost.

Douglas: In the late '80s in
this unregulated environment,

we get hedge-fund operators
and phony companies

and people that
are pirating things,

and it becomes too mainstream,

that you're allowed to find ways
to circumvent the law.

Our bipartisan bill gives a
25% reduction over three years.

Douglas: Reagan used optimism
as an oxygen.

"Just tell people
things are great

and people will believe it."

The problem with it is,

there was a callousness
to Reaganism

which belies the kind
of feel-good smile

that he always projected.

Friedman: In the '80s, there was
a lot of "I want this.

I'm as good as you,
and I can do it,

and I'm bigger than you,
and I got this,

and Gucci, Gucci, Gucci."

Avila: People convey political
ideals, political positions,

political strategies
through style.

The '80s youth culture is almost
always a music culture.

Music videos revolutionized
the presentation of music.

Hip-hop was thought to be
a fad that would pass,

but its influence
has been profound

throughout culture in America
and eventually across the globe.

Steele:
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 continuum.

Douglas: With the Cold War over,
the sky was the limit.

We were number one.

We were the world's
only superpower.

Gunn: The currents
that existing in the '80s

were suddenly not there,

and American fashion didn't know
what it wanted to be.