The 80s Look Great on Ashley Olsen

We love the 80s.

With the Cosby Show, Alex P. Keaton and Miss Jackson (if you're nasty), the cultural riches from this decade of our youth are endless (shout out to Taylor Dane, Rick Astley and Tony Toni Tone).

What we're not loving is every hipster wannabe embracing the fashion of the decade like Milli Vanilli clutching feverishly to their Grammy (that means you Vanessa from Gossip Girl). Yet once again, the enigma that is the Olsen twins strikes again and this time it's Ash.




Domo arigato Mr. Robato, the 80s look great on Ashley Olsen.

After School Special: AQoT Edition

Ah childhood...Rice Krispies Treats, Capture the Flag, You Can't Do That on Television...those were simpler times. Unfortunately, our inevitable aging has left us prone to sigh's of "kids nowadays..." as we are confronted with that which we do not understand, Ne-Yo, Gossip Girl, The Hills, Justin Timberlake. Ha, just kidding, we totally understand that stuff. What we don't understand lately is what is going on with the next generation (are we at Z yet?) of budding superstars.

Let's start with Vanessa Hudgens. Fine, she took some pictures of herself naked and in the grand scheme of things we're not going to go all Republican on you and say that this is an immoral thing to do we're just saying, did no one explain to her how the Internet works?

And then there's Jamie Lynn Spears. Sure, Britney has made some bad choices that $100 million should be able to prevent one from making, but at least she had the decency to wait until she was in her 20s to have a baby by her totally not famous boyfriend. Shockingly, Nickelodeon seems not to have a problem with the situation. We wonder if they'll try to cover up Zoey 101's baby bump with strategically placed grocery bags a la Claire Huxtable in the 80s.

Apparently, Lily Allen is also pregnant. While not in her teens, she's also not too far removed and she was recently asked to design a line of maternity clothing specifically intended for juniors, like Delia's juniors, otherwise known as girls in their teens and VERY early 20s. In what universe is that a good idea? The least we can do is force girls to wear ugly florals and stirrup pants through their pregnancy as a deterrent.

We've come to the point where we fully expect the next breaking news item on CNN to be Miley Cyrus' gruesome killing spree.

What have we learned here kids, naked photos and pregnancy will not actually harm one's chances of a lucrative future in Children's Programing and if corporate America had their way we'd have a totally rocking line of skinny jeans and crop tops suitable for the second trimester of only the most fashionable teenagers.

Phylicia, Lisa & Keshia KP - Cosby's Angels

I know Bets doesn't necessarily experience this day by day, but doing the corporate America thing tends to sometimes stagnate creativity. In light of that, it can be inspiring to witness any sort of reinvention, whether in the office, on the streets or anywhere in the media.

Everyone's made pretty ridiculous aesthetic moves since 1984 (I seem to remember yellow gingham overalls... but I was 5, and in no way in control of my wardrobe), but who knew that some of our favorite ladies from those days would be pulling out some really smart choices in 2007? We don't really want to judge (wait, what am I talking about, of COURSE we want to judge), but I think it must be really difficult to stay very smart and retain the positive aspects of your fashion choices, and carry them through, updating as necessary, while adding another entire dimension to it.

Phylicia Rashad
She's the classic, older woman with a strong presence, just like then, but really has defined a very specific perspective. Claire Huxtable epitomized the archetypical strong working woman. The idea was renegade in the 1980s and only a woman with enough presence to impart strength in the mere raise of an eyebrow could pull it off without coming off as "hard" in any way.

Then:

Now:



Lisa Bonet
Denise Huxtable was always the controversial one on the show. Not entirely buying into Cosby's strict education precepts, she ended up kicked out of the dynasty after her first season on A Different World. Luckily, exit Bonet didn't deprive us of years of Dwayne Wayne, Whitley Gilbert and Jaleesa and that show also thrived for years after her departure. Bonet was always cute but we think she came into her own in the Lenny Kravitz years and peaked in her appearance in the John Cusack film "High Fidelity."

Then:



Now:


Keshia Knight-Pulliam
She went from annoying, only barely cute little girl who was SEVERELY upstaged by the casting of little Olivia to the show, to an arguably drop-dead beautiful woman. I think we all had that moment of whoa is that Keshia KP? while watching the video of Chingy's "One Call Away."

Then:



Now:


Bravo Cosby's Angels, way to keep it together through the decades. We have much to learn from you.