It was the era of perms, power suits and polka dots, so it's no wonder some of the biggest trends to emerge from the 1980s look flattering with hindsight.
And it has now been revealed why one of the decade's biggest fashion figureheads, Princess Diana, eventually turned her back on puffy sleeves and oversized ruffles in favour of a more slimline silhouette.
Eleri Lynn, the curator behind a new exhibition on the late Princess of Wales' wardrobe, believes the royal ultimately came to realise that they made her look bad in photographs, reports the Daily Mail.
Explaining why Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997, moved away from the New Romantic look, Ms Lynn said: "I think she realised the frills and the ruffles that she was so partial to didn't work particularly well in press photographs.