Do you remember those?
I was shopping the other day and came across the Benetton’s store, and my mind went down memory lane really fast! (I must tell you that I also have a thing for Benetton). It reminds me of my well celebrated 80’s pop culture back in Puerto Rico. When it came to Benetton, two things were very trendy within my social network at the time: “Colors” fragrance, and the Rugby oversized sweatshirt. If you had one of these, you were cool! At least that’s what I thought at the time. Granted I was only 12.
I don’t know about you but I remember when the classy Benetton Rugby Sweatshirt came out. I also remember the first time I saw one and fell in love with it. It was during the summer of 1986. My sister and I went off to a summer camp at St. Thomas Moore School in Connecticut. At the time, we were living in Puerto Rico; so it was super cool to have been able to have gone to a summer camp outside the Island. Seriously!
Our first trip outside the camp grounds was The Mall. For us, this was huge, for we could buy whatever we wanted without someone responding back with a “No, you can’t get that”, embarrassing answer! This was the only chance to get “it” or not get “it” at all. Besides, we needed to keep up with our fashion standards among our circle of friends. You wanna talk about peer pressure? It was rough! Sadly but true, if you were not in Volleyball, or went to the tournaments, or at the “jaranas” (school parties), or had a boyfriend, or did Jazz, etc., then you had to be wearing, at least, the latest styles to be part of the social network!
Nevertheless, you can say that we experienced our first level of freedom during this summer trip. We were young!!! And enjoying it! (That included learning how to smoke and sneak out in the middle of the night to the boy’s dormitory and pretend we didn’t the next day when we got caught in the wee hours trying to get back in to our dorms. Hey! We were not familiarized with doors locking themselves from the inside, ok!)
Anywho…At the mall, we did our rounds:
The Reebok freestyle hi tops,
The oversized tops,
Don’t forget the baggy jeans, and shorts, etc.,
and Benetton Rugby Sweatshirt!
We got one Benetton Rugby Sweatshirt for the both of us. And we both picked the white/green pattern. My sister was the first one to wear it on our first night out to the movies. The movie we saw? Guess!!! We’re talking 1986! If you guessed it, you are right! Aah, wearing it back in Puerto Rico made me feel so popular and cool. Until the Swatches came out! Great! Now everyone had to have a Swatch. I’m telling you, it was tough back then!
Nowadays, I wear a Benetton fitted polo with their nice fitted bootcut jeans and during the winter one of their nice wool coats I got in Italy last year. Ooh…so different from the 80’s, right? It’s ok. Fall is here and temperatures are dropping pretty fast. So, it’s time for coats now! Still, wouldn’t it be great if Benetton brought back the Rugby Sweatshirt? What do you think?
Here’s a picture of my Benetton Coat…
And now…I leave you with a video that will take you back to 1986…enjoy!
