These photos were taken in Lagartera at the beginning of the 1980s, a decade marked by great changes. In 1980 unemployment was rising and it was no longer so easy to emigrate to the city, so many young people stayed in the village. It was also a decade of cultural changes and creativity. In Lagartera there was the magazine ‘Pueblo Abierto’ set up by Cesar García, the theatre group Tío Gartera, the folk group Zéjel, which explored our musical roots; then later the ‘Lagarteran punk’ group, ‘Kubata y los Hielitos’. The young people who stayed in the village, and their friends who lived in Madrid, formed part of ‘la movida lagarterana’ *. There were also ‘outsiders’, such as the Argentinean painters Esther and Guillermo, and Álvaro Guadaño, with his passion for the theatre.
At that time, there was a noticeable difference between the way people dressed in the village and in the city. In this photo of women at the market, there’s almost a uniform, a kilt for the young women, a dressing gown and slippers for the ladies. (The girl on the right is from Madrid, with relatives in Lagartera).
Scottish kilts were very common in Madrid in those years. Wearing a dressing gown to go to the shops was not so common in Madrid, only in the outskirts. By the end of the eighties, older women didn’t wear them in the street as much in Lagartera either, partly due to pressure from younger women who told their mothers and grandmothers not to wear ‘indoor clothes’ in the street because they thought it was too old-fashioned.
There was a dialogue between young people in Lagartera, who wanted to be ‘modern’, and older people, who were more used to worrying about ‘what people would say’. What neighbours might say was worrying for older people, and mothers often warned their daughters that if they didn’t conform, they might be given a rude nickname.
In the early eighties, there was more difference between girls’ and boys’ clothes. If a teenage girl wanted to dress ‘like a boy’ back then, she might be called a ‘tomboy’, which meant she was not a proper woman.
In those days, boys wore shorts or trousers and T-shirts and the girls wore dresses and skirts. It’s true that women had started to wear trousers more since the 1970s, but girls in Lagartera were more likely to wear dresses and skirts, especially on Sundays and public holidays.
That difference changed gradually over time, and now trousers have become common for both sexes. And for certain groups of adults, jeans are now almost a uniform.
Among the reasons for girls gradually abandoning skirts were Spanish educational reforms, which introduced the concept of equality into education, not just between social classes, also between sexes, and the introduction into the school curriculum of sports and physical education, which encouraged boys and girls to wear sportswear (tracksuits) to school.
Sportswear is comfortable, and girls want to be comfortable at school. In summer, shorts give more freedom of movement than skirts, and when it’s very hot, a dress is more comfortable than a skirt, which can be uncomfortable round the waist.
Of course, if there were true equality, boys would also wear dresses in mid-summer, because they’re cooler than trousers. It still takes courage to do something different and not worry about what people might say, whether you’re a boy or a girl.
It is noticeable that in the early eighties, the skirts of older girls were quite long. From the age of 12 or so, girls were under more pressure to cover their knees. The girls knew that there were more daring ways to dress, but living in Lagartera at that time meant that there was a lot of pressure to conform.
Nowadays, there are new fabrics with elastic that allow you to wear very tight clothes, for example leggings. Today it’s acceptable in Lagartera for people to see the shape of your legs and bum, either with leggings, or with very short trousers in summer. Now you can even go to mass in leggings. In the 1980s, wearing leggings would have been like going out in the street with tights and no skirt. How scandalous!
Another noticeable change is that there used to be more difference between everyday clothes and ‘Sunday’ clothes. In Lagartera, boys and girls used to dress up to go to mass and then accompany their mothers when they went to a bar. Sundays used to be the only day when most mothers went out, after spending the whole week sewing at home, so mothers wore special clothes. If they took a small child with them, that child had to be well-dressed. For men who worked in construction, or in the fields, Sunday was also a day to dress up. There were not as many office jobs in Lagartera as in Madrid, where in contrast, for many men, Sunday was the day when they didn’t have to dress in formal clothes, could take off their ties, and relax in jeans.
In Lagartera in the 1980s, going to mass on Sundays had a very important social function, especially for married women, while in Madrid in those years, people didn’t go to mass as much. Nowadays religion is still more important in the villages than in the big cities, but not as important as it used to be, apart from first communions.
There’s also a lot that hasn’t changed that much. There are ‘classic’ items of clothing, such as trousers or skirts with a bib for the very young, because they’re practical. They can be worn with or without a T-shirt or jumper, and they are more practical than trousers and skirts that are held up at the waist, because very young children tend not to have a waist,.
Kids already wore trainers in the 1980s, because they were comfortable. Nowadays, trainers tend to be better cared for, and are more likely to be from a posh brand.
The changes in children’s fashion shown here reflect changes in our lives, and in the world we live in. Mothers now often work outside the home, so they have less time to prepare clothes for their children. It’s easier to dress children in T-shirts than in shirts or blouses, and if they want to wear sportswear, that makes life simpler, as it’s easier to get sportswear ready for kids in time for school.
Sportswear is comfortable for children and adults, especially if you have to sit a lot during the day. For many people, it has become everyday wear, if you’re allowed to wear it at work. Then there’s a fashion for gym classes, pilates, yoga and so on for women, and after-school sports for children. Kids make more of an effort to dress up when they go to a birthday party, for example, a girl is more likely to wear a dress to a party.
If we now believe that we should be well-dressed and well-groomed every day (even if we’re just wearing sports clothes) it’s partly because our lives have changed. There are more Lagarterans who spend their days dealing with the public, a situation where we’re judged by our clothes, whereas in the old days, girls sewed in the courtyard, and the boys helped with livestock, or other tasks where clothes had a basic function of protecting us from the cold, the heat, animals or brambles.
Spain also invented ‘fast fashion’, which is now a global trend. New clothes are much more affordable than before. They may not last as long, but younger people tend not to mind. Girls especially pick up on international fashion trends on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Are these changes good or bad? Some of the nostalgia for those years comes from missing the vitality of Lagartera of the 1980s, because there were more young people here then. There were more children playing in the street. But living in the village today also has its advantages, such as having more chance to choose our way of life.
Text: Sara Estibaliz Martin Suela and Alison Lever, Lagartera, Toledo, August 2024
Photos: Alison Lever
* ‘La Movida’ was a cultural change after the death of Franco, and part of the transition of Spain to democracy. It became OK to voice opinions and otherwise express yourself in ways that previously weren’t allowed. ‘La Movida’ usually refers to Madrid, but of course change also reached small towns, if a bit later than Madrid. So, despite the high unemployment rates of the early 1980s, there was a feeling of optimism for many people, a feeling that change could make things better.