Amid the ubiquity of mall-themed t-shirts and memes, it’s simple to forget that once upon a time the shopping center was the hub of American civilization. Back the afternoon, you might comparison shop without getting wet or sunburned, grab an instant bite to eat while catching a movie at the theater and even eat your lunch under an escalator without the concern with falling on your own behind. But why did malls become so popular, and what caused their downfall? https://time.com/3805133/flashback-to-the-timeless-malls-of-the-1980s/
A recently available photo essay by photographer Michael Galinsky focuses on some pictures taken in the ’80s that capture the essence of a time when the mall was where people went to hang out. The photos feature the classics: the oversized sweatshirts and pants, thick denim jeans, plaid shirts, puffy chested tanks, rhinestone and stud adorned belts and the Pac-Man arcade. In the ’80s there was no Twitter, TikTok, YouTube or chat rooms, so the malls were where in fact the young hung out and socialized.
Based on the gallery’s caption, “Malls replaced town squares whilst the centers of numerous American communities. They certainly were idealized spaces of middle-class white consumption, a spot where people went to have their needs met.”
Galinsky’s project is element of a larger movement to document how the modern mall evolved and eventually stumbled on an result in the ’90s. It’s a time capsule of a specific era that’s since been lost to the rise of online shopping and the decline of the big box store.
Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, malls gave method to malls that have been imagined as modern, idealized town centers for segregated suburbanites. But as war, civil rights movements and recession challenged the 50s nostalgia that the malls were designed to represent, they begun to serve a different purpose. Malls became a place for consumers to look, meet friends and neighbors and avoid the dreary, cold temperatures outside.
By the ’80s, shoppers were increasingly looking for a third place where they could communicate with others, away from home and work. This is where places like clubs, libraries, cafes, bowling alleys and yes, malls started to thrive.
However, whilst the economic changes accelerated in the ’90s and early 2000’s, malls couldn’t keep up with their maintenance. They begun to resemble the ghettos they were originally designed to avoid and were soon viewed as outdated, uncool, and dangerous. Today, malls continue steadily to exist, but they are becoming more and more obsolete. With the rise of online shopping, they could be on their last legs. But at the least for the time being, there’s something that’ll always remind us of the malls of old: the countless nostalgic photographs which were taken of them. CLICK to check out Flashback to the Timeless Malls of the 1980s.
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