It’s like Back to the Future, only with the past: according to various UK style mavens, the next big thing in style and general cultural stance is a bunch of stuff that felt horribly embarrassing twenty years ago. Apparently the Eighties are going into reruns.

It starts with the hair, of course. (Over-emphasized hair was the foundation of any Eighties look, with the padded jackets, skinny ties, and leg warmers coming as a sort of afterthought.) The UK chain Superdrug reports that sales of home perm kits are up 50 percent over the same quarter last year. Even more impressive are sales of electric blue eyeshadow, vital for the kind of whorish face-painting favored by the likes of Pat Benetar and the line-up of Poison (see picture). Superdrug sold five times more of the garish stuff last month than they did in February 2007. That, my friends, is a trend.

It’s probably only a matter of time before the other cultural trappings of the decade start rearing their heavily moussed heads. However, Superdrug spokesman Peter Newbould spotted the flaw in this whole revival: “Scarily, the people buying into the 1980s now were probably born in the 1980s.” Twenty-year-olds seem likely to adopt the outfits, but not the cultural stance. In other words, lots of Miami Vice linen jackets with the sleeves pushed up, but not so much Joy Division or Echo and the Bunnymen. Although a revival tour for Huey Lewis and the News looks like a distinct possibility.