70's and 80's mall stores

[srm]

As most teens did in the 80's, I spent a lot of time trolling the mall! I'm trying to remember all those shops we used to love to buy clothes at. Here are some that come to mind:

Clothing:

County Seat

Jean's West

Merry-Go-Round

Dejaiz

Chess King

Foxmoor

The Gap (when it was strictly jeans and t-shirts)

Judy's

Some other mall stores that are now defunct:

Kinney's shoes

Thom McAn

Wicks n Sticks

Morrow's Nut House

Art Standing

Hickory Farms

Woolworth's

Baker's Shoes

The Wild Pair

Anybody else out there have memories of great shops in the malls of the 70's and 80's? I know there are tons more. Open your memories!

[memebag]

I got all of my shirts from rock concerts, and my jeans came from whoever had cheap jeans.

Edit: Is this thread just about where chicks shopped in the 70s and 80s?

Edited August 30, 2008 by memebag

[cosmic08]

I LOVED Merry Go Round - I totally forgot about that place!! Lots of those stores were at the mall I went to as a kid - Greenspoint. I think there is a Bakers in Galleria IV?

[mkultra25]

As most teens did in the 80's, I spent a lot of time trolling the mall! I'm trying to remember all those shops we used to love to buy clothes at. Here are some that come to mind:

Clothing:

County Seat

Remember their jingle? "The County Seat, the County Seat, just direct your feet to the County Seat!"

[soifan]

I remember many of those places. I also remember:

Units - Remember this fad?! It was basic knit pieces that you mixed and matched -most outfits were finished off with a fabric "belt" ( a tube of fabric). I remember the stores having walls of cubbies w/ the pieces in there.

Contempo - didn't shop there much, but some friends did

579 -I think these might still exist

I remember Outback Red clothes, but can't remember who sold them.

I also shopped sometimes at Gap, Express, Lerners (now NY&Co) and Banana Republic - all stores that still exist.

BTW these would be mid -late 80's stores.

[SecondTour]

I remember Outback Red clothes, but can't remember who sold them.

The Limited.

[srm]

I remember many of those places. I also remember:

Units - Remember this fad?! It was basic knit pieces that you mixed and matched -most outfits were finished off with a fabric "belt" ( a tube of fabric). I remember the stores having walls of cubbies w/ the pieces in there.

Contempo - didn't shop there much, but some friends did

579 -I think these might still exist

I remember Outback Red clothes, but can't remember who sold them.

I also shopped sometimes at Gap, Express, Lerners (now NY&Co) and Banana Republic - all stores that still exist.

BTW these would be mid -late 80's stores.

Outback Red clothing - sold in the late 80's - was sold by The Limited. I used to love that brand.

And as to another post, I do remember that County Seat jingle. Remember the old Gap jingle "Fall into the Gap..." I think it was duplicitous (and perhaps solicitous!). Kind of like, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins..."

[jetbeetle]

We used to get music shirts from H&H music that said stuff like HAMMER GUITARS and D-DRUMS, we couldn't play a single note but the girls didn't know that. Parachute pants and Go Round are still things tied together in my mind and Chess King always reminds me of Michael Jackson's Jackets.

[srm]

We used to get music shirts from H&H music that said stuff like HAMMER GUITARS and D-DRUMS, we couldn't play a single note but the girls didn't know that. Parachute pants and Go Round are still things tied together in my mind and Chess King always reminds me of Michael Jackson's Jackets.

Back when Michael Jackson was still Michael Jackson.

I also remember a store outside the mall that we loved...Miller's Outpost. They had great jeans.

[e streeter]

it wasn't in a mall, but i remember shopping at a store on hillcroft near westheimer called dk's. i used to get my monogrammed purses there.

[Vertigo58]

Miller's Outpost for surf threads

Some stuff like at All That Glitter's

Anywhere to find New Wave threads. Still have saved.

Resale shops on lower Westheimer and at places like Purple Heart for that old 60's mod attire. (a phase I was going thru at the time) then the same with similar stores on Melrose Ave in LA.

[westguy76]

Ha Ha Chess King.

Sadly My Mother bought all my clothes for me out of JCPenny catalog.

I got beat up alot!

Edited September 2, 2008 by westguy76

[Jermaine]

OAK TREE

'nuff said.

[Vertigo58]

The Wild Pair for the latest in Billy Idol or Adam Ant shoes.

Our girlfriend's wanted us to look as close to these guys as possible.

The girls (we all knew anyway) wanted to either be Joan Jett look-a-likes or the Cindi Lauper/Valley Girl look.

[Randyt7801]

Didn't Millers Outpost have a model train that went around the store or am I just crazy? Also I remember the Gap stores having a orange decor and a small white tunnel near the entrance.

[Vertigo58]

Didn't Millers Outpost have a model train that went around the store or am I just crazy? Also I remember the Gap stores having a orange decor and a small white tunnel near the entrance.

No trains that I recall at Miller's Outpost. There was one at the Galleria and I normally went to the new one at Almeda Mall or at least it was across the street from there. Always had my fav Ocean Pacific t-shirts, footwear, etc. Evens sold Tropical Blend suntan to give it that tropical effect. Only thing missing was a Pina Colada. Fun days.

The store looked like this I am almost certain:

[Vertigo58]

OAK TREE

'nuff said.

The Oak Tree! What! It was very popular too. Had stuff like this...oh God its the 80's again. They also had plenty of Top Gun movie attire, bomber jackets, parachute pants galore.

[RhinoVP]

I didn't know there was ever a Bay store in Houston, I thought those were just in Canada! It's really a cool store, wish we did have them down here.

BTW- I can't belive nobody mentions the Dream Merchant at Sharpstown!

[EastEnd Susan]

The Wild Pair for the latest in Billy Idol or Adam Ant shoes.

Our girlfriend's wanted us to look as close to these guys as possible.

The girls (we all knew anyway) wanted to either be Joan Jett look-a-likes or the Cindi Lauper/Valley Girl look.

Ooh! The Wild Pair! My grandmother took me to the wild pair at the Galleria back in the early 70's and bought me a pair of dark brown leather desert boot looking shoes. I remember they cost 38 dollars which was a bundle for a pair of shoes back then. 38 years or so later I still have them, they still fit and I still wear them. I've gone through many shoe laces but I still love them and the old saying "you get what you pay for" is so so true. The rest of my clothes were from Foleys, Joskes and Size 579 shop.

[srm]

Ooh! The Wild Pair! My grandmother took me to the wild pair at the Galleria back in the early 70's and bought me a pair of dark brown leather desert boot looking shoes. I remember they cost 38 dollars which was a bundle for a pair of shoes back then. 38 years or so later I still have them, they still fit and I still wear them. I've gone through many shoe laces but I still love them and the old saying "you get what you pay for" is so so true. The rest of my clothes were from Foleys, Joskes and Size 579 shop.

I miss Joske's ---- Dillard's has just never been as good as Joske's was. I was very petite and they had a teen section (not children's, not adults, but the section had sizing for teens with an adult look). That was the place we shopped all the time before I finally grew!

That pic in another post of Miller's Outpost. Wow! Where did you find that? I loved Miller's Outpost. We also had a store in Texas City and I think there was one in Pasadena too and it was called "The Fair". They had great clothes, too. Those are some pretty steep prices for the 80's!

And the prices on those clothes in that ad. Wow, clothing prices haven't increased as much as I thought they had!!

[bachanon]

judy's had a guys section.

we also loved matinique on the third floor of the galleria. linen jackets with shoulder pads. i had willie wear, matinique and girbaud, mostly from marshall fields or neiman marcus. god, i just remembered generra clothing from foleys. i still have a perry ellis vest and some armani ties from the late eighties, early nineties.

"you can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind."

[jmancuso]

weiners!

[bachanon]

mom used to drag me to weiners. i hated going there. fortunately, the conroe location closed during my teen years.

[Mark F. Barnes]

When I was a Teen you had three choices. Sears and Roebuck, F. W. Woolworth's, and the Feed Store. You could send off to a JC Penny's in Houston and get a pair of jeans. You could mail order Levis from Sears and Roebuck, F. W. Woolworth's wasn't much more than a five and dime, with a soda fountain, but they had some Wrangler Jeans. The feed store carried Lee bibs and Lee dungarees. Weren't any malls around back then.

[Vertigo58]

judy's had a guys section.

we also loved matinique on the third floor of the galleria. linen jackets with shoulder pads. i had willie wear, matinique and girbaud, mostly from marshall fields or neiman marcus. god, i just remembered generra clothing from foleys. i still have a perry ellis vest and some armani ties from the late eighties, early nineties.

"you can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind."

That does it! When I get home I am going into the archived 80's New Wave threads look at each label and then report back.

For most going out stuff I had to get whatever looked as clsoe as the group Duran Duran and for the concert dressed look, down were t-shirts from Warehouse Records and Tapes & Sound Warehouse and Soundwaves on Broadway! Here are some samples... (still miraculously have the 52's T-shirt)

[memebag]

weiners!

My thoughts exactly.

[Vertigo58]

Finally dug through the 80's garb ie; shirts/pants

Labeled names are Cotler and Bugle Boy pants and the Duran, Duran shirts have Paul Davlis - Paris on them. Certain I bought at some very retro store in the Galleria, like on 2 level facing South. The store also had cool leather belts with spikes, Billy Idol fingerless gloves, and of course those very expensive Adam Ant boots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugle_Boy

[Htowngirl]

Anybody remember the "Gap Warehouse" at Pasadena Town Square Mall? They had "Gap Warehouse" brand clothes. It was kind of the pre-cursor to the Gap Outlet, and they had "Old Navy" clothes there too (before there was Old Navy)... I think that was more in the very early 90s though.

[Randyt7801]

Gap Warehouse stores where only open for about a year with that name, most of them were converted to Old Navy stores in 94.

[NenaE]

As most teens did in the 80's, I spent a lot of time trolling the mall! I'm trying to remember all those shops we used to love to buy clothes at. Here are some that come to mind:

Clothing:

County Seat

Jean's West

Merry-Go-Round

Dejaiz

Chess King

Foxmoor

The Gap (when it was strictly jeans and t-shirts)

Judy's

Some other mall stores that are now defunct:

Kinney's shoes

Thom McAn

Wicks n Sticks

Morrow's Nut House

Art Standing

Hickory Farms

Woolworth's

Baker's Shoes

The Wild Pair

Anybody else out there have memories of great shops in the malls of the 70's and 80's? I know there are tons more. Open your memories!

Almeda Mall had a pipe tobacco store w/ all those big jars...that place smelled good, I think it was called the "Pipe Pub".

[memebag]

Almeda Mall had a pipe tobacco store w/ all those big jars...that place smelled good, I think it was called the "Pipe Pub".

Yes it was, and I believe Baybrook had one, too. They were great stores for cigars back before cigars were trendy.

[TJones]

I bought a ton of my clothes from a store at San Jacinto mall. It was a surf shop and I had pretty much every new Maui & Sons T-shirt that came out. Always bought good clothes, Polo, Generra, Guess at Foley's or Macy's at Baybrook. Had some Z.Cavaricci stuff that I bought at The Go Round( Merry Go Round?).

[sevfiv]

I remember shopping at places that are still around (like JC Penneys) - when did Meyer Bros. go away?

Other specific places escape my memory, but some of the brands are seared in my brain -

-Lotto shoes (with the little velcro attachments)

-Skidz pants (lol)

-Jordache jeans

-Members Only jackets

-LA Gear

-ESPRIT

-Generra / Hypercolor

-Z Cavaricci jeans (maybe more early 90s)

-Girbaud jeans (maybe more early 90s too)

[EastEnd Susan]

Yes it was, and I believe Baybrook had one, too. They were great stores for cigars back before cigars were trendy.

I remember that place and yes it smelled great. I would go there to buy these extremely long cigarettes that came in different colors with gold filters. I was so cool.... NOT!

[Vertigo58]

For a real Nostalgia trip, see Fast Times at Ridgemont High and others of the era like Valley Girl. These films will have numerous scenes that depict 80's mall world/life to the T.

I still say watching store managers or rent a cop security dudes bust shoplifters in the malls in 70's and 80's was bizarre!

Thats when they used to hide behind those 2 way (so obvious) mirrors to see unsuspecting teens stuff everything under the sun in to their little jackets, pockets, purses. We sales clerks used to see it 1st hand on ocassion. There were not many surveillance cams in those days. It was just silly nosey clerks or creepy security peeking behind shelves & junk. Hilarious.

Get Christie Love! Your under arrest Sugar!

[scrubba]

I remember many of those places. I also remember:

Units - Remember this fad?! It was basic knit pieces that you mixed and matched -most outfits were finished off with a fabric "belt" ( a tube of fabric). I remember the stores having walls of cubbies w/ the pieces in there.

Contempo - didn't shop there much, but some friends did

579 -I think these might still exist

I remember Outback Red clothes, but can't remember who sold them.

I also shopped sometimes at Gap, Express, Lerners (now NY&Co) and Banana Republic - all stores that still exist.

BTW these would be mid -late 80's stores.

[/quote

Ya'all gonna hate me fer this but I shopped over at the Southwest Common Flea market at S W freeway and Chimney Rock

Ed shaver, Scrubba

[sevfiv]

[METALHOUSTON]

When I 1st saw this thread and read "70's and 80's mall stores" I had all kinds of memories goin' through my head of ALL the places in the mall I liked to go to but "places you loved to buy your clothes as a teen?" narrowed it down a bit.

Hell, the only "Contempo" I remember goin' to was at Astroworld and.....well, it was hard to find places in malls for clothes I liked. I had to go to places like Texas Tapes N Records on Spencer HWY. (I think it was 1615 Spencer? I'll have to look at my Houston Headbangers membership card....yep 1615 highway, South Houston, TX 77587.) Well, there was a place called Dream Merchant in Sharpstown mall where I would by some clothes. That was in the early and mid 80s before it moved to a church at 1658 Westheimer. It was still a cool place at the new location but it was never as good as it used to be. And I think I mighta bought a couple of shits from Sheer Insanity when it was in the Galleria.

I miss all that man! What is there today to buy cool clothes at in the malls? Yeah, there's that wannabe Goth store "Hot Topic" but it ain't as cool as TT&R and Dream Merchant were. Oh and there's still a couple of Spencer's Gifts around too.

TT&R was where the Fiesta is now and Jeff (the guy who ran TT&R) has a smaller place across the street called "Puff N' Stuff" at 1418 Spencer Hwy where I still buy some shirts but it AIN'T the same.

Oh well, they weren't in a mall anyway.

[Retama]

I never bought anything there but it seemed like Benetton was everywhere back in the 1980s. They always had those "edgy" ads that were designed to hack people off.

[TJones]

I never bought anything there but it seemed like Benetton was everywhere back in the 1980s. They always had those "edgy" ads that were designed to hack people off.

Hey Retama, I remember that San Jac Mall pretty much had every cheesy retailer of the 80's. We even had a "County Seat".

I even recall the jingle. County Seat, the County Seeeeeeeaaat, come direct your feet into the County Seeeeaaatt !

Edited January 14, 2009 by TJones

[Retama]

Hey Retama, I remember that San Jac Mall pretty much had every cheesy retailer of the 80's. We even had a "County Seat".

I even recall the jingle. County Seat, the County Seeeeeeeaaat, come direct your feet into the County Seeeeaaatt !

Oh, yeah we had a County Seat and even had a Gap and both a Waldenbooks and a B. Dalton!

[Original Timmy Chan's]

mom used to drag me to weiners. i hated going there. fortunately, the conroe location closed during my teen years.

Seems all my clothes came from Weiners, the Sears Surplus near Almeda Mall (same shopping center as Millers Outpost, incidentally), KMart and Target. When we left town in the 80's and dad got a better paying job, we actually shopped at JCPenney's sometimes!!!

I recall being embarassed about this in junior high, but by high school I could care less. Mom and Dad buying me some jeans at Sears beat the hell out of me buying my own clothes!

After I became responsible for myself, I realized that even Sears is out of their minds on price! Most of my clothes come from Sam's Club now. I can appreciate $15 slacks, $12 jeans and $15 shirts.

[westguy76]

As I stated earlier my mom bought my clothes 90% of the time from the Penny's catalog. I had a lot of bugle boy clothes.

That or I got my brother's hand-me-downs.

I do remember going into Gulfgate and buying some shorts and shoes from Vision Street wear. sort of skater clothes.

Skidz LOL

[Bombero451]

In the late 70's I pretty much got all my clothes from Sears - Tuffskins jeans and my shoes from K Mart - Traxx.

In the early 80's, I liked going to Hobie for my cool Hobie t-shirts, OP shorts and my checkered Vans. In fat, I still have my old red/white velco OP wallet somehwere in my house.

In the mid to late 80's I shopped mostly at Millers Outpost for jeans, pants, Cosby-esque sweaters and remember going to the mall to buy my penny loafers and boat shoes.

[glzuma]

This was the early 70s now, but.....

Hirsch Brothers Clothing in the Memorial City Mall was a great place for unique, one of a kind shirts.

Warp and Woof Clothiers in the Village had an extensive selection of jeans.

Mid 70s now....

I can't remember where I bought those high waisted baggies (slacks), but I know I got the platform shoes to complete the outfit at The Wild Pair in the Galleria. Everybody wanting the most outrageous shoes did.

[KimmerTX]

Warp and Woof Clothiers in the Village had an extensive selection of jeans.

Woo! They had the BEST selection of Guess jeans, circa 1985.

[sozavac]

Dream Merchant in Sharpstown mall where I would by some clothes.

Dream Merchant was the best place to buy your favorite band t-shirts as well as all sorts of goth/punk related items.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

Cosby-esque sweaters and...boat shoes.

[Reefmonkey]

As most teens did in the 80's, I spent a lot of time trolling the mall! I'm trying to remember all those shops we used to love to buy clothes at. Here are some that come to mind:

Clothing:

The Gap (when it was strictly jeans and t-shirts)

I remember the Gap commercials from the early 80s - animated, following the cartoon gold tread on cartoon blue denim, while a man with a very deep bass voice sang in a descending scale: "FALL IN TO THE-GAP"

I thought about that every time I passed the Gap in Greenspoint as a little kid in the early 80s

Hickory Farms

Yeah, I remember when it seemed like every mall had an ATTACHED movie theater that you entered through the mall, a GNC vitamin store, a Hickory Farms, and a pet store.

I remember when the Galleria still had an attached movie theater, where the new section meets Galleria II. Also remember an independent full-service pharmacy on the second or third level of Galleria I, a gag gift store on the rink level of Galleria I (at the Neimans end) and the great old Sam Houston Bookstore on the rink level, where FYE is now. I loved that book store -only place in Houston with a decent selection of James Bond novels.

I very

[Vertigo58]

Just wonder if anyone remebered a ladies store called Margo's Lamode or something close to that?

I have a friend called Margo and it stirred up the memory.

We may have mentioned that very popular trendy hair style place called Command Performance. As you walked past them in the malls, you would always get that terrible whif of burning colored or newly permed hair and the loudness of Jos