My favourite decade for style: The Eighties

Caroline O'Donoghue explains why the OTT Eighties were the decade for all things glamour.

I love the attitude of Eighties style. You could dress for success in the work place with structured suits and shoulder pads then slob out at home with leggings and massive t-shirts and jumpers. There's nothing like eighties glam either – in no other decade could you get away with such over-the-top cocktail dresses – and that hair; more is more! There was a real sense of fun with the use of colour and shapes.

There isn’t one particular person I would hold up as my style icon of the decade, but I remember loving the outfits in films like Working Girl (with Melanie Griffith) - where she cuts off her mullet to show that she wants to be taken more seriously - and The Breakfast Club, in which each of the girls symbolised a different style: Sloane, boho and party girl! Also Kim Cattrall was amazing in Mannequin. The film was all about running around a mall dressing up in whatever you wanted - such fun!

This cocktail dress is the funnest thing I have in my wardrobe and is very Eighties. It pulls you in under the bust then sprawls out with a huge ruffle which makes it very, very flattering. I usually wear it with thick tights and silver accessories but if I were to do real justice to the Eighties, I'd have to go with plastic dangly earrings, big boufant hair and bangles!