h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i've heard this term in the lyrics of Super Furry Animals and i wonder what it is... i am just an american, you see. we don't know these things.

A shell suit is like a track suit, although it is usually matching pants and top style and waterproof.

aha. a sort of slippery synthetic material?

Unfortunately most of the people who wore shell suits, were nither fit or sporty. Imagine a 250lb rotund person in a bright blue tight fitting thin nylon track suit. If you ever saw david icke on t.v. he used to wear one. Hideous things and a fasion disaster if ever there was. Essex men ( and some women) actually used to think they looked really cool Yeah right! and monkeys might fly out of my butt! Hope that goes some way towards answering your question Jane
Otter

yes... the best way to explain things to americans is with generous usage of Wayne's World quotations.

The most hideous part of the shell suit phenomenon was when (around about 1990) couples used to indicate their togetherness by buying the same style shell suit and parading around together with it.

To be worn with winklepicker shoes?

i think there was a similar phenomenon here in midwestern america during the late 80's and early 90's... some still cling to it, though these outfits tended to be swoopy and loose. i picture a woman with curly black hair, tennis shoes, and a white jacket-kind-of-thing with teal and pink stripes and matching pants. she drives a geo. is this the sort of person one would see in the UK as well?

Yes only they usually drive about in large 4X4 off road vehicles that they "pop" down to the shops in, or pick up their kiddies from school causing the most horrendous traffic problems in small suburbian back streets.

okay, i understand now. i've never worn one either. unless somebody tricked me into it when i was a child and didn't know better...

Ah...Parents have been responsible for some of the worst fashion crimes perpetrated against innocent young children. And they wonder why we rebelled against them once we realised.

i remember throwing some plaid shorts i hated into the deepest, darkest corner of my scary closet in order to avoid wearing them again...

When I got to the age of 15,(1974) I burned all of the hideously lary tank-tops that I had been bought by my mother. The 1970's were a truly apalling time to be growing up as peoples dress sense seemed to have been surgically removed. Luckily I was Independant enough by then to make my own choices about what I wore. I shudder just thinking about that decade. . Otter

Sorry! 1976 . Memory like a goldfish. Must have been all the festivals and "Stuff" I did then, catches up as you get older you know (he said sounding like an old fart);-D

hmm. this is turning into an interestiing discussion of fashion through the ages.

Maybe we should write an entry on dodgy fashion statements from the seventies, this was a particularly nasty era where clothes ( and haircuts ) were concerned. Just thinking about the HUGE flared trousers that blokes wore along with ankle breaking platforms makes me. The popular music of the day wasn't much better( if at all )D.I.S.C.O. oh wow!

i'm afraid i wasn't alive in the 70's... i didn't come around until round about 1983. and i don't recall noticing much about how the people around me were dressed at the time... but surely there was some good music in the 70's... what about glam rock? lou reed? umm.. what else? i think some old person should do an overview of bad fashion through the ages. trying to be as objective as possible, of course. i could say a few things about the 90's and 00's, if i strained... i've never been a fashionable person.
god, i just read that wisdom teeth removal entry and i'm all upset... thank god, though; if i have to have mine taken out, i'll get the gas!

Dentists! Don't like and never will!
There was good music around in the '70s. My favourite band of the period is Hawkwind, a fabulously trippy space rock outfit that used to play all the major festivals like stonehenge and glastonbury. I would recommend a listen to them if you can find any of their stuff. Don't know how popular they were in the U.S. but there is a new(ish) U.S. band called Monster Magnet who are heavily influenced by them. I have most Hawkwind albums, and all Monster Magnet albums . Let me know what you think if you hear any Otter.

never heard of hawkwind, sadly... but i do remember monster magnet from.. way back when it was still the 90's! i liked them. but never got their albums. space lord. that was the song... shoot. can't remember how it goes though. there was at least one other.
i gotta get meself to bed now. next time i'm cd shopping, i'll keep my eyes open... but i don't get to do that too often these days.

Never mind. Try hunting through some of the mp3 libraries on line. I'm sure they'll have anything you want to hear, might take a bit of digging though. If I come across anything I'll let you know.
Otter.