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The return of the big blue coat! (Actually, another entry in Rebecca’s library of big blue coats - this one has no embroidery on the front and is probably the better for it). And the volume of this particular blue coat is part fashion statement, part plot point: Rebecca is concealing a jar of Bloody Mary from Gary’s Old Town Tavern! Because reasons, mostly to do with a local competition. Shenanigans ensue.

The big blue coat is also concealing a backless bodycon blue dress - Rebecca is working the whole electric blue aesthetic in this episode. I’m not a fan of the black tights and court shoes the dress is worn with, but the shape and shade make a welcome change from the flouncier, fussier looks we’ve seen in recent weeks. 

Later in the episode it’s a return to tailored brick red; similar to, but not the same suit as seen in last week’s episode, or this one from a few weeks back, or even this blouse in the same shade. Basically what we’re saying is the brick red section of Rebecca’s wardrobe is starting to rival the electric blue section in size. It works, in a sort of functional way, but for colours that actually suit Rebecca’s skin tone I prefer the deep teal worn at the end of the episode. 

Original airdate: January 12, 1989

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1989 is here, bringing with it a flurry of belatedly festive red and white! The white is rather fussy: a hotchpotch of statement buttons, high collar, frill front and pleated skirt. There’s just far too much going on; I suppose we should just be grateful the outfit isn’t dayglo neon with it. The red is a rather functional brick-red, even higher at the collar and stiff in the fabric with a brooch at the throat to keep any would-be suitors at bay. Becky’s daywear is back to meaning business, even if we do get a bendy-over butt gag near the beginning of the show. In this episode, Frasier also dresses as a clown.

Original airdate: January 5, 1989

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Few concessions to the festive season in this pink-and-black combo (gosh, I remember pink and black. I really do). Perhaps it’s just as well - last year’s Christmas outfit was a bit of a shocker. I’m not always convinced by Rebecca in pink, but the high-necked black sweater underneath the pale pink single-breast jacket sharpens up the look.

A brick-red blouse with a cinched waist and attractive back button detail is flattering but businesslike; Rebecca is using her feminine wiles in this scene in order to get Sam to leap out of an aeroplane. Would we leap out of a plane for this blouse? Not sure, but we like it. 

A wide-shouldered swing coat with frankly far too much fussy embroidery on the front and sleeves is going to do nothing to dispel those pregnancy rumours, but electric blue has always been a good colour for Rebecca. Electric blue and massive shoulders - you’d barely believe we were about the exit the 1980s. 

But exit we soon will! That’s almost it for the decade of Duran Duran, Sony Walkmen, feeding the world, ill-conceived movies about breakdance and neon everything. When we return, we’re going to be in the 1989 - join us for some genuinely frightening frock-horrors shortly!

Original airdate: December 22, 1988

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Rebecca is having her picture taken for the paper, and so, inexplicably, her choice of outfit is a hip-hugging crimson jacket and flouncy flared skirt that, together, accentuate all of the wrong things about Rebecca’s frame and absolutely none of the poise and smouldering hotness that we know she often possesses. 

Absolute props to Kirstie for the physical comedy of her grinning gawky pose, though, which is presumably the thing that goes into the paper judging by the two shots that the busy photographer bothers to take. I think Alley is rather underrated as a comedienne.

The flouncy theme continues into Rebecca’s second outfit, one in an increasingly long strand of sort-of-Victorian high-necked frock coats, this one in a deep jade. I don’t like it, but I’ll have to go along with it. 

Somebody likes the first outfit enough to send flowers, anyway. I don’t know who. Not me.

Original airdate: December 15, 1988

GUYS, GUYS! There’s only one episode left before 1989!

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A tragedy in tomato. Flirting with an Attractive Male Customer (TM), Rebecca’s choice of orange-red polo-neck tunic leads to the mistaken impression that she is pregnant. I completely sympathise: I remember this unfortunately tentlike shape being everywhere in Fall-Winter 88-89 season, and I recall that it made everyone look pregnant. 

As a formerly pregnant woman myself, I can also confirm that the worst thing you can say to a woman in the actual second trimester is that she appears expectant, and goes double for anyone who isn’t actually carrying a baby. Or maybe Rebecca’s would-be suitor is merely commenting on how she looks properly radiant in this opening scene. But I think it’s the tent-tunic.

Everybody proceeds to make fun of Rebecca’s weight (a narrative strand I feel is permissable only because Kirstie Alley is at this point very clearly *not* fat). It’s OK, though, because she regains some of that Bacall-ish va-va-voom mid episode in a rather fetching peach chiffon blouse. Trust Woody to notice in the most gentlemanly way imaginable.

Original airdate: December 8, 1988

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Shades of green, in this rather Rebecca-lite episode focussing on Carla’s relationship with her husband. I like the emerald green silk blouse shown at top: it’s a fresh colour and soft shape in a luxe but touchable fabric.  Rebecca looks more relaxed, less literally buttoned-up than usual.

The jade green houndstooth peplum is the sort of thing we’re much more used to: tailored, nipped-in, stiff-shouldered and conservative, styling. I feel that we’re getting a bit late in the decade for s peplum; the silk blouse is much more flattering. Rebecca’s hair got game this episode, though.

Green was a bit of a theme this week: both Carla (pictured) and Sam (not pictured) wear verdant shades this episode. Not sure why - we’re quite far away from St Patrick’s Day (and it’s not that close to Christmas either), and I certainly don’t remember it being a particular colour trend in late 1988. Perhaps the Celtics had just won the division?

Original airdate: November 24, 1988

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Quite a busy week outfit-wise for Rebecca, and it must be getting cold in Boston because this episode’s selections are all about the funnel-neck collars. First we have another take on Becky’s regular Boxy-shouldered Business Bitch look, with a buttoned-up rusty red jacket (accessorised in the first scene with a beige telephone cord and in the second with a plaid-shirted Sam). 

In this episode, Rebecca is pretending to Mr Teal that she and Sam are together in order to avoid his short-statured romantic attentions. Our second funnel-neck of the episode comes in the form of a Wedgewood blue blouse, worn with a slightly prissy hair comb; it’s unclear whether Becky has gone so buttoned up in order to keep out the cold or to fend off the sexual harrassment. 

Anyway, Sam is posted out to Cancun, giving Rebecca an opportunity to break out her holiday-casual wardrobe of stonewashed blue shirt and ivory linen slacks. I like the pairing with an unloaded gun here; I’m not a gun nut by any stretch of the imagination but it gives a desperate Rebecca a kind of film noire antiheroine appeal. Plus it is unloaded, she hasn’t gone full Bacall on us.

Back in Boston it really must be chilly because under this winter-weight fuschia jacket is a high-necked black jumper. Owing to the machinations of the plot (set in a simpler, pre-Weinstein era when an employee’s forced marriage to her boss could conceivably be a plot strand in a popular sitcom) this businesslike combo is set to be Rebecca’s wedding outfit; fortunately Sam returns to stop both the wedding and the attendant fashion disaster from taking place. Bravo Sam, and thank god that’s the end of that uncomfortable AF storyline.

Original airdate: November 17, 1988

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The colbalt is back! Electric blue returns to Rebecca’s wardrobe, this season in the form of a buttoned-up, tailored blouse. The collar brooch she’s paired it with is rather fussy, however, and the whole thing is covered up by a rather dull grey skirt suit. This is Becky getting back on top - in this episode, she impresses he boss enough to be reappointed manager of Cheers after a humiliating stint reporting to an indifferent Sam - but while I salute the narrative trajectory I’m more lukewarm about the outfit she wears while doing so.

Rebecca’s date night outfit is far more appealing  - a little lilac dress, in a flattering shade, with sleek, soft tailoring and just a hint of leg. The sultry look gets Becky what she’s after, assuming what she’s after is a round mocking from the rest of the Cheers crew. I’m a fan myself.

Beauty note: Rebecca was strobing her cheekbones before that was even the word for it.

Original airdate November 10, 1988

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This week is mostly all about an ivy-green frock coat worn with maximally-80s rolled up sleeves. Rebecca doesn’t have a lot to do this week, so we’ll just have to admire the frock coat, worn with a matching kneelength skirt and surprising lack of jewellery. There’s a white bodycon dress at the end but owing to a rather daft plot device involving Sam facing multiple temptations after taking a vow of abstinence Rebecca doesn’t get to wear it at all properly. Not one of the most costumed weeks of the series.

Beauty note: where has Rebecca got that tan from in the New England winter?

Original airdate: November 3, 1988

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And we’re back! See, I told you I wouldn’t make you wait six months. Here we are, the autumn of 1988 and the start of Season 7. To celebrate, Kirstie/Rebecca has chopped a few inches off her hair and stuck in some frosted highlights. I’m not a huge fan - the cool shade she’s chosen rather washes her out, and that buttoned-up white blouse worn at the start doesn’t do a lot to counter the pale but not that interesting look. 

Becky’s back on her feet in this episode - briefly - as new VP Greg Stone allows her to continue managing the bar as long as she takes a pay cut and studies for her MBA. A happy and confident Rebecca receives the good news wearing a smart crimson suit (paired with black sheer tights, those don’t seem to have gone to the Big Grave of Bad Fashions In The Sky just yet). Blue-toned crimson is a much better shade of red than all those orangey tomato hues we saw in 1987, and warms up Rebecca’s complexion so long may it continue. 

Rebecca briefly dissolves into a dishevelled puddle of grief with birds-nest hair in the middle of the episode, but she’s back at full levels of glam by the end in a backless bodycon LBD worn with a pair of her favourite sparkly earrings to enjoy a pleasant dinner with Sam. The dress says: we’ll see Becky back on top before long. (Sam’s suit says: I got lost on my my to audition for Smokey and the Bandit). 

Original airdate: October 27, 1988

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Well, gee, I didn’t mean for Rebecca to take my last comment to heart and recycle her jacket into a new and really rather hideous shirt for Sam. I’d be looking faintly ill if I were stuck in a room with this shirt too, Becky. 

This episode is all about Rebecca’s last-ditch attempt to seduce the odious Mr Drake, and so this is the character’s smokin’-hot-scarlet-woman attire (but still plausibly businesslike, she is still meant to be managing a bar). I really like this deep crimson shade; after a season of pastel neutrals it really shakes Rebecca’s look up, and it’s fabulous against her raven waves. (Speaking of which, do I detect the use of some curling rods this episode? Such a wanton thing to do). We have a relatively plunging neckline, by Howe standards, a red lip and deeper blush than usual, and no chunky jewellery in case the seduction works and Mr Drake wants to tear everything off her. Hawt. 

Becky being Becky and Cheers being Cheers, the seduction does not work (at least, on its intended target) and Drake leaves for Tokyo with his fiancee Kirsty. Ouch, that’s gotta smart. Never mind - Sam is there to comfort Rebecca, and to make sure that teal jacket gets a happy final outing! Now can we please give it a Viking burial?

That brings us to the END OF CHEERS SEASON 6. When we next lay eyes on Rebecca, it’ll be the autumn of 1988. What fashion joys/horrors will the late 80s bring to our screens? Tune in shortly to find out! (We won’t have to wait six months, I promise).

Original airdate: May 5, 1988

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Hm, I’m not entirely sure why, but I liked this teal shadow-stripe jacket a lot better the first time around. At least Rebecca’s getting some wear out of her wardrobe these days. 

Original airdate: April 28, 1988

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Rebecca’s been getting a lot of wear out of this cornflower blue skirt suit - it was seen in the previous episode and also a few weeks ago. I like it - it’s a smart, tailored cut with a clean, elegant line; the single breast works much better on Kirstie’s frame than those boxy double-breasted numbers and the slightly longer line of the jacker is very flattering. The cut is businesslike, but the colour is a little softer than some of the shouty reds and deeper teals and cobalts we’ve been seeing. I can see why Rebecca has favoured the look in recent weeks, it works. 

The blue suit is paired with a muted peachy-coral spring overcoat, which is a bit of a muddy shade and doesn’t do much for Kirstie’s colouring. The nipped-in waist is nice but defeated by that double-breast. See what I mean about boxy? Rebecca has a wardrobe full of better overcoats than this, she should dust a couple of those off and retire this one immediately. +1 for the statement shoulder bag.

Original airdate: March 31, 1988 (hey, that’s my birthday!)

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Rebecca’s really been getting her boss-attire game on over the last few episodes (possibly following a small managerial spat earlier in the year in which Sam was made interim manager but turned out to be a disaster). Well, there’s no mistaking who’s in charge this week - the lady in the sharp Wedgewood Blue suit, and the even sharper bottle green suit with bold contrast handkerchief and matching power quiff. Rebecca’s look says, “I’m tailored, I’m coiffed, I’m manicured to the nines, let’s do capitalism.”

When Rebecca lets her hair down, she really lets it down - we’ve seen her domestic casual look before, but in this episode we get Becky At A Pajama Party when the boss lady (plus Lilith and some other hangers-on) go to cheer a depressed and grandmaternal Carla up. I think Rebecca has watched Grease one too many times, and internalised the fashions of Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee without noticing the sardonic message. It reveals a softer side to the character, and I actually love it #bunches4eva

Original airdate: March 24, 1988

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I like Rebecca’s dark teal shadow-stripe jacket in the top image, don’t you? She looks quite bosslike, but at the same time quite alluring. I can see why Sam keeps trying it on with her. (Apart from the whole threatened masculinity thing, ofc, but that’s a topic for another blog). 

Mid-episode we have another instance of a block-coloured jacket worn over a black skirt and top; a perfectly servicable look but a bit dull, and this particular jacket is a bit on the square side and I’m not mad about the muted mulberry shade. Probably the best thing about it is that it isn’t a lime-green peplum skirt suit, as unfortunately worn at the end of the episode. The less said about that, the better.

Original airdate: March 10, 1988

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OK, everyone, there’s a lot of outfits to get through this episode so let’s knuckle down and pay attention. The opening shot is Rebecca’s reaction to Carla referring to her as “Hey, shoulderpads!” and you can really see Carla’s point. Those are some big pads, coupled with a pushed-up sleeve, more the sort of thing you’d expect to see on Miami Vice than in Boston in the early springtime. The orange shade (worn over a black kneelength skirt with sheer black tights and black courts) is a bold choice. Is it a good choice? No, I don’t think it is, but it’s certainly a bold one. 

Rebecca then changes into a putty tailored skirt suit (a much more flattering cut for her figure), worn over a black fitted blouse which gives the look a more defined contrast than with the pale neutrals we’ve previously seen. Moments later, it’s a gingham shirt - more high contrast monochrome - before a finale in coordinated cobalt blue separates. Phew, what a ride. 

I like the cobalt blue, worn here with another of Rebecca’s waist-cinching big belts and in an oh-so-on-trend midi length. Much fetch. Very style.

Original airdate: March 3, 1988

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Buttoned-up and businesslike. This episode, in which Rebecca decides not to sleep with a bar critic in return for a favourable review, kicks off with our favourite bar manager in a new longline tailored jacket in a warm shade of cornflour blue. The cut is very flattering, and while there’s no mistaking that this is a smart, suited-and-booted daytime business look it’s at the same time a softer colour and shape than some of Rebecca’s earlier flame-red boxy efforts.

The central outfit is softer still, a cosy but luxurious jumper in aubergine worn with a matching maxi skirt, belt and boots. The colour is perhaps a bit autumnal for the time of year, but it’s another flattering ensemble showing off a slimmer waistline. 

We finish with a return to kind of the quasi-Victorian high-necked blouse that Rebecca seems so fond of - I’ve commented before that she seems to choose this style often - paired with another statement belt and long skirt. If this is Rebecca’s new look for 1988 it gets a thumb-up from me. 

Original airdate: February 25, 1988