From Julia Roberts to Meryl Streep, the Best '80s Power Suits (PHOTOS)

Writer John T. Molloy first emphasized the idea of "power dressing"—a more conservative, authoratative style for the workforce—in his 1970's Dress for Success books. For women, this meant a sense of stylistic empowerment, ditching their feminine skirts for comfortable trousers, similar to the 1920s abandonment of the ever-constricting corset. Female power dressing aimed to radiate a sense of masculinity: there were over-accentuated shoulder pads, double-breasted jackets—both in either black, blue, or grey—and loose white button-down blouses. Around Molloy's time, the runways were also embracing power dressing for women, with designers including Giorgio Armani, Thierry Mugler, and Claude Montana showing collections that featured structed suit sets. By the time the early eighties approached, the power suit had taken off, worn by the likes of Nancy Reagan, Lauren Hutton, Joan Collins, and Diane Sawyer. The 1988 film, Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith, showed power dressing in its prime, taking women to Wall Street for the first time. Two years after the film's release, Vogue's creative director Grace Coddington pronounced the trend of power dressing dead. "The message of competence and confidence sent by the woman in a grey pin-striped suit has been received and the majority of designers feel it's time to move on," she wrote in the magazine's January 1990 issue. While Coddington may have been right, the trend persisted well into the nineties—as displayed in Martin Scorsese's latest film, The Wolf of Wall Street. Although the popularity of the suit, the shoulder pads, and the theme of power dressing may have fizzled out in the late nineties, 2013 marks the year of their comeback. This past year, designers including Christian Dior, Gucci, and Giorgio Armani presented modern-day versions of the 1980s classic. Today's runways, however, are nothing compared to the original; from Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts to Glenn Close and Sigourney Weaver, a look at some of the decade's biggest, most powerful suited-up stars.