And you can join our brand new (for 1985!) club, and be an Eva Joia Kid too!
Ah, the 1980s. When wearing clothes by a brand was just not enough, you could join a club so you could wear the clothes AND find out how to “put them all together!”
Well then, if you’re ready to obtain this knowledge, you’re ready for the Eva Joia Club!
What is the Eva Joia Club, you ask?
Just a slice of 1985 awesomeness, my friends? It all starts with a call…
And it goes from there!
Today’s commercial comes to us from the magical year of 1985, and features an “exclusive” club for young girls, which centers around Gitano’s girls’ clothing ling, EJ Gitano. It sorta explains the club and what you’d receive were you to join it, but not much else.
What do you glean from the commercial?
Big bows that would excite JoJo, mismatched colors, oversized sweaters, and long skirts, plus a membership card and pin? Who wouldn’t want to be an Eva Joia Girl?!
Gitano Jeans were the budget priced “designer” jeans brand of the 1980s, the answer to expensive brands that dominated the interests of fashion-conscious kids of the time. Gitano was a name that people gravitated to in the same way they did J. Cavaricchi and Jordache. Gitano’s other style, P.S. by Gitano, promised the perfect fit no matter your size or build.
Eva Joia was Gitano’s girls’ branding, symbolized by a white cat.
It was not only a brand, it was a movement, complete with the aforementioned pin and membership card. The brand filed for trademark on this name in April 1986 as Eva Joia Girl, but according to Sprinkles and Puffballs, that trademark was abandoned by March 1987, and by 1993, you couldn’t be a member of the Eva Joia Club anymore.
Don’t tell these girls, though!
Gitano jeans hit a rough patch by 1992-1993, having violated customs laws in the United States. By 1994, the company filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Fruit of the Loom. As for whether or not you can still buy a pair of perfectly-sized bargain bin designer jeans, if you like the used market, then Gitano has a pair of jeans for you. Poshmark and eBay have listings for the jeans, but anywhere else…that would be a no.
So, somewhat extinct unless you like the secondhand market, with a specific brand/club completely extinct.
Aside from this commercial, which I’ve seen a few times even outside of my own collection, I never heard of Eva Joia Club. I was three years old in 1985, hardly the target age for a “club” that touted teaching 1980s girls how to wear the clothes correctly. Did print advertising, clothing catalogs, and commercials for the clothing not do enough to demonstrate how to “EJ Gitano”?
Seeing these kids and their outrageous fashion makes me think of 1980s JoJo, who clearly channels her inner Eva Joia Girl when designing all of her products. The bigger the bows, the brighter and more mismatched the colors, the better and more appealing the clothing line, even if the whole thing feels like a fashion embarrassment years down the line. The cynic in me expected them to yell “EVA JOIA GIRL!” like some excited in-crowd chant.
Again, don’t tell these Eva Joia Girls that their clique will soon be a thing of mid-1980s legend.
They’re out there laying the very important groundwork for the VSCO Girl trend of the 1990s.
Have a fantastic Flashback Friday, and a great weekend!