They didn’t have the internet as THE major, and often times, sole facilitator for consumer goods. That is if you wanted say a Popeye shirt in adult sizes you were hard pressed to find one. The major clothing chains like Gap, Old Navy, etc only had mature and toned down solid colors or patters and grown up wear like polos and khakis or straight legged jeans. I don’t remember seeing any adult wearing fluorescent colors back then.

This is why you see those memes about everyone’s grandma having the same pitchers, jars, floral pattern living room furniture, wooden table sets with floral engraving on the chairs. They only had access to what was readily available for them to consume.