Nineties fashion flasback – the boring decade?

Today I was eavesdropping on a conversation the subs were having. Now the subs are possibly the nicest people you can meet. They have ordinary conversations about what they’re going to eat for dinner and what they watched on the box the night before. Needless to say, their conversations are always met with rolling eyes and sighs from the fashionable set who don’t eat and are never in to watch TV.

Anyway, I digress! They were discussing how they’d love to have a 90’s party as they loved the music so much. That was definitely the decade that gave us some iconic acts – Nirvana, Spice Girls, Take That, Blur and Oasis all arrived in the 90s helping to define the music scene. However, what would you wear to such a party?

I’ve been thinking so hard about this as nothing really stands out in my mind and that decade was my uni/early twenties decade so I did plenty of partying. I do remember having my hair cut like Linda Evangalista (or Vagina-blister as my gay mates call her) – you know the short bob/crop that she had. It was a rip roaring success and my pulling rate doubled once I’d had the mythical cut. But what did I wear with it?

There was a mini kilt that I loved. I used to wear it to uni, my work experience, out on the town. It was from the coolest of cool shops – Miss Selfridge. Back in the ‘90s, I do remember that Miss S was hip and TopShop was not. Amazing to think how times have changed, eh?

Waistcoats and leggings also reared their fashionable heads but what’s so daring and new about them? We’re still wearing them now for gawds sake. They were part of the biggest (and only) trend I can really remember – grunge. Created by Marc Jacobs, it was all about layering. I was rubbish at it as I like really simple, minimalist lines but I gave it a go!

In the late ‘90s, a resurgence in sportswear as everyday wear occurred, mostly thanks to bands like All Saints wearing combats and trainers. Being strictly a heel girl, I even remember being made over by a magazine (New Woman) to be a casual, funky girl. Needless to say, I hated it!

So I took a trip down memory lane and googled ‘90s fashion. I was reminded that…

• Jennifer Aniston’s haircut in Friends (the Rachel) became the MUST-HAVE cut
• Big platform shoes were deriguer thanks to the Spice Girls and their ridiculously high shoes
• Horrible fleeces hit the high street
• Everyone owned – or wanted to own – a pashmina
• Versace was the king of the catwalk and his garish prints were ripped off by the high street everywhere. This was also the decade where Gianni Versace was gunned down outside his Miami mansion on 15th July. I remember this vividly as it was the day after my 24th birthday.
  
• Hip hugging flares made a comeback. I wore mine to an INXS concert with a very cropped top and got very excited when I saw Helena Christensen in the audience!