This , seriously, we had the pompadour haircuts, the Heavy Metal T-shirt, and the slip on black cotton shoes. The embarrassing thing is I still tend to dress like that. The head is shaved however.
Sgt Schwartz
I was going to post the same thing. Casual Fridays, Dockers, and so on.
Rise of the “outdoorsy look” - Columbia, North Face, Patagonia, and so on. It became acceptable to wear boots with shorts. In the Rocky Mountain region, boots and hybrid sneaker/boot like shoes were as ubiquitous as sandals today.
Zubaz pants were extremely popular in the Rust Belt.
Scrubs.
Thanks. That did the trick.
Maybe it was just around here, but giant pants were a huge hip hop/skater trend, as were most oversized clothing options.
Here are some recollections of my friends’ and my clothing choices from the 90s (we were 20-something college students). Be prepared to point and laugh:
-I wore a lot of flannel to class and ripped jeans. I had long hair and would occasionally sport a bandana Axl Rose-style. That was my grunge thing.
-Baseball hats were worn constantly.
-The only shoes I wore the entire decade were Doc Martens.
-Jeans were baggy. Once, my friend and I were at the bar with some older co-workers, and one guy, who came of age in the mid-80s, commented on our jeans. He, of course, was wearing nut-huggers tight-rolled at the bottom. He couldn’t figure out how we could be comfortable in jeans so baggy. We couldn’t figure out how his nuts remained round.
-Going out to the clubs-- God help me-- I would often wear overalls with no shirt under them. I would usually start off the evening with a short-sleeved button-up shirt on over the overalls, unbuttoned. By the end of a sweaty night of dancing, the shirt would come off. A friend of mine would often go to the club with a-- God help him-- faux-leather vest on with no shirt under it, completely unbuttoned by the end of the night.
-Club attire for ladies included what we referred to as “Canada pants,” as most of the clubs we Detroit lads went to were across the border in Windsor, ON. Canada pants were tight black stretchy pants.
-Another friend, when going to the clubs, wore a lot of skin-tight lycra shirts. Shiny clothes hit some degree of popularity thanks to the artist then-known as Puff Daddy.
-Clunky shoes on women.
Rugby shirts were an '80s trend, part of the neo-preppy look.
Hah! Tell that to the teenage boys in the 1950s.
Babydoll dresses, tank dresses with tees under them, plaid flannels, cardigans, and Doc Martens.
Cargo pants, the return of flares, Earth tones, general bagginess, a move away from floppy hair to close-cropped hair on men, goatees.
When I think of the 90s I remember everyone having bowl cuts. It wasn’t until 8th grade - 1999 - that they all were shaved off in favor of the short, spiked hair. A lot of guys did the blond-on-top, brown-on-bottom thing, including myself.
ooo! Remember the silk button-up shirts that had that soft, matte look to them? In jewel tones? Very cool.
I had one in silver gray.
If you want to see 90’s fashion trends in action, I recommend TiVoing a couple of episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 on SoapNet. Kelly Taylor and Steve Sanders are particular fashion whores, and can be seen sporting baby doll dresses and shiny patterned shirts, respectively.
Sandwashed silk. It was called sandwashed silk.
The very early nineties started the leggings/big sweater or leggings/dress thing for women.
I remember a lot of jewel tones, and purple and turquoise, and wearing tapered jeans with a big t-shirt tucked in and a bigger unbuttoned shirt over it. And hiking boots.
That was the end of the '80’s around here (Chicagoland), at least for us young un’s. That’s how I was dressing in sixth grade in 1986 - Spandex/cotton blend leggings with big scrunch socks, plain white Keds, and big baggy button up shirts in jewel tones or black and white. Taperd jeans, “Rolled” jeans (fold in the excess leg fabric at the ankle and roll the cuffs up three turns or so), or (stonewashed *or *acid washed) jeans with zippers in the ankles to make them *really *taper (The zippers were there so you could get your foot in them, they were that tight to the ankle), were junior high and into high school.
“Flares-they’re-not-bellbottoms,-Mom!” started in college, early '90s. Man, did I resist those. “Waaaa! They just want me to get rid of all my tapered jeans! Those flares look so stupid!”
Do you remember those ubiquitous black slacks, made out of some synthetic material, slightly stretchy, boot cut that EVERY WOMAN IN AMERICA had at least three pairs of? I still see them today, but those were like a uniform for a while. Oh, here they are! Mid to late '90’s here.
I remember thigh-high socks with miniskirts… like in The Craft movie poster referenced by WhyNot. Often these had b&w horizontal stripes. The main thing I remember is flannel grunge for low fashion, while high fashion used a lot of spandex catsuits. And goatees on guys everyplace.
Is it too soon to reminisce about the 2000s? The main thing I’ve been noticing these days is all the long sleeves have been replaced by 3/4 sleeves.
Oh, I loved those sandwashed shirts, esp. on guys. Mmmm.
I forgot–I had an undercut. I shaved the bottom couple of inches of my head; it was pretty invisible unless I wore my hair up. I remember that being a pretty popular style.
I seem to recall that in that movie The wedding singer, everyone is wearing very 80’s clothes except for Drew Barrymore, who is dressed in completely 90’s clothes the whole time (and very cute too). No self-respecting girl would have had that haircut in 1988.
When did tucked in shirts (for women) change into the outside-the-skirt look which is almost universal now? I’ve struggled with my weight all my adult life so I wore the the hanging out tops whenever I was fat, switching to tucked in only when slimmer. It became a regular routine over the years, unfortunately. When I lost weight yet again a few years ago and started tucking my tops in, I noticed for the first time that no one ever does it anymore.
Looking at early '90s episodes of The Bill, the female cast members all tucked in their shirts but later eps have them outside the skirt/pants. Was it sudden? Who decided this was a better look? Will the tucked in blouse ever come back?
I think it changed as low-rise pants and skirts became the norm. The general length of the torso is longer now - not because we’ve actually grown longer torsos, but because the waistbands on our pants are so low down there, it looks longer. Tucking in a shirt on a low-rise pant presents logistical difficulties - for one, they come untucked whenever you sit down, and for two, most of these damn pants are so damn tight fighting now, there’s no room for a smooth tuck - the shirt will show worse than pantylines.
M.C. Hammer pants. Yes, I had some, actually a couple pair, and I wore them frequently. :smack:
The 90’s also saw the Rap/Hip Hop styles become mainstream. I remember seeing alot of T-shirts with “African” logos, Malcom X, etc. (Think Fresh Prince)
Also didn’t African-American males wear that “fade” hairstyle in the 90’s?
Were Hyper Color shirts part of the 80’s or 90’s…?? For some reason I’m thinking early 90’s.
I also remember prom dress fashions were “how much skin can you show” rather than frilly lacy ball-gown style dresses worn in the 80’s.
With designs or words shaved into the occiput!