What were the fashion trends of the 90's?

[monstro]

@HelloKitty

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)

Cross Colors was a popular brand in the early to mid 90s for the afro-centric. Think TLC in the “What About Your Friends” video. Bright orange, yellow, and reds–often in one ensemble. If you were “cool”, you’d wear your Cross Colors overalls with an African medalion and a black X shirt.

In the early 90s, a lot of black people were wearing black patent leather oxfords. Think the Fly Girls on “In Living Color” (or Shenaynay on “Martin”). Also popular were British Knights. Timberlands got popular in the mid 90s.

Doc Martens were popular, but so were Birkenstock (and Birkenstock wannabes). While Chuck Taylors have never really gone out of style, but circa 1992-1994, everyone was wearing them.

Khakis were hip in the 90s. Even hipper were khaki cutoffs.

[Zsofia]

@HelloKitty

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.

Hyper Color must have been early 90’s. I remember mine fondly.

[panache45]

Reading this thread, there isn’t one item mentioned that was really new in the '90s. It was all a matter of bringing back something old, rather than creating something new.

[BlakeTyner]

I remember (sometimes fondly, sometimes not) everything mentioned so far, but have to add a few things:

Bajas - those pullovers that looked kinda like a burlap bag, like something you’d see Eastwood wearing in Fistful of Dollars.

Shoes: Jordans, BK’s, LA Gear - specifically with the pump mechanism, and the sneaks with red lights in back. I see little kids with these today, but when I was in middle school they were the shit. Docs and Chucks were pretty ubiquitous, as has been mentioned.

Starter jackets - I still have my Cowboys pullover from when they won in '95. This also coincides with the fact that just about everyone was wearing a jersey of some sort…Aikman, Favre, Jordan, etc.

Bicycle shorts got big for a little while, for both men/boys and women/girls. I wanted a pair, but, thank God, never ended up with any.

Haircuts - Chili Bowl was huge on us white kids, while our black friends had either the bald fade or, my absolute favorite, the BOX! At our school, the higher the box, the badder-ass that kid was. Bonus points if it had a wedge carved out and/or died gold.

Pagers. Pagers everywhere.

Snap bracelets and calculator watches

One thing I remember distinctly was wearing really bold day-glo orange or green t-shirts underneath a black t-shirt, and rolling the sleeves, so that the day-glo colors showed.

In the late '90s, about the time Hilfiger got really big, the color scheme went to bright, airy colors. I had a lot of polo shirts in vivid reds, yellows, and blues. It was kind of the period between the earth tones of grunge and the earth tones of right now. I really miss those colors, actually…I’ve been trying to find similar stuff for about a year, but I can’t.

[Happy_Lendervedder]

@BlakeTyner

Bajas - those pullovers that looked kinda like a burlap bag, like something you’d see Eastwood wearing in Fistful of Dollars.

That’s what they were called! I’d forgotten the name for those things, so I left them out of my summary. I had one that I bought in 1992 from an American Indian at a roadside stand in the Black Hills. I wore that thing all the time for the first four or five years I had it. My wife made me get rid of it this year because it had holes all over it.

[dangermom]

@Zsofia

Hyper Color must have been early 90’s. I remember mine fondly.

I think I bought mine in early '91. Amazingly, I still have it! I use it for painting jobs. It was the light blue/pink, and now it’s just sort of a muddy greyish pinkish.

[Cluricaun]

@Happy Lendervedder

That’s what they were called! I’d forgotten the name for those things, so I left them out of my summary. I had one that I bought in 1992 from an American Indian at a roadside stand in the Black Hills. I wore that thing all the time for the first four or five years I had it. My wife made me get rid of it this year because it had holes all over it.

Heh. We called them “Drug Rugs”, but they were pretty comfy.

Oh and Starter Jackets, hell yes, those were the absolute shiat around here. They sell Starter stuff at Meijer now.

[BlakeTyner]

@Happy Lendervedder

That’s what they were called! I’d forgotten the name for those things, so I left them out of my summary. I had one that I bought in 1992 from an American Indian at a roadside stand in the Black Hills. I wore that thing all the time for the first four or five years I had it. My wife made me get rid of it this year because it had holes all over it.

Hehe, I’m almost embarrassed to admit why I remember what those things were called.

Back in the early 90’s, my magazine subscriptions consisted of: 3-2-1 Contact! (which included a Basic program transcription for you to try every month), Boys’ Life, some children’s literature magazine called “Connections” or something, and the Disney magazine, which was about the size of a Readers’ Digest. Anyway, every month the Disney mag had a “what’s hot/what’s not” box, and I was highly insulted to find out that “Bajas” were out…just after I got one. To this day I haven’t forgotten that.

And, let me just say that it depresses me to no end that the earlier poster was in 8th grade in 1999, the year I graduated high school. Make a cat feel old, why dontcha?

Also, my best friend mentioned Gibos jeans…which I’d completely forgotten about.

[WhyNot]

@panache45

Reading this thread, there isn’t one item mentioned that was really new in the '90s. It was all a matter of bringing back something old, rather than creating something new.

There are only so many ways to drape, cut and stitch cloth. What were you looking for, exactly? Nothing popular today is completely original, either. I see influences from the 50’s through the '80’s in today’s fashions.

Besides, Hyper Color technology was new, I’m pretty sure, and possibly the sandwashing technique for silk - if it was around before, it wasn’t popular or cheap. Washable silks, came out in the '90s, I think. Also, a large part of the “outdoorsy slacker” fashion was made possible by the invention of Lyocell, brand name Tencel, the type of rayon that makes all those khakis, chinos, jeans, oxfords and men’s and women’s dress shirts wrinkle resistant. Before that, unless you were willing to iron, you wouldn’t get fashionably rumpled clothing, but creased and dirty looking clothing or stiff and/or shiny polyester clothing.
There’s another one: double t-shirts and t-shirts with the sleeves rolled (I guess to match the rolled jeans?). Like **BlakeTyner **said, except we didn’t limit ourselves to black on top. In fact, I remember having a bunch of single t-shirts with fake second collars and sleeves, so it would look like you had two T’s on.

Remember when women’s t-shirt sleeves actually went halfway down to the elbow?

[Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist]

I remember not being allowed to have a Starter jacket (I suppose I was 12-14 years old) because it seemed that people were always getting shot over them. It seems strange now…

I had (fake) Cross Colors overalls (shorts)…they had tiny stripes that were mostly orange and other bright colors.

I had many, many vests.

Also, I remember “neon” colors being popular in the early '90s. I had a nylon jogging suit with all kinds of obscene pinks and highlighter yellows and greens. Ew.

I think I fell for about every fad mentioned so far in this thread…but, you know…the grunge thing wasn’t that bad.

I still get the urge, every now and then, to blast some Pearl Jam and dig out the flannel.

[Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist]

Guh…christ, Blossom hats (oh, and Blossom was the Best Show Ever when I was in junior high). 'Member? With the front flipped up and held in place with a rose made of the same material? I had a denim one.

Wonder why I cannot find a picture. It’s for the best I suppose.

[aktep]

Braided leather belts, about 10 inches too long, tied in a knot after the buckle.

[Hippy_Hollow]

I was in college the first half of the 90s. I agree grunge was massive for the first few years, then Cobain died and people dropped that stuff with the quickness.

Frosh year, I wore a lot of Cross Colours, Karl Kani, Jordan/Nike gear, and random Afrocentric gear (like dashiki-like shirts). The hoodies and shirts from the African-American College fashion line. (Anyone remember these? They had stitching on the outside and were for all the HBCUs. I had a Morehouse hoodie and a Grambling shirt.) Overalls as well. We all wanted to look like BBD or even Boyz II Men with the preppie look with shorts… but none of us had the guts to pull it off. Very thankful that we did.

Dwayne Wayne glasses (from A Different World) - round, with the flip up shades. Glasses that were just glass - no prescription, and usually from a big named designer (like Guess?). Oaktree and UMen slacks and bright shirts. Mossimo, Girbaud, Z. Cavarrachi shirts and slacks.

I had Malcolm X shirts as well. Rocked a lot of 40 Acres and a Mule stuff (Spike Lee’s line). Among the racist jackasses were the response shirts: You have your “X” and I have mine (a Confederate flag), It’s a country thing… you wouldn’t understand. (Which was a response to the shirts that said “It’s a Black thing… you wouldn’t understand.”)

I had a rat-tail a la Hammer that year… we were all rocking boxes and fades. You could still have an S-Curl and not get laughed at. Remember Ice Cube had a jheri curl until Predator came out!

By the time I finished in '95 I don’t remember having any distinct style clothing wise. For women, the whole chunky shoe phase was going on… the chunkier the better. I did go shopping for my first professional wardrobe, and I do recall that ties were much more colorful and pastel-based. They were starting to go wide after years of being just a little more than skinny.

One thing that was big - HUGE - when I was in college was the Stussy shirts and ballcaps (among the White kids; I never saw a person of color wearing that stuff). I fucking hated them. They were always in rasta colors with sayings like “Love see no color” and other dumb shit like that. (Dumb because some of the dudes wearing it were the most close-minded people you’d ever meet.) Back then it was cool to be on the liberal side (at least on paper) and listen to Dave Matthews and Hootie.

Asian kids were into Armani Exchange stuff. Having the A|X logo on everything was a big deal to my friends. They even founded a fraternity, Alpha Chi something, so they could have the letters. :rolleyes:

[jabiru]

@WhyNot

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.

I thought the ‘top out’ look came first but you’re probably right. I wouldn’t wear low rise pants on a bet but I still wear my top out now.

[GuanoLad]

@BlakeTyner

Haircuts - Chili Bowl was huge on us white kids, while our black friends had either the bald fade or, my absolute favorite, the BOX!

What the flying fuck are you talking about? I have no idea what each of these are.

[Argent_Towers]

The chili-bowl, I’m assuming, is the very common “bowl cut” - basically a rounded haircut as if someone put a bowl over the head and cut around it. It had some variations, like the somewhat cooler parted-in-the-middle look (think David Duchovny in the very first season of the X-files,) and the shaved-on-the-bottom bowl cut (I always thought this was a very ugly haircut.)

Towards the end of the 90s, some kids had the bowl cut dyed blond on top with the brown roots at the bottom part of it. By 2000 most everyone I knew had cut off their bowl cuts in favor of the shorter close-cropped look, often with the top of the hair dyed blond and spiked.

The box style haircut would be a flat top with the sides of the hair cut very straight, like a box. I never actually knew any black guys that had this style but I’ve seen it in movies.

I’m not all that sure what the “bald fade” is though.

[goldenmean1975]

My toddlers watch nick TV during the day and if I don’t turn it in the evening, 90’s shows like come on “Fresh Prince…” They are always dressed in the very latest 90’s fashions on there. Will Smith wore lots of Karl Kani(?) creations with huge logo’s…top button on his shirt buttoned, pleat front slacks, cuffed…I was a huge Pearl Jam fan and adopted a cleaned up version of that look for wearing to class every day. Girls were moving away from “mall hair” to a more natural look, thank god

[melvin_coznowski]

Reading this thread, it seems that 90s fashion was all over the place, which is what I remember. I’ve never considered myself fashionable or trendy, so I try not to pay attention to it much (except in revulsion at crap like the bowl cuts – and just the other day, I saw a small boy, maybe 5 or 6, with a bowl haircut. I thought the parents must either be cruel, or maybe they wear mullets, or maybe they’re just stuck in a timewarp and think it’s still 1995). Certainly the 90s can’t be described in just a word or two like other decades, like the 60s (“hippy” for the later part of the decade), 70s (“disco”), 80s (“preppy”).

Though “grunge” can pretty well describe the opening of the decade, but after that, things seem to fall apart. And what about this decade (although that’s another thread)?

[chaoticbear]

Zip-off pants were big among the youngsters near the end of the decade. I was a small child for most of the 90’s, so that’s all I’ve got.

[aktep]

Remembering also from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade (1989-1992)

All the boys had gold chains. Maybe even more than one.
The boys with straight hair (ie, not me) had a short haircut where the hair was just long enough in front to shape it into a bit of a “swoosh” that was held in place with some sort of product. (sort of like here: http://www.iceskatingintnl.com/archive/features/vandg.htm)

The girls all had bangs that stood straight up 3 or 4 inches and looked like the were meant for catching bugs.