The revival of fashion trends in the nineties and noughties

Everyone loves to reminiscence, it makes you happy and perks up your mood. We feel that exact way about fashion. It is great to look back and think about styles that made a big impact and caused quite a large buzz. From the flapper girls of the 20’s, to the full round skirts and Greasers in the 50’s, the ultra-miniskirts and flower power revolution in the 60’s and the wide bell bottoms and Saturday Night Fever of the 70’s, we have taken inspiration literally to the runway and the racks of every shop on the high street. They are trends we love to repeat over and over again. Therefore, it has been interesting to see what the consciousness for fashion in the 90’s has been and how this may then go forward for the noughties.

There is much praise for the 90’s, whose revival is currently in full force. If you are in your mid-twenties and above right about now, you will fully understand the nostalgia of the 90’s. From Calvin Klein underwear on show to chokers, slip dresses, shapeless flowing dresses, dungarees, crop tops, matching sets and all things rainbow. Right now, everyone is clamouring to look and dress like its 1993 again.

What has been quite enamouring about it is the range of looks that embodied the era. Quite oddly, the Spice Girls explain that with their distinctive and non cohesive styles. You had Mel B and Emma Bunton with the animal print, buffalo shoes and crop tops to Victoria Beckham with her monochrome simple looks. So on one hand, you have the leftover brashness of the 80’s with loud colours and print. Think Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the colourful velour tracksuits, big shoulder pads, big hair to films like Clueless and Rony & Michelle’s High School Reunion. They made such an impact on popular culture and continues to do so today.

As we move down the scale, we have the Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis Grunge Collection 1992, the style of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love; and the subsequent 1996 movie, the Craft embodied the Grunge and Goth movement which inspired their generation and have been used as the main inspiration for the 90’s revival as of late. We then move further down to your minimalist section of the 90’s reminiscent of what Victoria Beckham would normally wear and made famous by supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista. Everything was scaled back with slip dresses in neutral colours and all round simplicity.

Also, not to be left out is your pretty girl look. Recently, Misguided began a campaign with Pamela Anderson, the pin up poster girl whose pages in Playboy and high cut one piece swimsuit made her a household name. When it was announced, there was shock as one would not normally peg Anderson as your typical fashion girl. However, when you look closely at the decision, it makes sense. They championed Anderson as their spirit animal and iconic bombshell of the 90’s recreating her looks for their photoshoot and inspiration for their recent collection. Plenty of high cut swimsuits!

If that is our basic interpretation of the nineties, how will we interpret the years 2000 - 2009 or the noughties, as so they are called for a possible revival? The fashion trends from 2000 onwards are currently having a bad time in our consciousness. We can look back at pictures of ourselves and our friends, perhaps on Facebook or Myspace just to see exactly what we wore. It was a time when we mashed up different trends from various eras and spun them around in an unconventional manner. So far, it does not seem like there are many we would want to repeat. A few pop to mind such as large unnecessary belts, gypsy skirts, ponchos, odd hemlines on skirts, velour tracksuits, Von Dutch trucker hats, low rise jeans and strange halter neck tops.

These terrible trends are still fresh in our mind and so far there is only one which sticks quite positively, which was the boho chic trend made popular by Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Mary Kate & Ashley Oslen. It consisted of fringing, tie dye, cowboy boots, shapeless and printed maxi dresses and gladiator sandals worn to be seen at Glastonbury or any other festival which happened to be streamed on the BBC. Basically, how to look like you have not made an effort when you clearly have thought through every single detail. It was innovative and put down its champions as fashion icons in the following years. It has continued to stay relevant and can still be seen at festivals around the world.

Who knows maybe in another 10 years, we will be looking rather fondly at the noughties and wearing velour tracksuits again because it makes sense. Whatever the case may be, what this shows us is that the association for many with the 90’s is that idea that they can recreate a memory or hark back to a time they fondly remember. This fascination will never stop and it shows that fashion is not just about the idea of change and development of something new.