Fashion: Early 90’s

This week our topic will be the fashion that was wore in the nineties. We will start by discussing the fashion of the early 90’s of men, woman and youth.

Men: In the early 1990s flannel became very popular and lasted through most of the decade. Unlike the fitted Western shirts of the 70s which fastened with pearl snaps, the flannel shirts of the 1990s were padded and loose-fitting for optimum warmth. Preppy clothing was popular in the US, where wealthy young men wore khaki slacks, navy blue blazers and canvas boat shoes. Men also wore Converse All Stars, Acid wash denim jackets, straight-leg jeans like Levi 501s, wool sweaters, black leather jackets, sheepskin coats, Members Only jackets, corduroy, anoraks, polo shirts, white Adidas trainers and Aviator sunglasses popularized by rock star Freddie Mercury.

Women: The early 1990s saw a continuation of 1980s fashion: women wore tight-fitting trousers with elastic boot-straps (stirrup pants/leggings), denim button down shirts, neon colors, drainpipe jeans, oversized sweaters, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and black leather jackets. Women also wore court shoes, cowboy boots, colored tights, bike shorts, tartan skirts, baby doll dresses, matching jeans and denim jackets (in dark shades rather than the bleached acid wash of the 1980s), headscarves, leggings, trenchcoats lined with fake fur, and penny loafers (associated with the preppy look). Many women wore black leggings with white slouch socks, athletic sneakers and oversized T-shirts as exercise wear. It was not uncommon to see mothers dressed right along with their daughters in slouch socks worn over leggings or sweatpants, oversized shirt or sweater, and sneakers like Keds or Converse.

Youth: The new wave and heavy metal fashion of the 1980s lasted until early 1992, when Grunge and hip hop fashion took over in popularity. The sagging trend began in the early-1990s and continued until the mid 2000s but faded into the 2010s. Hardcore Punk fashion, which began in the 1970s, was very popular in the 1990s, and Goth fashion reached its peak. The dominant youth clothing fad at the beginning of the 1990s was fluorescent clothing in blue, green, orange, pink, and yellow. Hoop earrings were also a popular accessory for teenage girls and women in the first years of the 1990s. Popular colors for girls included coral, hot pink, and turquoise. In Britain and the USA, girls wore oversized tee shirts, sweat shirts, sweaters, slouch socks worn over sweatpants or leggings, black or white lace trimmed bike shorts with babydoll dresses, belts worn with dresses, sweaters, and t-shirts, flats, Keds, Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, shortalls, flared trousers, and athletic shorts. Boys wore soccer shorts, jean jackets, tartan shirts, tapered acid wash jeans, and sweatpants.

Next time we will go over the fashion of the mid-nineties!