by Hannah Van Ryswyk, Features Editor
Wearing your art on your sleeve
When Will Smith’s life got turned upside-down and he made his impromptu trek from Philadelphia to Bel Air, the world wasn’t expecting the incoming tsunami of baggy, fluorescent, and fly homeboy flash that would swamp the previously “high and tight” fashion scene in his wake. Shirts became wild urban graffiti frescos, Nike and Adidas kicks became a staple in every outfit, bowler hats were abundant, and the baggier, bolder, or more retina-damaging your anything was, the better – or, shall we say, the fresher – it was in the eyes of the 90s.
Not quite Nirvana
Grunge hit the 90s like a sack of dirty, horribly-misunderstood bricks, and once it made its debut on the backs of grimy shab-shoguns like Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and his bleached-out beau Courtney Love, it was there to stay. As grunge’s popularity skyrocketed, getting ready [and bathing] became outdated and overrated. It soon became socially acceptable to roll out of bed every morning in jeans that looked like they’d been through a tiger shark and back, forgo shampoo for that coveted oil-slick effect, lace up your dad’s old work boots and sloppily paint your nails with mom’s favorite saucy red polish…even if you were a dude. “Rebellious” teens everywhere went wild for grunge, and suffice to say, it was no wonder what Cobain was talking about when he said that something “smells like teen spirit.”
In sync with backstreet style
Not long after preteen girls across the map began worshipping the very ground superstar boy bands like *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys hopped around on, young men of the everyday caliber adopted the new-wave pop style and blew it up into something – shall we say – larger than life. Acid wash denim and red leather pants flew off the racks, white-boy bling exploded in a flurry of rhinestones, polyester sports jackets saw more action at the mall than the field, and hair salons everywhere wondered why most of the clients asking for frost jobs were thirteen-year-old boys. Puppet strings may have even eventually made an appearance on the runway, but thankfully, the end of 90s sent most boy bands packing and saying “bye bye bye” for good.
Add a little spice to your life
Whether you identified with the scarier, sportier, babyish, more posh, or ginger aspects of life, the all-girl English pop group labeled as the most successful female musical act of all time – the Spice Girls – had a chic trend just for you. Credited with popularizing some of the biggest fashion staples of the 90s, the Spice Girls revolutionized closets everywhere and left girls starry-eyed in their attempts to grasp onto platform sneakers, trendy tracksuits, baby doll dresses, skintight catsuits, anything and everything leopard print, and the now-iconic Union Jack dress worn by Ginger Spice, which has in itself become one of the most well-known symbols in 90s pop culture. Quite frankly, any girls claiming that they didn’t garner some ounce of fashion influence from the spiciest English women of all time are probably just a bunch of wannabes seriously lacking in girl power.
Overall overkill
Not surprisingly, most 90s kids can attest to a similar traumatic childhood experience all boiling down to one thing: bib overalls. As if the other wild denim concoctions of the decade weren’t bad enough already, somebody had to go and dredge up old farmer John’s field clothes and slap an “in vogue” sticker on them – and the instant they did, overalls became one of the biggest fashion sensations in the nation. Whether in the traditional denim form or in khaki, corduroy, camouflage, crushed velvet, plaid, or tie-dye, overalls were for anyone and everyone, and despite all odds, still have a relatively strong foothold in fashion today.
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