Supermodel Superfugly

August 9, 2011 3:08 PM

Fuck Yeah Ugly 90s Clothes A 'celebration' of how dated and strange the 'looks' of twenty years ago seem today.
posted by mippy (215 comments total)

Yoga wear is possibly the single greatest development in fashion since the 1990s.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:10 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh, my favourite now dated 90s looks:

Whose Line Is It Anyway
Seinfeld - I didn't see this until the 00s but the Armani suit he and his comic nemesis fight over looks terribly naff now. Though shops seem to have been pushing the Elaine Benes look lately...
Zoe in Cybill - Alicia Witt is a stunning actress but her character suffered from the clothing choices 90s teens had (even over here in the UK) - dark lipstick and unflatteringly coloured velvet tops. (Mary-Ann's outfits look ridiculous now but I always saw her as almost a female drag queen.)
posted by mippy at 3:15 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

A propos of nothing, but since I only knew them by name, I never realized that N'Sync were so ugly, outside of Justin Timberlake. Teenage girls liked those guys?! They all seem to have odd, misshapen heads.
posted by hincandenza at 3:16 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

I was like, "NO WAY, the 90s were awesome!" And apparently the blog creator agrees with me. She has a companion blog, Fuck Yeah Awesome 90s, "Because for every hilarious tacky '90s picture I find, there are five cool ones and I wanted a place to share them."
posted by lesli212 at 3:17 PM on August 9, 2011 [16 favorites]

If I ever catch one of you fuckers trying to bring back denim overalls I will go on a motherfucking shooting spree.
posted by The Whelk at 3:19 PM on August 9, 2011 [17 favorites]

In my mind the single most Nineties Only item of clothing is the pastel plaid sleeveless flannel shirt with a heather grey hood. In fact, not only is it Nineties Only, it can be pinned down to just 1993.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

Every single time period in the history of clothing suffers from this same problem. All clothes are ugly when viewed outside the context of current fashion. The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 3:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [13 favorites]

Hooray! Something that I can be nostalgic about! 3rd grade me COVETS these shoes.
posted by ChuraChura at 3:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

hincandenza: "A propos of nothing, but since I only knew them by name, I never realized that N'Sync were so ugly, outside of Justin Timberlake. Teenage girls liked those guys?! They all seem to have odd, misshapen heads."

I suspect this is typical of boybands. Maybe the producers behind this groups view it as more of a challenge to foist a bunch of goofy looking dudes on the teenage masses as "dreamy".
posted by brundlefly at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

If I ever catch one of you fuckers trying to bring back denim overalls I will go on a motherfucking shooting spree.

I'll just assume this threat doesn't count if we only use one of the straps.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2011 [43 favorites]

There has to be a torrent for this somewhere...
posted by permafrost at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why? How? Have they no sense of taste or decency?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [11 favorites]

So apparently a lot of stuff that I remember being from the '80s is actually from the '90s.

(I don't remember all those bare midriffs. Who wore bare midriffs in the '90s? However, I did have a dress just like this. Actually, I still have it in my closet, although it's a tad too short for me to wear at this late date.)
posted by craichead at 3:23 PM on August 9, 2011

N-Sync were never really a thing this side of the pond. Maybe that's why - we had Take That instead.

tylerkaraszewski - that's changed over the years too, even if we don't consider the Rubenesques.. Curves in the Edwardian era, ironing-board women in the 20s, and so on and so forth. Twiggy was the most wanted woman of the 60s - a woman so tiny she looked like a pre-pubescent boy - and Sam Fox in the 80s, a woman who could burst eardrums with her chest.
posted by mippy at 3:23 PM on August 9, 2011

I knew something like this was coming. You can only force people to wear tight pants so long before they snap.
posted by mannequito at 3:24 PM on August 9, 2011

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why? How? Have they no sense of taste or decency?

They said the same about the 1980s and 1970s, at least. When is this imaginary time of "good taste?"
posted by absalom at 3:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [8 favorites]

If I ever catch one of you fuckers trying to bring back denim overalls I will go on a motherfucking shooting spree.

*AHEM*
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 3:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

What's sad is that somewhere there exists a light blue-green flannel shirt that I wore almost every day when I was thirteen and was honestly the most comfortable thing I've ever owned and I have no idea where it is now.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why? How? Have they no sense of taste or decency?

I was a teenager in the 90s and really wished I'd been born in the 80s. Seems bizarre those ten years younger than me are the same, but there you go. If you were born in 1990, 0r 1993 in the UK (1996 if you're good with make-up) you can now get served at a bar.
posted by mippy at 3:25 PM on August 9, 2011

Speaking of the 1990's: U.S. Dept. Of Retro Warns: 'We May Be Running Out Of Past' (via The Onion, ca. 1997 -- back when it was still cool-ish)
posted by mosk at 3:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Foci for Analysis: "What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s."

When I watched the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet in 2000, it already felt like a 90s period piece to me, which struck me as bizarre at the time.
posted by brundlefly at 3:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Jesus, I've lost the ability to format. This is what comes of reading fashion blogs to distract oneself from everyone rioting.
posted by mippy at 3:26 PM on August 9, 2011

What can't Clarissa explain? why she looks like she just rolled around in the surplus bin at Micheals'.
posted by The Whelk at 3:27 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

Ha ha, wow, that was soooooo long ago! Can you believe how dumb people were? They didn't even have iPhones! I'm so glad I'm not o--

Hey, what's this flashing light on my ha
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [26 favorites]

Every single time period in the history of clothing suffers from this same problem. All clothes are ugly when viewed outside the context of current fashion. The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit.

I disagree.
posted by tracert at 3:30 PM on August 9, 2011 [18 favorites]

Minion: Sir! Here's today's MetaFilter report.

pts: Interesting... oh. Oh my.

Minion: Sir...?

pts: It appears mippy has made a tactical error. A tactical error of the most egregious sort.

Minion: Surely she didn't--

pts: Yes, Minion number... what was your number, again?

Minion: 89, sir.

pts: Indeed, 89. Yes, she has done exactly that. I've waited almost two years for her to post a single-link tumblr photo collection, after her flagrant and ill-mannered threadshit almost two years ago. And now she's done it. By Odin's one eye, she's done it. She's made a single-link tumble post of her own, and now... she's mine.

[beat]

pts: Initiate the Zeta protocol.

Minion: Sir, you can't mean--!

pts: Question my orders again, Minion 89, and I'll have you thrown to the redditors. Now initiate the Zeta protocol, damn you. I will shit on this thread, or I will go to all the nine hells trying!

Minion: Sir! Yes sir!

pts: And now, mippy, my old friend... now the game has truly begun.
posted by pts at 3:31 PM on August 9, 2011 [45 favorites]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why? How? Have they no sense of taste or decency?

Uh-oh, you've forced me to do the Dazed and Confused math again!

1993 − 1976 = 17 years
2011 − 1992 = 19 years

Conclusion: OLD.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:31 PM on August 9, 2011 [16 favorites]

The 90s had the best hip-hop, best videogames, best president, and best economy. We could do a lot worse. Too bad the fashion sucked.
posted by 2bucksplus at 3:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [14 favorites]

looking at these photos is almost physically painful oh my god
posted by elizardbits at 3:35 PM on August 9, 2011

The awesome 90s blog is better. I'm less inclined to argue with it.

(What? I think foofy poet's shirts are still awesome. Everyone should have them.)
posted by feckless at 3:35 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

The nineties had their own special version of day-glo knitted dresses and plastic shoes.
posted by dabitch at 3:35 PM on August 9, 2011

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s.

Already? It was two decades ago.

Oh, shit. It was two decades ago. What have I been doing with my life?
posted by dirigibleman at 3:36 PM on August 9, 2011 [17 favorites]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why?
Because I was only around for a very little bit of the 1980s, and I certainly don't want to be nostalgic about the early 2000s.
posted by ChuraChura at 3:36 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

When is this imaginary time of "good taste?"

1920-1950.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:36 PM on August 9, 2011 [10 favorites]

Oh pts, but that one was not to my taste - I was going to say 'shitey mcshite', but I'm less illmannered than you think- and this one is. Plus, the cult of Hemingway is irritating, if only because acolytes seem fond of calling him 'Hemmingway'. Like those who call the rodent 'hampster'. they should be wheeled out and shot.
posted by mippy at 3:38 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ladies and gentlemen, Laurence Llewellyn Bowen. From the days when 90% of the BBC schedule involved making things out of MDF.

I have The Life Laundry book, published in 2001. This was a series about people being encouraged to declutter their homes, and so there are lots of shots of interiors inside. Despite them being fairly ordinary, they look oddly dated now. The same is true of many sewing/craft books, and especially style books - even 'classic' ones or ones focused on non-trend topics like choosing the right colours for clothing.
posted by mippy at 3:41 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't remember all those bare midriffs. Who wore bare midriffs in the '90s?

I was in junior high in the late '90s, when school dress codes are always at their most draconian. The amount of mental anguish I suffered, a long-torsoed girl trying to simply find a shirt that covered my midriff so I wouldn't get scolded again at school, was so overwhelming I couldn't enjoy clothes shopping for years. I still find myself occasionally making excuses for a too-short shirt because in my brain that's the way it's supposed to be.
posted by lilac girl at 3:43 PM on August 9, 2011

Reminds me of "I'm Remembering!" not just all 90s though.
posted by lilkeith07 at 3:45 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why?

Because the economy wasn't in the shitter, and the Republican plan for bringing down a Democratic President was merely to impeach him over a blow job, instead of flushing the entire economy down the toilet out of spite.
posted by ambrosia at 3:46 PM on August 9, 2011 [44 favorites]

It's creepy knowing that all the people in those pictures are now dead.




DEAD I SAY!
posted by mazola at 3:46 PM on August 9, 2011 [16 favorites]

I never really thought of the '90s as having a "style." Wasn't it all just jeans and t-shirts and flannel? Most of these seem to be ugly things bands wore or were made to wear for photo shoots, rather stuff regular people would have worn.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:47 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

No. No no no no no. I will NOT click on the link to that Alyssa Milano Teen Steam video. It only took me 20 years to get that infernal song out of my head.

Someone on here linked to that Pizza Bagels commercial recently and I couldn't help myself. Pizza in the morning. Pizza in the evening....pizzzzzzaaaaa foreverrrrrarrrghhh!!!
posted by medeine at 3:47 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

That said, agree with 2bucksplus that the last two presidents have certainly made me nostalgic for Bill Clinton.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:48 PM on August 9, 2011

I don't have time for this. I'm not nearly done making fun of the 70's.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:48 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Hooray! Something that I can be nostalgic about! 3rd grade me COVETS these shoes

I'm coveting those shoes NOW.
posted by Lucinda at 3:49 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pizza in the morning. Pizza in the evening....pizzzzzzaaaaa foreverrrrrarrrghhh!!!

may the wingèd monkeys devour your face, you BASTARD EARWORMER
posted by elizardbits at 3:50 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

If I ever catch one of you fuckers trying to bring back denim overalls I will go on a motherfucking shooting spree.

If there are heavy, dark eyebrows and matte burgundy lipstick involved, I will personally donate the ammo.
posted by scody at 3:51 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

you will pry my matte burgundy lipstick out of my cold dead hands!
posted by crush-onastick at 3:59 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

I'll chip in if it involves drawing a black line round 'nude' (ie. looks like you have two plasters stuck to your face) lips.
posted by mippy at 3:59 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Denim baseball cap, suede brim, leather adjustment strap.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:59 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why?

Eh. When I was in high school in the 70's we were always having 50's sock hops and we would dress in poodle skirts and saddle shoes at the drop of a hat.


One of our favorite things about watching Seinfeld is laughing and pointing at whatever silly thing Jerry is wearing; he usually looked like a school boy dressed by his mother: shiny white sneakers, tight jeans with a belt and turtle neck sweater. Or big boxy jacket in a loud plaid. I guess that is more 80's than 90's though.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:01 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

permafrost - ask and ye shall receive.
posted by djb at 4:02 PM on August 9, 2011

Wait. I think my MAC "O" lipstick is about 20 years old. I just got a new one but I distinctly remember buying the original at Nordstroms in the 90s. Does this mean it is unfashionable now? Come to think of it its a miracle that they are still making the same color-- lipstick colors usually get discontinued as soon as you find one you like.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:05 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

A propos of nothing, but since I only knew them by name, I never realized that N'Sync were so ugly, outside of Justin Timberlake. Teenage girls liked those guys?! They all seem to have odd, misshapen heads.

Hush, you. Lance is still totally adorkable.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 4:05 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hmm, not really much difference between the two tumblrs, and there's not a whole lot that's really recognizably 90s, except for the somewhat grunge and neo-hippy stuff (like those little crochet beanies people wore with granny dresses). Pretty underwhelming, actually. I had hoped to have my memory jogged by stellar examples of hideousness, but most of the really bad stuff is left over from the 80s.

I remember having a really hard time finding good clothes then. Everything was just sort of meh for like a whole decade.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:06 PM on August 9, 2011

I apparently attended a different '90s than the one pictured here.

I think the worst excesses of '90s fashion were really just '80s throwbacks, and these all look like '80s throwbacks to me.
posted by gurple at 4:08 PM on August 9, 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, I present fashion from the golden era:
1920s: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1930s: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1940s: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
1950s: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Fashion so good it's libidinous.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:08 PM on August 9, 2011 [38 favorites]

I'm wearing a checked flannel shirt right now. I'm not into grunge or anything. It's just warm and comfy in the 'winter'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:09 PM on August 9, 2011

I love golden era fashion, but I have the wrong body for the 20s and the wrong shoe size for the 40s and 50s. Also, being taller, bustier and generally larger than the average woman then, I have to stick to repro. (I wore this today) There are lots of things that would make me less than keen to have lived then, but fashion isn't one of them.
posted by mippy at 4:13 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

The only really 90s-specific "regular" men's fashion I remember was more denim (jorts, denim shirts, but strangely not denim jackets), Air Jordans, and shirts were really way the hell huge and baggy.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:14 PM on August 9, 2011

I'll always be grateful for 90s fashion. I was a chubby, self-conscious teenager in the 90s, but since we were all wearing flannels and loose-fitting jeans, I looked pretty okay. You didn't have to bother with hairspray; you just put your hair in a scrunchie or a plastic jaw clip and that was that. And when I broke my leg and had to wear a fiberglass cast to the knee, my multiple pairs of baggy cargo pants and ankle-length cargo skirt saved the day.

I was never on board with the overplucked eyebrows and dark lipliner, though.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:15 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

mippy, oh, so it's okay to be a jerk if you just like really want to. Gotcha, okay, I'll keep that in mind moving forward. Thanks! ♥

Also to get back on topic, this tumblr seems to be missing material from the deepest, richest vein of terrible '90s fashion known to humanity: Hackers.
posted by pts at 4:17 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

If you like tomboy girls, the 90s were a golden age for fashion. Or as my ex likes to say: come back cute 90s tomboy, we miss you!
posted by subdee at 4:19 PM on August 9, 2011 [11 favorites]

If I ever catch one of you fuckers trying to bring back denim overalls I will go on a motherfucking shooting spree.
posted by The Whelk

My fiance has told me repeatedly he can't wait for girl in coveralls to come back in style. Please don't shoot him.


Who wore bare midriffs in the '90s?

God, who didn't? I don't think my bellybutton was covered from 1995-1998.
posted by Windigo at 4:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

Oh pts, it was two years ago. Get a hobby, good man! I recommend setting up a museum of flannel.

Anyway, you gave me a sex change on that thread, so suck my not-actually-existing balls x
posted by mippy at 4:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bah, burgundy lipstick and chunky black shoes forever!

FOREVER I SAY
posted by trunk muffins at 4:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [17 favorites]

I was just complaining last week that it wasn't 1992 and I couldn't accessorize with a black velvet choker.
posted by Zophi at 4:27 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

I've been waiting for this day since the day in 1996 or so that I bought like 10 flannel shirts all at once.
posted by DU at 4:28 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'll always be grateful for 90s fashion. I was a chubby, self-conscious teenager in the 90s, but since we were all wearing flannels and loose-fitting jeans, I looked pretty okay.

Yeah, that's me now. Did the hipster thing, gained too much weight, and now I slouch around getting compared to J Mascis while not actually liking much 90s music and listening to a band that rips off Counting Crows. I'm pretty lame.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:29 PM on August 9, 2011

Hooray! Something that I can be nostalgic about! 3rd grade me COVETS these shoes.

I feel confident that a cousin of mine actually HAD those shoes. MUST FIND PICTURES.
posted by sc114 at 4:29 PM on August 9, 2011

I just want to figure out Patricia Arquette and Gwen Stefani. Were they friends? Did they have some sort of project together? Why aren't we still living in those days?
posted by psoas at 4:32 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I recently tried to watch some early X-Files episodes and found Scully's clothes to be WAY scarier than most of the monsters/aliens. 1990s lady suits are an affront against humanity.
posted by grapesaresour at 4:33 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

http://fashionisbullshit.com/
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 4:34 PM on August 9, 2011

yea the 90's for me are memorable for the 6" chunky platform heels that a human being could, you know, actually dance in all night at the goth clubs. I've been waiting fifteen years for them to come back in fashion.
posted by lonefrontranger at 4:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

And oh man....

I would pinch all the cutest kittens I ever encounter so hard they turn ugly, if only long cargo skirts would come back into style.

Give me some platform sneakers or boots to go under them and dammmmnnnn I'd be rocking it so hard you'd weep.
posted by Windigo at 4:35 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I thought this Lonely Island video was a pretty good sendup of/homage to 90s fashion trends.
posted by trunk muffins at 4:37 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

.......and a couple years ago I was complaining to a friend that I just can't wear high heels like I used to as a teen and in college. After a night in them my feet ache horribly. Back then, I could run around in the craziest heels all night AND all the next day without any pain whatsoever.

Then I realized that if you took away the platform part of the heels I wore back then, they had maybe a 1 or 2 inch heel at the most. No wonder.
posted by Windigo at 4:38 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I still wear the same basic ensemble I wore in the 90's.
posted by jonmc at 4:40 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

(baseball cap, loose fit jeans, pop-culture oriented t-shirt, plaid flannel, sneakers)
posted by jonmc at 4:43 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I swear I've already had this flashback scene with friends who are a decade younger than me about what the 90's were like.
posted by Windigo at 4:45 PM on August 9, 2011

I also notice that no one remembers the stacked men's haircuts of the early 90's. If you don't know what I'm referring to, check out Hugh Laurie in the Jeeves & Wooster TV series (Masterpiece Theatre) or Kenneth Branagh from Henry Vth.

Mullets and mall-hair are solidly 80s. quiffs and weight line cuts are what I remember every teen and 20something guy (and some riot grrls like myself) wearing back in tha day.
posted by lonefrontranger at 4:46 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

....I just noticed the calendar in the 'future' part of the strip I linked says July 2012. Heh.
posted by Windigo at 4:46 PM on August 9, 2011

I'm STILL waiting for big giant yo pants to cycle back around again. Those things were perfect for my stocky frame, also in the winter you could wear sweatpants under them. Then the 00's came and suddenly dudes are wearing girl jeans, and I have to buy wrangler cargos at Wal-Mart because no one makes black pants that aren't "slim fit".

Don't even get me started on t-shirts.

Also, the 90's had some of the best industrial music evar.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 4:47 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Mullets and mall-hair are solidly 80s.

I think you might have a bit of an achy-breaky memory.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:51 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I haven't gotten too far into this site, but so far I'm not seeing any of those annoying hats with sunflowers on them. I really hated those at the time.
posted by brundlefly at 4:52 PM on August 9, 2011

Those were called Blossom hats, because only Blossom ever wore them.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:54 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

(and I love the 90's since the way I had dressed since age 13 was suddenly fashionable-in some quarters-and I egaerly await the grunge revival)
posted by jonmc at 4:55 PM on August 9, 2011

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s.

In 2001, with the election shenanigans, stock market slide, and getting bilked by Texas energy companies, I was nostalgic for the 1990s already... even before September arrived.
posted by kurumi at 4:55 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

I gotta say, Robyn Lively looks horrible on Neil Patrick Harris.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:56 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

My style in the 90s would boil down to: "Fuck yeah, JNCOs, Karl Kani, Girbaud, GV2, South Pole, Bitch Shoes, Vans, Airwalk, Pure Playaz, Starter jackets, Alien Workshop, FUBU, cheap tight polyester tops paired with big ass pants, rubber bands for your jeans' hems, Chun-li buns, bindis and light lipstick with dark liner."

I'm about to throw out my blue tribal flame Sha Shas (the brothel creeper lookin' shoes most notably rocked by the lead singer of Lit that came with the hidden compartment in the soles called the "g-spot"?). If someone wants them, seriously, get in touch with me. Apparently they don't seem to make this particular model anymore.
posted by kkokkodalk at 4:58 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I still have a hard time grasping that the 90s have actually ended. Ever since the internet has been around things look and feel pretty much the same, apart from a certain dearth of peace and prosperity. Since about 1988 (the New Wave of New Wave anybody?) we just seem to be returning to and recycling the same things, in clothes, music, design, architecture... I can't think of anything that's essentially '90s' - even the grunge look was pretty familiar to anybody growing up with hardcore in the 80s (or growing up in small town Canada period)
Clotheswise, I still wear some of the clothes I wore in the 90s.
posted by Flashman at 4:59 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

jonmc: "I still wear the same basic ensemble I wore in the 90's."

Heh. Jeans, tee shirt, sneakers for me. Since the 70s.
posted by Splunge at 5:01 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

mall-hair

In the early years of this milennium I worked across the street from a huge mall. It had a barbershop. Down the corridor was a store that sold baseball caps. That probably was not a good sign.
posted by jonmc at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2011

Heh. Jeans, tee shirt, sneakers for me. Since the 70s.

My logic is that that outfit might not be fashionable, but it'll never be horribly unfashionable.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

My memory is just fine Sys Req.

I don't disagree that until about 1993 or so mullets and mall-hair were everywhere in the mainstream / midwest, but I distinctly recall every big-city scene-conscious GenXer in my tribe shaving off the party in the back right before Jesus Jones broke big.

hell half the reason for weightline cuts in the first place was to forget the part where the tail had ever existed. It was the same deal as burning all your embarrassing mash notes from high school when you left for college, and denying that you EVER listened to Duran Duran.
posted by lonefrontranger at 5:19 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I rocked this look so hard from about 1992-1996. Sometimes I switched it up with a cardigan instead of a blazer. Or a button down shirt with a tie ala Annie Hall. However, I always wore Converse All Star low tops. At one point, I had some covered in burlap. It may have been an ugly look... but boy, was it comfortable!
posted by kimdog at 5:19 PM on August 9, 2011

before Jesus Jones broke big.

why'd you have to dig them up? that song of theirs was annoyingly omnipresent for so long.
posted by jonmc at 5:21 PM on August 9, 2011

Ah, the 90's. I tell you what I truly don't miss is the perpetual camel toe that resulted from yanking up a pair of somewhat loose jeans and cinching the bejesus out of them with a thick faded leather belt.

And I don't think my midriff was covered from about 1993-1998. The high-waisted jeans cinching made it much less daring then you'd have thought however.
posted by Go Banana at 5:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I want mippy to come into this thread all fighty again. Adam Savage never does that.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 5:22 PM on August 9, 2011

I have a shameful secret! In 1996 or so, when I got my first real job, I realized that I probably shouldn't wear my denim overalls to work, so I went to some nice store (possibly Ann Taylor?) and bought a pair of linen overalls. Yeah. I wore linen overalls to work. I am amazed they didn't fire me on the spot.
posted by craichead at 5:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [9 favorites]

Well denim has been ironically back for a while.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure who Jesus Jones are, but they're touring Australia with The Wonder STuff and The clouds.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

get off my fucking lawn
posted by jonmc at 5:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [15 favorites]

Fans of TV's Supernatural - is this an early modeling job for Jared Padalecki, or just an eerie lookalike?
posted by Squeak Attack at 5:29 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

idk, the floppy hair and giant forehead look awfully familiar.
posted by elizardbits at 5:31 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just realized I have also been in the "jeans, T-shirt promoting some thing or other, sneakers" club for the last 20 years! Same hair for much of that time, too. Fashion oozes around me like oil around a drop of water. Not sure I can keep it up in my '40s, though.
posted by ignignokt at 5:32 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Dark matte lips and lip liner. Urban Decay. Plaid flannel shirts. Eyebrows tweezed almost to nothing. Sometimes false eyelashes. Backpacks that became smaller with time as lipstick became darker and more earth toned (to the point where I could use my eyebrow pencil as lipstick). High, chunky, platformed shoes. Little dresses with tights worn with the biggest, heaviest combat boots in the world. Hair thrown up in a loose twist/bun with deep side-parted bangs. Shag-like-layers and tiny twinkly barrettes. Comic book red hair. Essential oils. Silver rings on every finger.
posted by marimeko at 5:32 PM on August 9, 2011 [24 favorites]

Little dresses with tights worn with the biggest, heaviest combat boots in the world.... Comic book red hair....Silver rings on every finger.

This is pretty much how I dressed all through grad school. After I graduated it took me a little while to realize it probably wasn't a winning look for job interviews.
posted by scody at 5:34 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

In my mind the single most Nineties Only item of clothing is the pastel plaid sleeveless flannel shirt with a heather grey hood. In fact, not only is it Nineties Only, it can be pinned down to just 1993.


Joey Lawrence just asked me to tell you that there's nothin my love cant you shut the hell up!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 5:35 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

What's really depressing is that people are already nostalgic about the 90s.

Yes. That is truly depressing. We're in a depression. I remember back in the mid 90s, when I had money, I bought two pairs of jeans and an expensive shirt at the Versace boutique. The money I spent on that one purchase far exceeds the entire amount of money I have spent on clothing since the year 2000. And I have learned to sew, to repair my tattered, worn clothing that is mostly 10 years old or more. I always think this essay says it best:

The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.

That is extremely heavy news, and it will take a while for it to sink in. The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what's coming now. The party's over, folks. The time has come for loyal Americans to Sacrifice. ... Sacrifice. ... Sacrifice. That is the new buzz-word in Washington. But what it means is not entirely clear.

"When War Drums Roll" by Hunter S. Thompson, published 9/18/2001
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:39 PM on August 9, 2011 [21 favorites]

I've suffered through about 8 years of shiny, plastic 80s revival so I've been waiting for this.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:42 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

My wife and I just went through all 46 pages of this.

"Grunge pencils????"
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:43 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

chunky black shoes 4-eva!
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 5:46 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've suffered through about 8 years of shiny, plastic 80s revival so I've been waiting for this.

Aw, lucky! A lot of us had to suffer through the plastic eighties for a full ten years.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:07 PM on August 9, 2011

Last year I found awesome chunky black Mary-janes at a shoe outlet in Maine. Everyone else in my party told me how ugly they were, but I bought them anyway. I just realized the source of the disagreement: they were all born at the tail end of the baby boom. When I was rocking the chunky shoes in college they were all Scullied up in their work clothes. Weird what a difference 10 or so years can make!
posted by Biblio at 6:10 PM on August 9, 2011

Wait, but the 90s weren't twenty years oh god this is what it feels like.
posted by byanyothername at 6:15 PM on August 9, 2011 [31 favorites]

omg I miss chunky shoes so much
posted by nev at 6:18 PM on August 9, 2011

D'oh!

2011 − 1993 = 18 years, not 19. Still, though: OLD.

Thank you for politely pretending not to notice.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:26 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can i just point out Laver's Law?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Laver#Laver.27s_Law

Clothing will always look bad at certain intervals. What you look like now will be mocked like this was. Accept it.
posted by usagizero at 6:32 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Early 90's are really late 80's.

And the 90's to me are also the time when prior decades were sampled wholesale, just before the millenium wiped us all out.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:33 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh, I had a pair of sparkly leopard round-toed ankle-strap maryjanes from Steve Madden with enormous chunky platforms; I used to wear them with fishnets and the more neutral of my vintage dresses. I still have some Na-Han low platform maryjanes (from when that was a fancy fashionable brand that used nice leather) with big button fastenings. And horribly unflattering mid-calf platform boots, and a little black knit a-line dress with a white collar, and soviet surplus and scratchy wool vintage skirts and combats, so many pairs of combats. And burgundy things.

I remember the famous Vogue grunge issue...I never buy things out of magazines but I went right out and bought the Shiseido burgundy lipstick from that really famous Stephen Meisel spread.

I dyed my hair all the time and had about a million short hair cuts - drugstore bright reds and blonds plus lots of manic panic. And I had a nose ring that I did myself, and an eyebrow ring. And my punk backpack with all the patches and scribbles. And lots and lots of vintage suits and dresses because this was right before the prices went up and you could still get fifties dresses at the thrift store, a thing I have not seen in probably eight or nine years.

And striped tights.
posted by Frowner at 6:39 PM on August 9, 2011 [8 favorites]

people are already nostalgic about the 90s. Why?

Because the nostalgia/fashion cycle is about twenty years long. In the seventies the fifties were back in again, as someone pointed out. There was Grease, Happy Days, even M*A*S*H*. In the eighties Wonder Years was on the air and hippy-inspired looks were in was back in style. In the nineties, platform shoes and wide-legged pants were in again. And so on. I'm just glad we got through the '00s without too much eighties-inspired ugliness. The eighties were the ugliest decade of the 20th century.

Sure, some of the nineties trends were bad but some of it still looks good. Most of Elaine's clothes from Seinfeld still look pretty cute. And although the first couple of years of Scully's outfits on the X-Files were horrendous, they did improve after that as the show got popular and presumably had more money to spend on wardrobes (and special effects) and so much of what she wore in the mid to late nineties still looks amazingly sharp now, very simple and classic.
posted by orange swan at 6:42 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I lived in my Timberland boots in the 90s until they fell apart. And I saved up money for a suede jacket. Present day me just wants to slap 90s me.

And 2020 me is just waiting around the corner to kick Present day me in the balls.
posted by arcticseal at 6:47 PM on August 9, 2011

Laver's Law is interesting, but I think parts of it have stood up better than others.

For example, lots of people seem to think clothes from 1991 are "ridiculous", and those from 1981 "amusing". "Quaint" probably applies for 1961, and several others seem at least reasonable as well.

But are fashions from 2001 really "hideous"? I'm not sure if I could actually spot a person dressed in 2001 clothes from amongst a group of people otherwise dressed in clothes of today. I'm not exactly homed in on fashion trends, but still.

And on the flip side, what fashion of today would have been considered "indecent" in 2001? Or "shameless" in 2006?
posted by Flunkie at 6:47 PM on August 9, 2011

Clothing will always look bad at certain intervals. What you look like now will be mocked like this was. Accept it.

Why wait? I mock the whole skinny jeans and jeggings horror right now.
posted by aclevername at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2011 [8 favorites]

And on the flip side, what fashion of today would have been considered "indecent" in 2001? Or "shameless" in 2006?

A lot of young guys wear their jeans not just really low-waisted like in the late '90s, but completely below their ass and balls and everything. To the point that they're made an accessory more than an actual functional piece of clothing.

I think that would qualify.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:52 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Clothing will always look bad at certain intervals. What you look like now will be mocked like this was. Accept it.

The kids on my lawn in recent years have been wearing sunglasses with bright plastic rims that look like they came from the $2 Shop, along with fugly-as-all-fug hoodies in cartoony pyjama prints, along with skinny jeans.

It's fun watching this kind of stuff, thinking "oh, you are so going to CRINGE when you see photos of yourself in 10 years time" because when you're not the one following the fashions, from an outsider's perspective you can already see how damned ugly a lot of it is.

Little dresses with tights worn with the biggest, heaviest combat boots in the world.... Comic book red hair....Silver rings on every finger.

Hey, I used to resemble that - and I'm a guy. Wait, what was I saying just before...?
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:56 PM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm just glad we got through the '00s without too much eighties-inspired ugliness.

We clearly hung out in different circles.
posted by brundlefly at 6:59 PM on August 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

I'm just glad we got through the '00s without too much eighties-inspired ugliness.

We clearly hung out in different circles.

Yeah, the past 8 years have been nothing but horrible 80s clothes and music. I like the 50s thing, but I can't afford the styles the local rockabillies are wearing.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:05 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

But are fashions from 2001 really "hideous"? I'm not sure if I could actually spot a person dressed in 2001 clothes from amongst a group of people otherwise dressed in clothes of today.

Maybe I'm just not remembering 2001 clothing as distinctly as I can remember 1991 clothing or 1981 clothing? Was 2001 clothing really all that different from today's clothing?
posted by Flunkie at 7:14 PM on August 9, 2011

I mean, degree of pants-on-the-groundness aside.
posted by Flunkie at 7:15 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fittingly, I was looking for a picture of the red patent leather Airwalks I had circa 1995-6, only to find out that they were reissued this past February. God, I felt so awesome when I got these (I was ten years old, for reference).
posted by rebel_rebel at 7:15 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

I have been wearing polos and jeans my entire adult life. I miss the 90s because it wasn't impossible to find polos with vertical stripes, thus letting me take advantage of the slimming effect.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:18 PM on August 9, 2011

Wow, where did my Tuesday go?

This blog actually made me go to Wbay to see what people are selling the old Vuarnet t-shirts for. As it turns out, a lot.
posted by chemoboy at 7:20 PM on August 9, 2011

Well, shit. I'm in the middle of a tiring move and was about a day away from a virtuous purge of all my old magazines, and now I know I won't be able to go through with it.
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2011

My reaction to a blast from the past a moment ago: "What in the... ohhhh yeah, that's right: condoms."
posted by Flunkie at 7:27 PM on August 9, 2011

Dark matte lips and lip liner. Urban Decay. Plaid flannel shirts. Eyebrows tweezed almost to nothing. Sometimes false eyelashes. Backpacks that became smaller with time as lipstick became darker and more earth toned (to the point where I could use my eyebrow pencil as lipstick). High, chunky, platformed shoes. Little dresses with tights worn with the biggest, heaviest combat boots in the world. Hair thrown up in a loose twist/bun with deep side-parted bangs. Shag-like-layers and tiny twinkly barrettes. Comic book red hair. Essential oils. Silver rings on every finger.

flagged for What Terrible Erection Its Hour Come Round At Last Slouches Towards Memories Of High School To Be Born
posted by Greg Nog at 7:40 PM on August 9, 2011 [7 favorites]

i saw a young woman on the subway a couple of days ago, chelsea haircut, black fuck you boots, and the most beatufiul floating dress, i miss that look
posted by PinkMoose at 7:42 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've been exclaiming all year how weird it is to see my 90s clothes on teenage girls. And my exact mid-90s stacked-short-in-back haircut is everywhere.
posted by desuetude at 7:56 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Literally two days ago my husband was cleaning out the closet and found a pair of my giant platform sandals. I said they were out of style and told him to toss them into the Goodwill bag. Maybe I should hit eBay instead.
posted by nev at 7:59 PM on August 9, 2011

You can take my clunky enormous shoes when you pry them from my cold dead feet. I can run around all day in those things with boundless energy and no soreness.

Giant don't-fuck-with-me shoes paired with delicate little sundresses are the best thing ever. The best.
posted by cmyk at 8:16 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Wow, apparently people have actually managed to forget about Hypercolor.

Another bad 90s era t-shirt trend was "overprinting", basically silk screening an entire shirt, wrinkles and all.

And yet another were those really ugly "big shirts" with rhinestones and nonsensical abstract splotches of color or glitter all over them. People would tie them off to one side with a little plastic buckle thing which also often had cheap plastic rhinestones on 'em.

I know about these last two things because my dad's screenprinting company used to make them. Hundreds of thousands of them, maybe millions of the mall destined for K-marts, Walmarts and JcPenny's stores across the US.

We didn't invent the things, but we sure could make 'em cheap and turn out a lot of them. We bought rhinestones and E6000 fabric glue by the truckload. Ever see a 100 pound bag or box of rhinestones? Sparkly.

And the design process for those shirts was hilarious. There really wasn't one. It was just random splotches of color, or old clipart flowers or ribbons randomly arrayed on the shirt. We'd screen print that part and just glue on little ribbon flowers or rhinestones all over the place. The uglier the shirt the more likely the buyer would buy it for distribution to the stores. It was appalling and disturbing how many of those things we made and sold.
posted by loquacious at 8:16 PM on August 9, 2011 [7 favorites]

And the design process for those shirts was hilarious. There really wasn't one.

The fashion houses probably had an ISO standard design methodology - you guys were probably just rhinestone cowboys.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:23 PM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

I still wear those clothes - cause they still fit!
posted by BuffaloChickenWing at 8:24 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I got about four pages into it, then realized what I really wanted to do was go and read all the recaps of My So-Called Life over on TWOP, drink too many Rum and Jolts and then listen to Buffalo Tom while having the Spins.

I may also need to go and put a few small random braids in my hair
posted by peagood at 8:26 PM on August 9, 2011 [7 favorites]

143 comments and not one about Sutherland in a Canadian Tuxedo? For shame.
posted by chunking express at 8:39 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

BRING BACK HYPERCOLOUR AND ALSO YIN YANG BRAIDED SURFER WRIST BANDS
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:43 PM on August 9, 2011

Wow, apparently people have actually managed to forget about Hypercolor.

Back in high school I printed myself a fake Hypercolor t-shirt that didn't change colour - it just stayed a plain white t-shirt. Well, I thought it was funny.
posted by Flashman at 8:44 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

All clothes are ugly when viewed outside the context of current fashion.

I find that statement subjectively false. Current fashion is terribly ugly to me, as it's exceedingly unflattering to all but a select few body types and generally kinda dumb looking.
Those stupid skinny jeans may flatter the knees, but then bunch up at the ankles. 80's grade giant glasses are not flattering to most faces. Poofy short skirts don't do any favors for any body type, really. Tights with shorts and unchunkey high heels, just ugh, no, don't. Or just tights and shorts, please just don't. If it isn't actively making you look bad, it's making you look dumb, to me and my fragile flower sensibilities.
Perhaps this is because I had this sensibility shaped by those halcyon days of the mid-to late nineties when shirts and pants were looser, shoes were chunkier and vests (and pocket watches) were somehow pretty cool. To me there was more forgiveness and a flattering approach towards body types and a slightly more tailored sensibility. Now it seems that people just jam themselves into the hip new sausage casing regardless.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:54 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Don't know about the future, that's anybody's guess...

Who knew the Blossom theme was really about the fashion mistakes made within?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:19 PM on August 9, 2011

tylerkaraszewski: "The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit."

Sweet! I'm halfway there!
posted by narwhal bacon at 9:20 PM on August 9, 2011 [7 favorites]

Amusing. My favorite weirdo clothing trend of the 90s was the priest/monk look. Lots of long, drapey burgundy and black garments, with large rosaries and crosses.
posted by Miko at 9:22 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Actually this all looks fine to me. I'm ready for the 90s revival.

I'm continually incensed that at the time in my life when I had the youngest, most nubile body I will ever have, the fashion trend was for me to wear cutoff shapeless flannel shirts and fatigue pants and to look as thoughtlessly androgynous as possible. In retrospect, given the way young women today have returned to a happy embrace of their lissome sexuality, a waste.
posted by Miko at 9:25 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit.

"Clothing makes the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society." -- Mark Twain
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:26 PM on August 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

Well, fit wasn't always attractive. Sometimes, being naked and pale-ly fluid, Rubenesque, or otherwise looking like you didn't strain yourself at anything was hott.
posted by Miko at 9:28 PM on August 9, 2011

I was a HS senior in '93 and I remember a lot of bare skin on my female classmates. But I suspect it was just a rebellious teen thing because college was far more androgynous and chunky. Much to my disappointment.

And yeah, I did the math a couple of years back and realized my musical tastes are chronologically identical to the long haired hippy cook I worked with who was still listening to 70's rock in 1991. The copyright enforcement changes in '92 changed EVERYTHING.
posted by Kyol at 9:45 PM on August 9, 2011

Being born in '82 was so great in terms of proper age to enjoy certain '90s trends--the huge clunky bright buckled Mary Jane platforms and asskicking boots, what amounted to ultracolorful playclothes (lavender corduroy overalls represent), club kid childish accessories (toothbrush bracelets, sparkly pastel make up and stickers for your face, tiny stuffed animal backpacks, plastic heart-shaped frames, lollipops in your cargo pants' or overalls' side belt loop, plastic lunchboxes as purses...I remember Newsweek doing a handwringing "kids these days refuse to grow up" thing with side by side pics of like, Elizabeth Taylor elegant in pearls at 23 and Sandra Bullock or Gwen Stefani or someone like that in pigtails at 29), the whole "comic fantasy girl power cute-and-plucky-not-alluring-and-demure schtick (I remember Sabbath in Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater piggishly complaining about this, made me laugh). Sure it wasn't entirely unproblematic but I was just the right age to embrace it earnestly and optimistically and as others have mentioned I'd give anything to feel that generally positive and hopeful again after all that's changed since. I graduated and began college/living far from home on my own the year Bush was elected. I'm continually navel-gaze-y about how my general growing pains/disillusionment/loss of innocence was so closely timed with the country's.
posted by ifjuly at 9:47 PM on August 9, 2011

143 comments and not one about Sutherland in a Canadian Tuxedo? For shame.

That's a Toronto Tuxedo. Julia Roberts is rockin' the VanDTES Tuxedo!
posted by mannequito at 10:39 PM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I was a HS senior in '93 and I remember a lot of bare skin on my female classmates.

I graduated from university in 1994, and I do not remember bare skin. It was all flannel, baggy jeans (501's if you were lucky) and combat boots.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:45 PM on August 9, 2011

jonmc: "I still wear the same basic ensemble I wore in the 90's."

I still wear the same basic ensemble I wore in the seventies. Late seventies, mercifully.
posted by Decani at 10:56 PM on August 9, 2011

Stacked haircuts are known as 'curtains' in the UK. If you were a teenage boy and you wanted to be successful with the ladies, it was mandatory.

I was just saying last weekend that daily life was very similar really in 2001, but very different from 1997.
posted by mippy at 11:17 PM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Amusing. My favorite weirdo clothing trend of the 90s was the priest/monk look. Lots of long, drapey burgundy and black garments, with large rosaries and crosses.

Gothic? Not Goth, mind you, but Gothic. They were like Anne Rice Trekkers.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:22 AM on August 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh, and by the way - that Windows 95 video with Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWQgb015Lc
posted by dominik at 12:40 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry sure are likeable.

And I don't even mind their clothes.
posted by mazola at 1:59 AM on August 10, 2011

Do you know? This blog has actually put to rest some demons of mine. My family was too poor for food during my teen years in the 90s. I coveted most of the things featured. That it looks so stupid now kind of makes it all better.
posted by katiecat at 3:18 AM on August 10, 2011 [5 favorites]

Most of Elaine's clothes from Seinfeld still look pretty cute

Elaine dressed like a goddamn sisterwife for the first three years of Seinfeld.
posted by Diablevert at 4:34 AM on August 10, 2011 [6 favorites]

I lived through the '70s, the '80s, the '90s and the '00's.

The '70s were terrible at the leading and trailing edges of fashion, but not too bad in the middle. Questionable fabrics, too-tight or too-loose fits, overdone lapels and flared-leg pants were the worst one had to deal with if you weren't a style maven or trend follower. Awful ties.

The '80s were really two eras, Regan and Bush - Bush era was more sophisticated, but sillier. Not much sex appeal. Regan era was entirely facade - all appearances and no subtlety, sex was power, power was sex. Chromed plastic. They sneered at the '70s, but it was a cover for their own inauthenticity and impotence. Power-ties were the one bright spot.

The '90s - Comfortable fabrics, attractive fits, tasteful colors, sensible shoes. Never let their financial or artistic success go to their heads. A jeans an t-shirt decade, or at least khakis and solid-color polos. Colorful and interesting ties that went out of fashion after a week, and will be hot items in another 5 years.

The 00's - Like the '90s, only with uncomfortable S&M shoes, skinny jeans, Weird sneakers and ugly synthetic prints. Power ties, again.

Now - Steampunk making its way to the mainstream with the help of bicycle culture - tweeds and waxed mustaches, even for girls. Gonna be a weird one, hold onto your twill caps.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Now - Steampunk making its way to the mainstream with the help of bicycle culture - tweeds and waxed mustaches, even for girls.

That's actually a weird blend of SF and Pacific Northwest hipster fashion trends. It's part anarchist/gutter punk/new goth, part bicycle culture, part "free techno", part "freegan", part Burning Man and part "circus arts" culture. It's also heavily influenced by the "new American hobo" thing that's been going on for the past 10+ years. (We had a post about that a couple of years ago involving a pictorial essay of young rail-riding folks, and I'd somehow met most of the people in the pictures over the years.)

Stripes, Vaudeville, layers of shredded/patched denim. Dreadlocks and tattoos. Old greasy Carhartt's w/ suspenders. DIY or homebrew leather belts with a ton of utility pockets for phone, flask, smokes or pipe (hipster fanny pack), combat or hiking boots, striped tights, ruffled bloomers, slips or petticoats, recycled clothes, goggles, weird vintage hats... etc. Ragamuffin pirates, basically.

Another way to look at it is as post-apocalyptic. It's the uniform of choice for people getting their end of the world party going on - but Burning Man is a separate and much more expensive/commercial steampunk-like thing.

I don't see it really taking off in the mainstream, though I could be wrong. It's an inherently dirty/grungy look and style that says "I live in a co-op house full of artists and I could give a fuck about your mainstream economy. I found all these clothes in the trash and re-designed them myself."

Goddamnit, some stylist is going to read this and try to tap this "market". The following message is for them and them alone: Fuck you. Go buy some fancy new socks then stuff 'em in your face.
posted by loquacious at 6:19 AM on August 10, 2011 [12 favorites]

Every single time period in the history of clothing suffers from this same problem. All clothes are ugly when viewed outside the context of current fashion.

I'm pretty sure most cheap, mainstream fashion sucks, even in context, nowadays is the crappy faux-hipster cheap H&M look. Like someone mentioned already it's not hard to take a cursory glance at people and figure out what's gonna look embarrassing in pictures 10 years from now.

I'm no fashion expert, but there's always simple and classic-ish looks that are reasonably modern or updated that you can wear without going pretentious, look back at years later and not be particularly ashamed of.

The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit.

Nah, take a look here or here. Or just go with JFK or Jackie and you can't go wrong. I'd dubiously posit that good taste is mostly timeless, and generally subtle.
posted by palbo at 6:22 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Alright y'all are having far too much fun in this thread... allow me to drop an eXile bomb in it: 90 reasons to hate the 90s.

You are welcome.
posted by 7segment at 6:34 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

What about those jackets with the extra-long butt flap in back with your college's crew team name across the shoulders?
posted by wenestvedt at 7:28 AM on August 10, 2011

Loquacious just desrcibed how half my friends dress, like background characters in the league of extraordinary gentlemen.

As for tapping into the market, there's a strong DIY, keep money local current running through it, if I want something I have it commissioned, most items aren't that expensive, considering, and I'm helping a craftsman. Now there's a big change from the beginning of the last century.
posted by The Whelk at 7:38 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fittingly, I was looking for a picture of the red patent leather Airwalks I had circa 1995-6, only to find out that they were reissued this past February. God, I felt so awesome when I got these (I was ten years old, for reference).

Those were awesome. Maybe I'll buy some more.
What I really want is the Skechers combat boots I had back then. They were the fattest, stompiest simple combat boots I've ever seen, very plain yet shapely lace-ups with this extra-thick sole. I wore those things until they literally came apart, and now I can't even find a picture of them.

Ever see a 100 pound bag or box of rhinestones? Sparkly.

Ooh ooh! My hometown had a make-your-own T-shirt store that had bins and bins of rhinestones. You could pick out your T-shirt, choose which print you wanted them to put on the front, load up on rhinestones and E6000, and then even buy those plastic buckles. Some of those buckles came with empty slots for rhinestones, so you could pick which ones you wanted!

I have seen no mention in this thread of ridiculously long necklaces, which were also a fashion thing.
posted by heatvision at 7:38 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't see it really taking off in the mainstream, though I could be wrong.

Oh, far too late, it already has. I am still shocked that it moved from a fringe/underground / subculture thing which honestly has been around for ages to being a viable, promoted, somewhat commercialized, widely adopted fashion trend.

ridiculously long necklaces, which were also a fashion thing.

Yes, which started with Madonna in the early 80s but continued on, and went really well with the monk look. Insanely long pearls, knotted 2/3 of the way down.

Another vernacular fashion trend in the early 80s was cutting vertical ribbons into your t-shirt to the midriff, then threading pony beads on them in patterns.
posted by Miko at 7:45 AM on August 10, 2011

The only way to be timelessly attractive is to be naked and fit.

Even then, much of the time, not so much.
posted by aught at 7:47 AM on August 10, 2011

Now there's a big change from the beginning of the last century.

Although not so much from the beginning of the last last century.

I can't believe there are so few images of those pony bead t-shirts. The best I can do is this mommy blog where the daughter is modeling hers.
posted by Miko at 7:48 AM on August 10, 2011

7segment: "Alright y'all are having far too much fun in this thread... allow me to drop an eXile bomb in it: 90 reasons to hate the 90s.

You are welcome."

You are not thanked. That was trash.
posted by Splunge at 7:49 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah elements from the " steam punk " look have been creeping into the mainstream for a while now, but the shock troops on the front line of fashion are casting wider nets. I'm a big fan of the super bright, super shiny, super glam, super plastic look The Kids have going on. As soon as they introduce paisley to the men we can finally get that Carnaby Street look revival I've been hoping for.
posted by The Whelk at 7:51 AM on August 10, 2011

There has to be a torrent for this somewhere...

Torrent, hell. This mess is on the Youtube. Unless you're looking for a cleaner copy you can burn to DVD and give to all your friends or something.

"Taskbar and email and shortcuts, oh my!"
posted by aught at 7:52 AM on August 10, 2011

You don't see many women with chunky kids barrettes in their chunky bob haircuts any more.
posted by Miko at 7:52 AM on August 10, 2011

Although not so much from the beginning of the last last century.


I like how the Internet is partially responsible for brining the arts and crafts movement if not to life, then at least in a deep vegetative state.
posted by The Whelk at 7:52 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Actually it's the long shadow of Alexander McQueen that hangs over my fashionable friends, it's gonna be a long time before they shake off the trappings. Maybe it'll be the visual shorthand for this era, layer, assuming we're not eaten by ravenous birds.
posted by The Whelk at 7:55 AM on August 10, 2011

( also the guys in Miko's first link " Its" are awesome performers and people and deserve a FPP)
posted by The Whelk at 7:56 AM on August 10, 2011

Ah here it is, if I had to say what current Stylish looks like, it looks like Style Like U
posted by The Whelk at 7:58 AM on August 10, 2011

I'm a big fan of the super bright, super shiny, super glam, super plastic look The Kids have going on.

80's retro, already on the outs. Very realistic fake mustaches paired with a cycling cap - for women - is the new style trend that makes me feel old and fuddy-duddy. Was literally shocked the first time I saw it, and bewildered the second. Kind of awesome, tho.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:00 AM on August 10, 2011

although the first couple of years of Scully's outfits on the X-Files were horrendous, they did improve after that as the show got popular and presumably had more money to spend on wardrobes (and special effects) and so much of what she wore in the mid to late nineties still looks amazingly sharp now, very simple and classic.

I chalked up that change not to the popularity of the show, but to Gillian Anderson -- who'd been a total nobody when they hired her -- finally having enough clout to sit Chris Carter and the wardrobe person down and say "We need to have a talk."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:39 AM on August 10, 2011

You know. I saw quite a few in there that I didn't think were all that horrible, and I'm 99% sure I still own a handful of things from the very late 90s (Plaid came back, oh yes it did!).

After all, the ones of "normal" people who aren't buying into any sort of obvious branded fad seem to look fairly decent. I suppose this is why I can't remember ever regretting a purchase from Lands End or LL Bean. You rarely look fantastic, but you also never look back and cringe.

Of course, some of these had to have been 'WTF' fashions even at the time.

Also, the phrase "mall hair" made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that.
posted by schmod at 8:50 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Somebody call David Byrne!

_{If you don't get it...}
posted by schmod at 8:52 AM on August 10, 2011

7segment: "Alright y'all are having far too much fun in this thread... allow me to drop an eXile bomb in it: 90 reasons to hate the 90s.

"72. Chicks Who Take Self-Defense Courses

The Sham: Everyone from progressives to grrls to yuppies and Middle American corporate wives jumped aboard the Women’s Self Defense Training bandwagon, prepared to rip out the eyes or balls of any rapist who dared get near them. But we’ve got some truly scary news for you: NO ONE WANTS TO RAPE YOU."

Um, what kind of paper is The eXile? I haven't come across it before, it might be operating on a level of irony only cats can detect, but that could be c+p'd from Maddox.
posted by mippy at 9:31 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm a big fan of the super bright, super shiny, super glam, super plastic look The Kids have going on.

You're lucky. You know what the biggest trend of the 10s is in the UK just now? Pyjamas as streetwear. And it's not as delightfully louche as you're currently picturing it.
posted by mippy at 9:32 AM on August 10, 2011

I just want babydoll dresses and combat boots to come back. That's all I ask.
posted by litnerd at 9:49 AM on August 10, 2011

I was going through a bag of clothes not too long ago and found the babydoll dresses I made back in 1992. One was yellow with little monkeys and elephants on it, the other was sky blue with a black Celtic cross-stitch design across the neckline.

I WISH SO MUCH THAT THESE FIT, DAMMIT.
posted by Lucinda at 10:05 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

(Looks down at feet)

Oh god I've been wearing chunky black shoes for 22 years straight now. (Not the same pair, but the general sort of style preferred by someone who was sort of goth in 1989 and sort of indie in 1992.) Can I pretend they're back?

(On a recent trip to London & Paris I made a point of looking at the shoes of fashionable women, and 90% of them were wearing sort of modified ballet flats, with *slightly* more substantial soles and a variety of colors & textures. Some were cute, but they just looked SO flimsy to me - my toes got nervous. Two decades of wearing chunky shoes will give your feet a sense of security.)
posted by lisa g at 10:15 AM on August 10, 2011

I totally hated those swimsuits called 'French cut'! Not a good look, even if your body is 'perfect' I used to go in the pool with those and a matching swim trunk, just to feel like my lady bits had the proper coverage. The only time I even was in a pool in the 90's was at my friend's place out in the sticks.

I hated platform shoes from their first appearance in the 70's because I have delicate ankles. To walk in those things was torture, and they drove normal shoes I could wear out of most stores. I had to getmy shoe in thrift stores. Thank you designers. You made my personal list of people to be ethnically cleansed.
As for the eXile, those guys need to quit talking smack about Bosnia. They don't know what they are talking about. Maybe they do it so they can stay in Russia.
Other 90's evil, actually most of the available music on both AM and FM radio seriously sucked, and offended me. This really was the case 70's thru 90's in my considered opinion.
Stuff I find icky now, those shiny, wide knee-length shorts on males. They look like skirts from behind. The Black Eyed Peas, especially the 'My Humps' song... Sooo icky.
I confess to having a discreet, self installed nose ring. Not a hoop, a silver stud.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:24 AM on August 10, 2011

As soon as they introduce paisley to the men we can finally get that Carnaby Street look revival I've been hoping for.

Panic at the Disco tried it in 2008. Didn't really take.
posted by cereselle at 10:33 AM on August 10, 2011

I would simply like to once again register my displeasure that the word "rock" has apparently largely displaced the word "wear" in certain circles.
posted by adamdschneider at 10:35 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh god I've been wearing chunky black shoes for 22 years straight now.

I haven't stopped wearing mine either. My pair of Mary Jane Docs is still the most comfortable pair of shoes I own, almost 20 years later.
posted by Miko at 10:46 AM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

I specifically saved some of my favorite clothes for my future children. I was fully into the 90s but I mostly shopped at thrift stores for weird looks that most people looked at funny.

I couldn't do the heavy platform shoes because I have teeny little ankles and back then my legs looked like spaghetti noodles. If I wore clunky shoes I looked ridiculous. I made up for it by wearing stacked heeled maryjanes. Loved those shoes.

Not much about my style has changed. Now I wear jeans and T-shirts, then I wore jeans and T-shirts. I recently retired my U2 Pop Mart concert shirt that I got from an old boyfriend because it was so full of holes. I buy jeans that fit my body now, not the style of the time. That's really the only difference.

*****

I dress up in 1860s styles for historical teaching and there are so many rules to follow. I have to be really careful with what I wear because I don't want to misrepresent the time to the people who are looking at me as an example.

One of the things I often say to myself is that I'm thrilled with the time I live in now. I can wear whatever I want and nobody will say a word. I could dress straight out of the 1920s with a 1970s twist and nobody would think anything of it. (Other than maybe questioning my mental health. And really, I'm used to that.)

There seems to be a sub-genre for everything. Even dressed in my full Civil War outfit I could just tell people I was into Steampunk and nobody would question it. 1940s? Rockabilly. 1960s? Mad Men. 1980s? Hipster. I can be anything.
posted by TooFewShoes at 10:50 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

These are my daily-wear shoes, enormous fuck-you bluey-purple motorcycle boots that have straps and buckles and a worn spot on the side from the corner of the brake pedal in a car they outlasted. They were eight bucks at a thrift shop. They've been through rain, snow, mud, hurricanes, babies, puppies, museums, Disney, subways, swamps, beaches, and floods. Got compliments from some drag queens at a friend's wedding when I put my civvies back on after the shindig, too.

This summer marks the ten-year anniversary of My Awesome Shitkickers And Me. I'm going to have them resoled to mark the occasion.
posted by cmyk at 11:12 AM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Miko wrote: Oh, far too late, it already has.

That's the higher-end and more Burning Man-slash-steampunk thing I was talking about, but it doesn't capture the urban nomad / gutterpunk / new hobo thing.

Some of faux-steampunk look is actually borrowing/stealing from the "new American hobo" or "circus art kids" kind of thing I'm talking about that's going on in SF and the PNW, and is all spiffied up and more polished.

The real deal is very much dirty, unwashed and suitable for dumpster diving or going dancing to some crunk or booty bass all night, or shifting straight into a punk show, or whatever.

The thing is it's much less of a marketable style than anyone would think it is. It's highly individualized by the wearer. They make their own clothes or recycle old clothes into stuff that fits their body and their own activities. Some girls are more feminine with petticoats and skirts - others stick with pants, cut up overalls, cut-off never-washed Carhartt's over tights and suited for wrenching on a veggie-oil burning truck.

The people I'm talking about literally liveon the road in these multi-layered outfits. Often the outer "tough" layer is never, ever washed. The inner layers are washed, but it could be a long time between washing.
posted by loquacious at 11:42 AM on August 10, 2011

My pair of Mary Jane Docs is still the most comfortable pair of shoes I own, almost 20 years later.

I got those same Docs 20 years ago! (Though sadly I don't still have mine...)
posted by scody at 12:22 PM on August 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sup, 1996 Anthony Weiner?
posted by epersonae at 12:43 PM on August 10, 2011

At some point everything atomizes to the individual anyway. Our constructs are just clumsy useful groupings. That's why I also bow out of genre-dicing music discussions, usually.
posted by Miko at 1:05 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

epersonae: "Sup, 1996 Anthony Weiner?"

at least he is wearing pants
posted by I am the Walrus at 1:32 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

When do we get nostalgic about 90s movies?

I read the links and thought, I haven't seen Reality Bites or Singles in, like, forever.
posted by I am the Walrus at 1:34 PM on August 10, 2011

Oh man I just had an idea for an outfit that is basically the casual wear of Emporer Ali Baba of Bartertown.
posted by The Whelk at 1:57 PM on August 10, 2011

I have a few pairs of those ballet shoes, lisag. I have massive clumsy feet, but I go with leather ones with a decent rubber sole (Clarks, please don't stop making tje Cocoa Creme) and I can wander round in them all day.

I don't wear docs these days - my feet are too tender and they look huge in them - and when I wore nine-holes recently it was like walking in diving boots. And I preferably certain chunkiness in my boots these days.
posted by mippy at 2:17 PM on August 10, 2011

The summer of '92 I was an orientation leader at Ithaca College. Most days we had to wear white shorts and our official orange polos, but on the evenings that the parents had the wine and cheese reception we had to dress nicely. In anticipation of this I sewed myself 2 dresses. One was a flannel baby doll dress patterned with breakfast foods and spatterware coffeepots. The other was this obnoxiously colored sort of geometric paint splattered jersey sack. Both were worn with leggings and what we called "pilgrim shoes." I had a bob haircut that was shaved on the underside and may still have been rocking a braided tail clipped with an old baby barrette. It's been 19 years since that summer and I still wish I had my breakfast dress!
posted by Biblio at 2:26 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I realized, again, that I really miss my Reebok Pump hiking (?!) boots that I got the summer before I went away for college in '92. When mom took me shopping for boots I could wear for the camping part of orientation, those were the only ones that fit my ludicrously skinny ankles. They were so comfortable.

(Biblio, if you'd been my orientation leader, I'd've thought you were the Coolest Thing Ever. Also, I'm pretty sure "bob haircut that was shaved on the underside" is the haircut mr epersonae's been trying to talk me into for years and years. He also thinks I look adorable in denim overalls.)
posted by epersonae at 3:00 PM on August 10, 2011

What about 90's Hair Styles?

Both the "bad" and the "good" examples feel really Midwest Shopping Mall fashion in the late 90's instead of "what was iconic in the '90's."

Nothing, really... I had this conversation with a coworker; there are too many subcultures to have an across-the-board "this is what people wore in the '90s" and there really wasn't an iconic subculture (versus, for example, the '50s - rich white urban people, when people think about '50s fashion, or whatever)
posted by porpoise at 6:41 PM on August 10, 2011

what we called "pilgrim shoes."

Sigh....you just reminded me of a pair of pilgrim-style shoes I had. AND the double-strap with metal stud cheapo Mary Jane shoes that got destroyed when I got caught in a mosh pit at a Mojo Nixon concert. AND the skirt that I made out of an old Peanuts bedsheet. AND the silver-toed buckle shoes. AND the bright yellow Osh Kosh B'Gosh short overalls. AND how I used to put temporary tattoos on a shaved part of my head right near my ear. AND how I'd wear Swiss Army knives as necklace pendants.

I need to go weep silently for a while now
posted by Lucinda at 6:48 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

there are too many subcultures to have an across-the-board "this is what people wore in the '90s" and there really wasn't an iconic subculture (versus, for example, the '50s - rich white urban people, when people think about '50s fashion, or whatever)

Even that is an illusion, a flattening caused by the distance in time. There were loads of subcultures in the 50s as well, and both primary sources and my own relatives can very finely distinguish between the various social groups, regions, etc (greasers, beats, debs, heads, "young marrieds" etc). Pop culture tends to promote one or two strong images over the full complexity that there was.
posted by Miko at 7:54 PM on August 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

Oh god, that site! The Rachel and the Ceasar really were that popular, honestly. AS was the severe short "I'm so serious" Michelle Shocked haircut.

I also remember that it was in the early 90s that men's facial hair came roaring back from the 80s stubble desert. There was a lot of experimenting with facial hair styles, and it was like there was a different goatee of the month for a while. Gradually it would appear on a friend's face and slowly migrate across a social group until everyone sported the same goatee. Then it would slowly morph again.
posted by Miko at 7:56 PM on August 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

That bit put me off as well, mippy.
posted by Put the kettle on at 10:54 AM on August 11, 2011

I don't really see any huge difference in the fashions worn in the pictures of ordinary people from the 90s. And the photos of celebrities and models from the period show clothing that would have been seen as outlandish by contemporaries.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 9:55 AM on August 12, 2011