Vintage Collection: 1990's

Early 1990s fashion was largely an extension of popular fashions of the late 1980s. The 1990s was a casual era of jeans and T-shirts and the idea of anti-fashion where no particular trends dominated and people wore whatever they felt like.

Day-to-day:

In the early 90s women were most often seen sporting casual attire, often featuring oversized sweatshirts or T-shirts over drainpipe jeans, tartan skirts or baby doll dresses with a dark denim jacket. The heavy metal and new wave movements were replaced in 1992 by the hip hop and Grunge influence and Goth and Punk fashion prevailed. Young girls wore fluorescent tops and skirts in a variety of colours or oversized clothes. Towards the middle of the decade women briefly looked to the 1960s and 1970s for inspiration and the hippie look was somewhat resurrected characterised by gypsy blouses, floral maxi dresses and skirts and turtleneck jersey tops. Young girls continued with the informal look but ditched the fluorescent instead opting for more understated colours like brown, maroon and deep purple for crop tops, combat trousers, capri pants and ponchos. Many women choose stonewash jeans, tartan skirts and trainers or an unkempt look of dungarees with one strap undone. The casual look continued throughout the decade and by the end of the 90s the British chav subculture began to emerge which pushed the casual wear to the limits with fleeces, jogging bottoms or track suits being worn as daily attire.

Brands and Couture:

In the mid 1990s many women in America and Europe wore designer clothes with large emblems or labels depicting labels like Chanel, Armani, Gucci or YSL to portray an aura of wealth. Towards the end of the decade Alexander McQueen had influenced women everywhere to wear low slung jeans and trousers and Ugg the boot craze began to appear.

Beauty and Accessories:

Headscarves, leggings with white slouch socks, court shoes and cowboy boots were all popular accessories in the early 90s. Hair was usually worn smooth and straight and sometimes with a blunt fringe, the ‘Rachel’ haircut, inspired by Jenifer Anniston’s character in the hugely popular Friends sitcom, was widely asked for in salons. Scrunchies and headbands were still worn as in the 80s often with hair pulled into a side pony tail. Large hoop ear rings were all the rage in many different colours but particularly pastel. The mid 90s gypsy look brought about straw hats, wedge shoes and shell necklaces. By the end of the decade with R&B and Jungle music becoming more mainstream women often wore thongs protruding from low rise jeans.