Talk:1990s in fashion

Untitled 2011 comment
I'm very surprised no one ever listed the overalls, I remember lots of kids wearing them up until early 2000's when my school banned them since they would easily fit a bomb in them. Oh and practically every show and commercial that featured kids/teenage girls overalls were at least a part of their wardrobe. - VampDeLeon — Preceding unsigned comment added by VampDeLeon (talk • contribs) 23:19, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

pointy toed shoes instead of rund toes onhigh heels came into dominance.

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Everthing in the article was relevant to the topic and nothing distracted meKameronj4444 (talk) 04:00, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

also it skips over mentions of acessories like ran bans sunnies, fluros with were still popular, the mullet and perms were still huge, hip hop clothing, boob tubes, short shorts on men the 90's was the last they were ever seen. stone wash jeans. its really ahrd ot decribe the really significnat patterning of thinsg in the 90's but this picture ofs the saved by the bell cast pretty much nails it. Is there a word for the kooky picasso kind of style they did all tv sets fabrics and the rest in back in the ninties, it was incredably bold, and not fluros so much as bold coulors geometrically broken down. backwards basball hats became a pretty huge fashion statement. what about scrunchies (fabric covered hair ties)

that was early ninities and them we moved into the stuff you would see on freinds.

i agree with the below coment that this article skims over the most important trends in causal ware, i dont knw why it is so hard to decribes the trends because everyoen has acess to a miliion and one vidoe clips from that time.



This page really needs to be written with a cohesive overview of the important fashion trends and the reason and social importance. instead this is a list of teen trends with a very american bias which has no context.Jocasta shadow 18:57, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Without a doubt, this is the worst wikipedia article I have ever read.

Why is that?Wikioogle=world take over 03:42, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

This article needs some section headers. Churchh 05:28, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
 * And some images. Gflores Talk 16:41, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

This article is refering entirely to fashion in the United States, yet it makes no mention of that. The article should either be renamed (1990s fashion in the United States) or just outright deleted for lack of sources or research. Frito

Reply to Frito
As the original author of this article, I state that it was not my intention to refer only to fashion in the Unired States. It was, however, my intention to deal with western casual fashion. Too many histories of fashion focus on business/formal wear, and major fashion designers, while neglecting much of the casual wear that people actually wore on a daily basis. Also, having been born in 1980, my recollection of 1990s fashion is stinted towards casual fashion that I remember my friends wearing. That and tv shows that showed casual fashion from the 1990s. For example, Full House

Proposal for Page organization
I think it is virtually impossible to write an article like this. What this article should be is simply a listing of some of the fashion trends that occurred during the 1990's and provide links to the Wikipedia article covering that trend. Suggested items that are "90's fashion" ... rave wear, grunge, lounge, riot grrrl, hip-hop bling, The Rachel haircut, the waif look (Kate Moss), supermodels, implants (Pam Anderson), cleavage, Spice Girls, return of bell bottoms, flares, J. Crew, The Gap the list goes on. Each of these can stake a claim as having been important to 90's fashion. Konky2000 18:27, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * also, the tendency of this article to provide specific dates for when certain trends began is somewhat ridiculous. The start of many of these trends is very regionally dependant, so acting as if it is a known fact that tie-dyed became popular again in 1988 is kind of crazy. Konky2000 18:31, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

You make a good point. However, what's really lacking is what inspired the diverse trends in the first place. Leaving the social/cultural context out of fashion ignores why anyone wears anything at that moment. History led up to this point and passed it on. People don't just follow a trend because a rack of it exists at the mall. Especially during the early-mid 90s. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 19:03, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Reply to Konky2000
I believe in writing articles in paragraph form. I accept that not all fashion trends have been covered in the article yet. Those fashions that were only regional/underground don't need to be covered. It is after all only an encyclopedia article. What is absent from this article at the moment is any mention of adult/professional styles, and this needs to be added.

The dates I've provided in the article are my best understanding of when given fashions entered the "mainstream", rather than being regional or underground fashions. For example, Grunge was a regional/underground fashion in the pacific northwest (seattle) from as early as 1986, but it didn't enter the mainstream until 1992. Tim Kennelly 17 July, 2006.

fin de siecle
what this article and the other ones on fashion history needs is some academic rigor and input. however it seems that the title late 1990's fin de siecle keeps on being deleted. is this because nobody understands it or is it considered too highbrow?

at the moment these pages seem little more of a list of...then we wore red shoes, then we wore big braces, then the next teend was big buttons..etc. these seem to be no anaylsis or academic depth. what we dont need is every fashion trend that emerged in the 1990's, what this needs is clarity and unity. your thoughts please. The heading fin de siecle could aply to american, european and eastern fashion developments during this period.Jocasta shadow 09:14, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

I deleted fin de sciecle because I didn't think it fit the existing organization of the article into three sections: The early 1990s (1990-1992), The Grunge era(1992-1995), and Late 1990s (1995-1999). I have kept the content you posted under fin de sciecle, as I don't want to seem too controlling of the article (deleting all other peoples contributions). That said, I didn't like that what you wrote focused almost exclusively on highbrow "runway" fashion, and not what people actually wore. Tim Kennelly August 28, 2006.

Parachute Pants
The Paracute pants from the early 90's looked more like the pants worn by [|MC Hammer], not the ones used as a photo in the article. Tim Kennelly
 * Shrug. I went to the link on Parachute pants and pulled over the image from there.  If the image does nto fit, please feel free to remove it.  I was just trying to satisfy a request for images.  Shrug.  I'm far from a fashion expert, and really only have this page watched because of some category work I was doing touched it many, many months ago. :) - TexasAndroid 20:25, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

And yet there was a trend of 80s inspired parachute pants from the early-mid 80s that came back in style towards the later 90s.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 18:25, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Original research
I just added the original research tag on the article. This article has a lot of good information, but has zero sources -- it seems to me that it's all original research, which is against Wikipedia policy. Let's try to get this information sourced appropriately. Schi 19:24, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

It's not original research, it's stolen verbatim from this website: http://www.apparelsearch.com/definitions/Fashion/1990_Fashion_History.htm Recommend delete and start over, serious copyright violation. Boo! Sleazy. ~ Otterpops 00:33, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Globalize tag
I've added the globalize tag, as the article concentrates on North American fashions, not western fashions as the author suggests earlier on this page. The article contains many trends which barely existed outside North America. Also, some of these trends may have had different names in other countries. Its fine to have an article about North American fashion in the 1990s, but the name would need to be changed to reflect this.

I agree that the sources need to be verified. Also, it would be useful for the article to state where these trends come from. For instance, in many cases they may have been popular among a subcultural movement, and then would have been championed by a a famous designer, which resulted in the trend becoming mainstream. Misspenny 09:34, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Totally agreed. If it's named "1990s in fashion", it should at least be mindful that it will eventually need to include fashion trends from around the world, not just Western or U.S. fashion trends (even if there's nobody interested in writing those sections right now).  If the article will never cover those other topics, then it should be changed to "1990s in Western fashion" or "1990s in U.S. fashion".  --Interiot 12:33, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

This article is already within the category History of Western Fashion. As such it does not need to reflect a worldwide view of the subject. I do think it's valid to discuss whether we want to place the word "western" in the tile of all the article in this category. However, as that discussion involves multiple articles, it would need to be brought up on the discussion page for the category.Librarylefty 02:51, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Not a bad start
The article is not a bad start to the fashion or clothing styles of the 1990s at least in the United States and to some extent 1990s western fashion in general. There needs to be more sources, but the fashion trends mentioned are in fact well known for the era. Azalea pomp 21:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Reference tag
I just added a reference tag. Not one cited statment in the whole article right now. Plus I can't get over how much it looks and sounds like original research as well. --Xiahou 01:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

train wreck
I don't know where to start. The article needs an absolute and complete rewrite. Its one giant heap of unsourced original research sounding fluff. The topic is desereved of an article so deletion isn't an option yet I don't know where to begin to fix it. I feel like going through and adding {fact} tags after just about every generalized statment. Peakcock words you name it. Any help on where to begin on this. Without some kind of sourced foundation I am stuck. --Xiahou 21:50, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

What point are the fact tags meant to convey? Librarylefty 00:23, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * the the sentence/statement before it needs some citation. --Xiahou 00:37, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't like how the article looks now, and theres no talk about the left over 80's fashions of the early 90's, just grunge stuff. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.118.121.24 (talk) 16:19, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

70s Revival
To me this section is the most problematic of the entire article. There was, to my recollection, a revival of late 70s/disco style fashions 1996 with orange and yellow shirts, shiny collared shirts for men, floral print blouses for women, white and brightly coloured flared-leg pants, flared-leg jeans, platform shoes/chuky heels, ect. Think of the clothes that Scott Weiland (lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots) wore in the Stone Temple Pilots video for their song Big Bang Baby as an example of this look (though there were other varieties of this look as well). This look is seperate from the Hippy Revival styles from earlier in the 90s, even though the hippy era styles originally straddled the boundary between the late 60s and early 70s.

The way the 70s revival section is written, it doesn't make the distinction between the hippie and disco styles, and seems to imply that the disco inspired fashions were coming back into style in the early 90s. Maybe they were on the runways, but not on the streets from my recollection. I have a problem with fashion histories that claim a certain look was "in style" when the only place it could be found was on the runways at high end fashion shows, and among the select cricles of people who buy these clothes. Librarylefty 09:20, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't believe the 70s revival was a high end fashion movement in the beginning anyhow. A lot of early 90s alternative fashion came from 'club wear' or 'on the street' that the fashion industry had to catch up with. The same could be said for music at that time. I think it's important to mention that as diverse as the trends were towards the beginning of the decade, these trends were subsumed by 'the coporate powers that be' towards the middle of the decade. It is at this time where you start to see a plainer, more uniform look emerging for the rest of the decade. By that time the fashion industry was calling the shots again, as well as the Music Industry. Look at films like Party Monster which depicts 1991-1992 Limelight club in New York for fashion trends of 70s/disco inspired clothing. Contrast this with Cindy Crawford on the cover of Vogue at the time. Velvetine fitted dresses? A basic continuation of what the 80s had brought earlier. Muscially it was Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer vs. Lalapalooza. Throw back styles were bought in second hand shops with late 60s/early 70s logowear and t-shirts that depicted anything from that era. These were Not high fashion items and were not being worn to be ironic as Hipsters would do now. It was giving the finger to the repressive 80s in many ways. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 18:49, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Spread of fashion
Another problem with this article is for example within the united states it takes trends time sometimes a year or more to make its way to the midwest. Often Ive seen on tv when something is supposedly in and popular on the coasts its not even in stores in the great plains yet. So putting years for times when something is popular you are saying its popular but not where and to whom. Or saying when it went out when others still think its popular. Heck isn't the word popular relative? Also

Should the title be Western Europe and US fashions. What countries follow this fashion or follow their own which with such a broad title could legit be added. Another problem for a troubled article. --Xiahou 23:56, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

With any trend, there are generally four stages of adoption of the trend, usually following a bell curve or variation thereof. The four stages are 1) The avant-garde, who adopt a trend before it reaches the mainstrem; 2)the early mainstream, who adopt a trend as it is establishing itslef in the mainstream; 3)The late mainstream, who adopt a trend once it is firmly established in the mainstream; and 4)The laggards, who do not adopt a trend until large sections of the mainstream consider it to be over. I think it's appropriate to give the year for when we consider a fashion trend to enter the mainstream, meaning the early mainstream crowd has adopted the trend. The certain geographic regions don't adopt a trend until the late mainstream phase should not prevent us from giving dates when a trend entred the mainstream and was adopted by the early mainstream crowd. Librarylefty 08:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Having been very fashion concious at this time frame, I think you have post dated a lot of material, since the 70s revival was back early on in the 90s. In 1993, Ricky Lake proclaimed on her show, "the 70s are back!". Even she was slightly behind the times then. By then there were already granny shoes and peasant gowns everywhere on the street. I lived and do live in New York City which no doubt has an effect on what date something happened, but in general I feel your dating is too late. Also leaving out raver trend wear as well as uniform wear, adidias/sweat wear and several other trends that happened before and around 95, not to mention jewelry trends, beads esp., accessories from then is another omission that made 90s styles iconographic around what you term the grunge era. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 18:02, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

advent of "Babydoll"
This article should mention the rise of the kinderwhore/babydoll dress fashion that occurred in the 90's. However briefly it was in style, it is relevant enough to get a mention because of its relationship with the riot grrrl movement and the rise of aggressive female rock bands in the 90's (also, some designers created clothing inspired by the kinderwhore look), so it holds some cultural importance. Blackmorningsun 04:17, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Agree. The kinderwhore/Babydoll Dress look became popular alongside the grunge look, much in the same way that the riot Grrrl bands achieved some success alongside the grunge bands. Courtney Love was one of the most notable people to wear this style. Librarylefty 08:26, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Ageed also. The point here being a deconstructionist view on fashion by riot grrrls in general. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 18:11, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

The "Rachel" Cut
My understanding is that the "Rachel" cut was the haircut worn by Jennifer Aniston during the first two seasons of the sitcom Friends (1994-1995, 1995-1996), in her role as Rachel. Another user, Patpooch2, removed the sentence about the "Rachel" cut, claiming that the term refers to the haircut that Jennifer Aniston had in 1999-2000. I have reverted his edit, as I believe I have read about the "Rachel" cut being the earlier cut. If Patpooch2 or anyone else has information to the contrary, I would invite them to bring it forward. Librarylefty 23:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I have to disagree with the Rachel cut being 'the trend' at the time. Women did not dye fringe bangs like she did at that time. That trend happened much later. Hair color was largely undyed with the exception of some punks of course. Complete natural tones were the norm, with hair having minimal volume and worn simply parted in the middle and hanging slack to both sides,(this was true for men also)-see Jared Leto in My So Called Life or sometimes cut into a short bob. For example Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.101.58 (talk) 18:18, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Grunge images are needed

 * Grunge photos are desperately needed for this article. Doesn't anyone out there have a grunge photo of themselves or friends they can upload to this article?--jeanne (talk) 15:21, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with File:Kate Moss Calvin Klein.jpg
The image File:Kate Moss Calvin Klein.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

Undercut & Curtains
There is no mention of this very famous 90s haircut for boys/men —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.151.52.58 (talk) 00:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
 * That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Media copyright questions. --14:52, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Removal of text

 * Please, first discuss it here on the talk page before removing large chunks of text. I had to revert an entire section whch somebody had removed from the article. Thanks.--jeanne (talk) 08:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Hip Hop
Why is there no section on Hip Hop Fashion? Hip Hop had a huge influence on fashion throughout the decade. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.182.98.142 (talk) 07:05, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Goth was not invented in the '90s!
Goth fashion branched out of punk fashion in the early '80s, and has evolved since. A commercialized version - so-called "Hot Topic goth" - was popular for a while in the '90s, and it was this commercialized version that morphed into/gave way to the "emo" and "scene" trends. This style rose and died relatively independently of the actual goth scene, which has been toddling onward in relative obscurity for decades now. The bands listened to by these high school "Hot Topic goths" weren't goth bands, and the kids generally weren't involved in the goth club scene at all.

The article needs to be fixed to reflect this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.164.75.31 (talk) 01:36, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Yep--82.14.48.253 (talk) 15:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

It was.--86.24.31.155 (talk) 15:06, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Dark colors
(Youth Fashion, Mid 1990s)

"dark colors like maroon, forest green, indigo, brown, white and black"

White's a dark color? ;)

Dave Andrew (talk) 01:30, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

LOCK THIS PAGE!
Can we PLEASE lock this page to stop the idiots vandalising it? We had similar problems with 2000s in fashion — Preceding unsigned comment added by Osama57 (talk • contribs) 13:26, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

For the last time, stop unregistered users messing around with this page! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Osama57 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Globalize template
This article is labeled as dealing with "fashion," but deals exclusively with Western fashion; therefore I have added the globalize template. The article expressly limits itself to Western fashion in the intro paragraph, but this is not consistent with the title. Older articles about "fashion" also limit themselves to Western fashion, apparently on the basis that fashion was mostly a Western thing during those periods, but this practice is not justifiable in recent periods. Articles about "fashion" in the late 20th century need to be global in scope. Elliotreed (talk) 18:55, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Not anymore. We now have Australasian, African and Asian fashions in addition to America, Britain and Europe.

Peace and love -Ossie

Proposal for name change
I think it would be far easier and wiser to minimize the title rather than make this an article about global fashion trends in the 90's. An article of that sort would be untenably long. 1990s fashion trends in America would be a much better title. Bali88 (talk) 19:29, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

The title should be 1990s in Western fashion because it currently includes British, European and Australian fashions in addition to America. Globalisation didn't really start until the internet and digital television became affordable and available worldwide in the late 90s and early 2000s

What's with the ugly clothes?
All recent Wikipedia decade-fashion sections (especially those about the 90's, 00's and 10's) seem to display the ugliest versions of each trend. (This applies to most photos, not all, of course.) If it is a vest, the photo will portray someone wearing the ugliest possible vest one could have found at the time; if it is a haircut, the person in the photo will sport the dorkiest version of that haircut (prime example: the undercut-cum-mustache guy in this section); if it is a dress, the photo will show the dress styled in the most awkward, unfashionable way; etc. Showing the dorkiest/ugliest/most awkward incarnation of past trends is hardly representative of the fashion of a period. I am old enough to remember that people and their clothes did not look as terrible as portrayed on Wikipedia. For curiosity, does it have something to do with copyright? Like, all decent photos are copyrighted? --95.89.27.247 (talk) 12:49, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

Teashades!
How could anyone forget to mention teashades??!! Sure, they were more popular in the 60-70's, but made a comeback in the 90's, especially with movies such as Leon, and a bunch of contemporary musicians rockin' 'em!--92.114.148.141 (talk) 08:39, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

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