Tonight I’m spending time watching 1990’s fashion shows and documentaries to educate myself and see how present day fashion has evolved since then.
Honestly, there really hasn’t been a drastic change at all.
1990’s fashion influence many designers till this day. There are designers that recreate (or should I say.. copy) old designs from different brands. Designers like Vivienne Westwood continue to keep what she has done in 1990’s but recreate it in a more modern way. Her classic design was the corset and blazer look, which is still till this day very popular to those who have been a fan of Westwood.
Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood Fall 1995 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show – Eva Herzigova // Photo from Pintrest – originally from Vogue
The 1990’s fashion era was able to pretty much put all kinds of different themes into one – making a whole new wave for how people dress. Fashion was inspired from 4 different themes: Grunge, Sex, Minimal, and Street. Whats awesome is that the top fashion designers were able to make high end, couture clothing with these themes and are inspiring generation after generation.. recreating what they put out in the spotlight 28 years ago.
Grunge was one of the first themes to start the 90’s fashion era. Leather jackets, smeared dark makeup, baggy clothes.. all that fun stuff thats coming back today. Which John Galliano basically brought it back to life in the 90’s as couture grunge.
John Galliano Fall 1994 // Photo from Pinterest
The theme Sex was a very big turn from grunge. Instead of designers making baggy clothing that covers most of the models body, models began walking the catwalk with almost no clothing at all. Fully showing breasts, wearing extremely tight dresses made out of spandex, full body tights that were completely see through. Vercase couture definitely made an impact for this theme, creating beautiful dresses that were skin tight, Naomi Campbell wore a dress made out of diamonds that should skin in each slit. Left me speechless!
Naomi Campbell for Versace Haute Couture ATELIER F/W 1995 // Photo from Pinterest
I found this amazing documentary called “Fashion in the 90’s” that breaks down each theme from the 1990’s fashion era and explains in detail to why these trends were happening. From showing clips of all the top brands fashion shows and who made an impact to start the theme.. I definitely recommend for you to watch it. Most of what I explained above is from this documentary. I rather have you watch it so I don’t have to write word for word what the narrator is saying, haha.
Most of these designers were also inspired by medieval fashion. For example, ripped jeans inspired designers in the 1990’s from the fashion of medieval kings and soldiers. If you look at some of the painted portraits of soldiers during that time, they have ripped cuts in their sweater which was meant “A knife fight which has been endured and survived”. It was to show power and confidence, which in the 1990’s ripped jeans showed rebellion and was a strong statement of the theme grunge. Corsets that appeared on the catwalks in the 90’s were also influenced from the medieval culture. Queens and princesses were tied up extremely tight to show a thin waist to fit the beautiful gowns made for them. In the 90’s, corsets were brought back in the limelight as well to fit the theme of Sex – because of the exaggerated pushed up breasts and showing off models thin waist.
Medieval king in ripped sweater // Photo from m2mfilm.tv
I believe that the 1990’s fashion era basically describes my bipolar-ness with my personal style. I’ve always loved grunge, been into streetwear for a while, love showing skin, and the basic “black and white” look has always been my go-to. If you mix all of this together, its 1990’s fashion because of the 4 themes. I’m so inspired by the way the designers during that time of era was able to make fashion trends that are still so popular till this day and will continue to stay in the limelight.
What do you think the best year was for fashion? (I already know your answer.. 1990’s! Don’t @ me.. lol)
Thanks for reading xx
She Blooms In June - by Lilia 