I don´t know if I ever got it, the fashion in the 1990´s. The funny thing is, I see more and more pictures of fashion from that era and I don´t get upset or anything! Maybe I´m nostalgic or just old or maybe both? Maybe just maybe, it wasn´t so bad after all?! I said maybe! Because…wait for it…I feel almost like I like it!
Anyway, here are some thypical 1990´s outfits, movies, people.
Grunge was the biggest trend in the 1990´s, baggy, layers, looking like a homeless person. Well, like Julia Roberts in the first picture…it´s hilarious! She just won her first Golden Globe Award (1990). About the second picture; no woman or girl got through the 90´s without wearing at least a few cropped tops and neither did Julia (1993). The movie Pretty Woman made her the most popular actress Hollywood had seen in decades (1990).
The princess of grunge was no doubt Courtney Love. She was married to Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana and he WAS grunge.
I was watching MTV Movie Awards when suddenly Sarah Jessica Parker showed up and presented an award. I´m telling you, I almost died! It was the coolest outfit I had ever seen (1993).
In the 90´s there was something about dresses that was short in the front and long in the back. We had already seen it in Guns n´Roses video November Rain with Stephanie Seymour in that wedding dress. When Geena Davis appeared with this dress at the Academy Awards I actually thought it was amazing (1992).
In the 1980s you always wore a belt so Drew Barrymore was quite fashion forward in this picture (1990).
Debra Messing´s outfit was probably featured in In Style Magazine, it must have been considered as very…cool. Gwyneth Paltrow wore a similar green outfit with a skirt, in Great Expectations (1998).
Jessica Alba in a shiny outfit (1999).
Claire Danes was really popular in the mid 90´s after starring in a popular tv-serie and pairing up with Leo Di Caprio in Romeo + Juliet. Back then I would have loved that hair. By the way, why was everything so shiny?
Whoopi Goldberg at the Oscars. For a while everything was so shiny and colourful (1993). Sharon Stone in Cannes, the skirt/pants trend was popular the first half of the 90s.
Sharon Stone got maximum attention at the Academy Awards due to her silk skirt and her husbands white Gap shirt (1998). The following year Calista Flockhart was best dressed at the Golden Globes, wearing a simple white shirt with a shiny silk skirt (1999).
Jennifer Aniston had as Rachel Green in TV’s super-popular sitcom Friends the decades most popular hairstyle (circa 1996). Winona Ryders pixi-haircut was also very copied. Of course, I copied them both.
Cameron Diaz hair-do is also very 90s. Drew Barrymore in layer sweaters and then the shoes, the shoes just had to look big.
Everybody loved Alicia Silverstone. First in three music videos by Aerosmith and then in Clueless. After playing Batgirl in the George Clooney-Batman movie we hardly saw her again. The floral dress was very popular in the 1990s.
Tiffani Amber Thiessen from 90210 was so cool in her jacket and red boots (1990).
All eyes were on Elizabeth Hurley when she wore this Versace-dress to her boyfriend Hugh Grants Four weddings and a funeral premiere in Hollywood. This is still considered one of the most famous red carpet moments (1993).
Mariah Carey sold millions of albums by the time she wore this outfit. I must have loved this sparkly butterfly-top (1993).
When John F Kennedy Jr married Carolyn Bessette, she was immediately thrown into the spotlight. Her style was envied and copied, even I tried to look like her, need I say, it didn´t go very well. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was one of the it-girls of the 1990´s. Tragically she, her older sister and her husband died in a plane-crash just a few years later.
Demi Moore was seven month pregnant and naked when she was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and put on the cover of Vanity Fair. It was a huge surprise, in some circles even a scandal, it had not been done before. The cover have been called the best magazine cover ever (1991).
Janet Jacksons Rolling Stone cover was also a chock for many Americans, since then it have been copied numerous times (1993).
Spice Girls was the first all girl pop-band, at least in the 90´s! They made records, toured all over the world, gave out books, made a movie, guested talk shows, sold perfumes, t-shirts and calenders and they were on all the magazine covers, even prestigues Vogue Magazine (1997).
23 year old Anna Nicole Smith on the cover of Playboy in 1992, it made her campaign for H&M lingerie, iconic campaigns for Guess? jeans and in 1993 she became Playmate of the Year. After a drug overdose she lost the Guess? contract and starred in the third Naked Gun-movie with Leslie Nielsen and O.J Simpson. At 26 she had married an 89 year old billionaire and had to spend years in court fighting his son over the money. There would be more nude magazines and movies with that same theme and unfortunately more drugs. She had a son from her first marriage that would inherit her problems with substance abuse.
In 2002 ten years after that first Playboy cover, Anna Nicole starred in her own reality-show. It was awful to watch, most of the time she seemed to be high on drugs. Anna Nicole would gain and loose weight from time to time but after losing a lot of weight she became a spokes-person for diet products. In 2006 she gave birth to a baby girl but only two days after giving birth, her son Daniel suddenly died. He was visiting Anna Nicole and his newborn sister and died in their hospital room, probably from a drug overdose. Anna Nicole then named her daughter Dannielynn, in honor of her son. A few weeks later she married her attorney and long time friend who also was said to be Dannielynns father. Less then a year later, Anna Nicole died in a hotel in Florida, by an accidental prescription-drug overdose. Several men then came forward and claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole´s child and a custody-battle took place. DNA-testing showed that an LA-based photographer was the father of Anna Nicole´s babygirl. Not much have been heard from him after winning custody, so hopefully little Dannielynn is doing fine.
This was hot, I had a pair of jeans in that shiny plastic material. This is an 1990´s ad for Versace, the only decade were supermodels were bigger than movie-stars. This fact was due to Gianni Versace who in many ways was the one who created the 1990´s supermodels. In the picture (from left): Christy, Nadia, Cindy, Stephanie and Claudia.
Pic 1. Naomi Campbell in Versace (1991). Pic 2. Claudia Schiffer on the catwalk wearing Versace.
Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss were supermodels and best friends. The slip dress was a huge trend during these years. The metallic trend was also hot, I had a couple of items myself. I miss that! Kate was a frontal figure for the grunge-style and the stupid expression heroin chic was first heard of when describing her style. John Galliano was the one who designed the bias-cut slip dress. His model was often Kate Moss (1995).
Daryl Hannah at the Oscars in a slightly modified slip dress (1993). Princess Diana in another slip dress from Christian Dior. She often wore that choker, and chokers were very 1990s. On her left, the designer of the dress John Galliano (1997). He was the inventor of the slip dress (though similar dresses had been popular in the 1930´s).
Pic 1. Madonna in Cannes in design by Gaultier (1991). Pic 2. Madonna at the MTV Music Video Awards (1995). Again, so shiny!
It wasn´t just Madonna, Spice Girls, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Suddenly there were a lot of female singer/songwriters. Here are some of the most popular ones during the 90´s.
Alanis Morissette was one of my favourite artists and definitely the most popular female singer/songwriter in the 1990´s. Her record Jagged Little Pill sold more than any other record in the 90´s. The fact that she wrote all the songs herself, made us like her even more.
Gwen Stefani from the No Doubt era, before she went solo in the 2000.
Björk felt different than the others and I liked that she came from Iceland.
Beverly Hills 90210. It was aired between 1990-2000. Now, it is difficult for me to see that there actually is a fashion statement in this, and not just random clothing items thrown together. But back then, let me tell you – they were so stylish!
After 90210 (they were all virgins, for a while at least) there were Melrose Place (no virgins). It aired beween 1990-1997. In the picture (left) Courtney Thorne Smith, Daphne Zuniga, Heather Locklear and Josie Bissett. Floral dresses and look at the shoes Josie Bissett is wearing, so 90´s.
21 Jump Street was the coolest police-show since Miami Vice. I actually loved Johnny Depp, I mean I fell in love with Johnny Depp by watching 21 Jump Street. I don´t think I love him anymore though, sorry Johnny.
Twin Peaks changed television forever. Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn and Mädchen Amick had something to do with that. The picture was on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.
Friends aired for ten years and was the most popular sitcom in the 1990´s. Jennifer Aniston have managed to work herself up to a fantastic career after the show was cancelled but the others have not been so lucky. Courtney Cox is doing good with her Cougar Town, who buy the way all of her former co-stars, seem to have guest starred in. Friends was back then, the sitcom every actor in Hollywood wanted to do an episode of. Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Brad Pitt, Dakota Fanning, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Shields, Charlie Sheen, Kathleen Turner, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Reese Witherspoon, Winona Ryder, George Clooney, Danny DeVito and Christina Applegate for example. Actors like Anna Faris, Paul Rudd, Morgan Fairchild, Elliot Gould, Elle MacPherson and Tom Selleck did 5-21 episodes each and people like Ralph Lauren, Isabella Rosselini, Donny Osmond, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sarah Ferguson and Charlton Heston played themselves (1994-2004).
In 1999 Sex and the city premiered on TV and was immediately a huge success, much due to the characters designer-outfits. Suddenly everybody knew about Manolo Blahnik and Cosmopolitan. Again, slip dresses (1999).
Seinfeld, just the funniest sitcom ever (1989-1998). Just as Friends, Seinfeld had many famous actors in guest roles. For example, Marcia Cross, Denise Richards, Bryan Cranston, Sarah Silverman, Peter Stormare, Catherine Keener, Marisa Tomei, Patrick Warburton, Teri Hatcher, Mariska Hargitay and Courtney Cox did at least one episode each.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were the no 1 it-couple. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were first runner ups. Here are Mr. and Mrs. Willis on the opening of Planet Hollywood, the chain of restaurants Willis had with Stallone and Schwarzenegger.
When I was in high school Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp were my idols, I loved everything about them! Then he fell in love with Kate Moss who was just as stylish (1997). (I still think Johnny and Winona were the cutest couple.)
Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow became another it-couple after filming Seven together. I love this slip dress she wore to the Oscars, it sparkles (1996). Will Smith with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith were also an it-couple but a bit less stylish if you ask me. In 1997 she nailed both the metallic trend and the cropped top-trend also at the Academy Awards (1997).
Pic 1. Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon in clothing that are so 90´s! There was probably no other movie that had so much grunge music and fashion as Singles (1992). Pic 2. This was the movie that presented Generation X. Ben Stiller directed Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites (1994).
Pic 1. Pulp Fiction first opened at the film festival in Cannes 1994 and was a huge success. In so many ways, movie making (and watching) had been changed forever. Pic 2. Clueless is truly an iconic movie with great 90s fashion.
howling elephant 