Fashions and clothing
Definition Styles of dress and accessories
Fashion in the 1990’s veered away from the luxur y and
glitz of the 1980’s in favor of more casual styles. In addi-
tion, businesses relaxed their dress codes.
Individuality took on new importance in the 1990’s,
with the range of available styles and fabrics prolifer-
ating. American news media depicted a wide diver-
sity of people from all levels of society, which led to a
mixture of competing and complementary clothing
styles. “Simplicity” was the watchword of the fashion
scene, as consumers were more interested in finding
clothing that suited their lifestyle than in adopting a
particular look developed by fashion houses. De-
signers noticed the backlash against the previous de-
cade’s flash, so they featured simple, elegant fashion
lines. The approaching millennium encouraged a
continual wave of retro looks in all types of design.
Youth Styles The most influential trend in 1990’s
fashion for young people was the rise of grunge fash-
ion, which influenced the mainstream by 1992.
Grunge fashion, associated with the Seattle grunge
music scene popularized by the rock band Nirvana,
shunned bright colors in favor of dark colors such as
maroon, forest green, indigo, and brown. Included
in grunge fashion were Doc Marten shoes and boots,
high-top sneakers, and plaid flannel shirts. The
grunge trend was accompanied by a revival of hippie
fashion. Tie-dyed shirts, a hippie staple, appeared as
early as 1990, followed by the revival of “granny
glasses,” last popular in the 1960’s. Bell-bottom jeans
and crocheted vests, both part of the hippie revival,
were sought after by teenage and preteen girls in the
early 1990’s. Sports apparel was another major fash-
ion influence. Baseball caps worn backward was a
fad that started with teenage and adolescent boys
and was soon taken up by girls. Black-hooded
sweatshirts were popular for boys, and denim jackets
were worn by both genders. The grunge look, how-
ever, was on its way out by 1995.
The preppy look made a comeback in 1997
among teenage males. The American designer
Tommy Hilfiger’s clothes, mostly in navy, red, black,
and white, were aimed at the mass youth market with
a line of easily recognizable, casual basics identified
by the Hilfiger logo. Among girls and young women,
spaghetti-strap tank tops became widely worn, some-
times with shirts or jackets over them. In the early
years of the decade, black tights with short skirts
were popular; by the late 1990’s, the nude look (skin-
colored tights) was in fashion again, but many girls
and young women wore nothing on their legs, pre-
ferring the natural look.
The oversized hip-hop look of baggy jeans and
loose cargo pants became popular during the de-
cade. By mid-decade, leather and faux leather styles
showed up in pants and jackets. Young girls imitat-
ing pop girl bands like the Spice Girls took to wear-
ing bustier tops or halter tops that expose the mid-
riff. These tops were worn with jeans, cropped pants,
or short skirts.
Hair coloring was widely popular, and blond was
a color of choice among the young, particularly
among teen and preteen girls. This trend was driven
by the style of pop star Britney Spears and many
other young pop singers, who let their roots show.
Young men and boys also turned to coloring their
hair.Women’s Fashions “Power dressing,” which was
important to women in the workforce in the 1980’s,
became softer in the 1990’s, with exaggerated shoul-
der pads disappearing and clothing in general be-
coming less constrictive. Certain American design-
ers became influential—primarily Donna Karan,
Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein.
Calvin Klein eliminated all accessories for his
clothes, with the exception of sunglasses. Ralph
Lauren was known for his classic style, which in-
cluded a line of reasonably priced fashions. Donna
Karan was extremely popular in the 1990’s, design-
ing comfortable clothing for urban career women.
She used superior fabrics and cuts to produce gar-
ments that conceal women’s “figure defects.” She
was already famous when she launched her DKNY
(Donna Karan New York) line featuring affordable,
ready-to-wear, yet smart clothes. Her subtle color pal-
ette emphasized white, cream, and taupe as well as
brown and black. Black became the dominant color
in women’s clothing, combined with a trend toward
long skirts. Although some women reluctantly wore
the drab taupe, olive, sand, brown, and grayed navy
of the decade, they found it easy dressing, since neu-
trals tend to go well with each other and with black.
Some shades of browns and grays did become the
“new black” for a few seasons, but black always re-
mained in style.The Nineties in America Fashions and clothing 325