THE NEW NINETIES
So, the 90s are back. According to the fashion industry, if you can believe such people.
Yes.
This
Is
All
Back
In
Fashion
Can
You
Believe
This?
No,
Neither
Can
I.
Okay okay okay. Story time. Our last neighborhood was basically the campus of three well-known NYC high schools. (Aside: if you think you can come up with anything more blissfully humbling than Manhattan teenagers . . . well, I dare you. :) AMDA, Beacon, and LaGuardia (the Fame school!). These are some of the best, toughest schools to get into, and these AMDA, Beacon, and LaGuardia kids are freaks. Sophisticated and so damn poised (which is a little freaky to see at such a young age), and so talented, and so so smart. With really amazing hair. If you were to ask me the best part of living behind Lincoln Center for three years, it'd be the times I'd walk around during lunch and in the afternoons, when students would be milling about on my sidewalks, providing me with a free time machine fashion show. Leggings, combat boots, over-sized knits and soft plaid flannels, dark mauve lipstick, baby doll dresses, natural faces and fluffy hair. . . chokers . . . floral prints . . . Jansports slung over one shoulder . . . sound familiar?
I, for one, am completely into it.
I do remember hearing once that if you followed a trend the first time around, you shouldn't follow the trend the second time it comes around. Obviously I've decided that's junk. Personally I think it's all in how you do it the second round that counts. Which is to say, pretty much the opposite of how you did it the first time.
Par exemple: Here are a few of the 90s trends I did once that I definitely will not be doing ever again
(High School Natalie alert you have been warned!!):
The 90s Eyebrows
I plucked those suckers to within an inch of their lives, and that was a baaaaaad idea. It took years to get them back to normal. Denim jackets and gold hoop earrings, though . . . yes.
Capris? No thank you to the capris, and no thank you to those fantastically weird cropped boxy high-necked tank tops, either. But, I don't know. Your mileage may vary.
A bad attitude, obviously, is still in play. Anyway I haven't seemed to shake it off yet, so it better be.
(I basically have this exact hair cut right this minute. Humbling.)
And thank you I will definitely be passing on round two of the braces and overall ennui of being 15. (I kind of want to give her a hug. She was doing just great.)
But here are some of the 90s trends I missed the first time around that I am ALL IN for:
Oversized hair that hasn't seen a heat tool in months.
Oversized knits, the scratchier the better.
Oversized light wash denim. MOM JEANS. I'M IN.
Flaaaaaaaannelllllllllll!
And grunge, grunge, grungey-grunge grunge.
And really dark lipstick.
We're really in luck, because this time around our wardrobe options seem far, far more sophisticated:
jacket || pants || sweater || dress || earrings || shoes || beanie || flannel
*BONUS: All profits from sales of the earrings featured goes directly to artisan women in Rwanda, providing much-needed literacy, business training and financial management programs to support female entrepreneurship. -source
THOSE SANDALS!!
There's really no sense in fighting this; whether or not you mean to the 90s are bound to happen to you again. Chances are, like me, you've been doing them all this time and the only difference now is that you're cool again! And congratulations to all of us on that. ;)
And so in closing, I present unto you the most underrated 90s icon of all time:
*BONUS: All profits from sales of the earrings featured goes directly to artisan women in Rwanda, providing much-needed literacy, business training and financial management programs to support female entrepreneurship. -source
THOSE SANDALS!!
There's really no sense in fighting this; whether or not you mean to the 90s are bound to happen to you again. Chances are, like me, you've been doing them all this time and the only difference now is that you're cool again! And congratulations to all of us on that. ;)
And so in closing, I present unto you the most underrated 90s icon of all time:
