1990's Fashion History - The Mood of the Millennium

Towards the Millennium - Dressing Down

Assessing a decade of fashion so close in time is complex. In terms of costume history it's only after a trend has been around for several years can we acknowledge that it's more than a passing fad and deserves recognition in the archives of history. We each see what we ourselves wore as what was worn and typical of the era. The mood of society in the final decade of the last millennium was more defining than what was actually worn.

So much more was on offer globally, and many people lost interest in fashion as necessary and important to their lives when business rules for dressing relaxed. Working from home became common. By the edge of the 21^st century dressing down in every aspect of life became an acceptable norm. Ordinary retail clothing sales, textile manufacturing industries and stores all declined from a less active more casual marketplace.

The range of fashion goods available was huge in the 1990s, but no one knows the real answer why retail sales were often sluggish. The main thrust of fashion was the striving to achieve individuality. Fashion proliferated as fast as it could be relayed by the media and Internet and only by styling oneself rather than slavishly following a particular designer's fashion look, could individuality be achieved. Rapid dissemination of information and a more relaxed attitude to clothes has led to a certain inevitable uniformity in cities thousands of miles apart.

Less Became More

One thing about the decade we can say confidently was that after the conspicuous consuming years of the 1980s less became more in the 1990s. Not everyone adopted minimalism, but many did as they sought to blend and fit with an increasingly aggressive urban society. The silhouette became neater as shoulder pads finally died and jewellery became non existent or chic in its fineness and barely there quality.

The only concession to 80's glitz was a subtle, but new iridescent glitter shimmer on sheer and tulle fabrics that went through to skin make up and hair spray. For many the sleek hairstyle copied from Jennifer Aniston or the funkier choppier hairstyle of Meg Ryan was the only hairstyle to sport.

Leftover Shoulder Pads

Several major silhouettes identify the decade. The decade began with short fitted jackets, a shoulder padded leftover from the eighties that sometimes sported peplums, fluted princess panels or hip basques with fabric swathed bertha style shoulders.

The first new different silhouette was the 1991-2 fingertip length straighter, longer line three-quarter narrower jacket that moved down an inch for every year of the era. It was worn with an above knee skirt or flirtatious circular layered or snappy pleated skirt in the early decade. Ra-Ra skirts, a froth of short frills or net set on a mini skirt were popular in the early 90s with the under twenty fives.

A short, sleeveless, boat neck shift dress that initially showed about 8 inches of the lower dress under the jacket was seen as a useful business outfit. This last look remained an acceptable fashion for the decade, one which could be dressed up or down and is still seen in the new decade, but mostly with the jacket longer at a matching length to the dress.  You are reading an original 'Fashion in the 1990,

The Classic Blazer

The classic blazer, a late 80s early 90s fashion, remained popular with women over thirty five, especially with subdued worsted wool straight trousers. One blazer sold by Marks and Spencer rumoured to have been designed by Armani was voted a best buy by a national magazine. Many UK women owned at least one of the colours it came in, which ranged over a 10 year era from navy, bottle green, camel, black, wine, red, saxe blue and several dulled tartans.

Petticoat Dresses

The London company Ghost kept even private members of their shop Voyage waiting for their soft floaty designs that were feminine and distinctive. However they were very easy to copy and to run up at home and soon were everywhere. Nationwide the girly fashion for the petticoat dresses or cowl neck shoestring strap dress worn with a plain, velvet trimmed or beaded cashmere cardigan or Pashmina set a return to femininity. Flesh began to be exposed again and some of the fashions looked good on younger women with toned bodies.

Cleavage came back and a Wonderbra became as essential as it had been in the early 70s. When grunge fashion arrived, showing bra straps no longer seemed important. Underwear became outerwear and was often visible under jackets.

Such was the demand for uplift bras for all sizes that in the late 1990s Charnos funded £1 million of research for the invention of the new Bioform Bra for fuller busted women. 

One of the best hits in bras was the Ultimo bra. This gel filled bra gives not only a natural look, but also cleavage to flat chested women. The actress Julia Roberts wore one to great effect in the film Erin Brockenvich.

Oriental Influences 1990s 

In the mid 90s a fashion for Chinese cheongsam dresses and rich dress or interior brocade fabrics came at about the same time as interest in the British handover of Hong Kong. After 156 years the colony was given back to the Chinese on July 1 1997.

Straight dresses with mandarin collars and mandarin necks on long line brocade jackets followed a similar slim line. Other garments, shawls and knits were lavished with embroidery techniques made possible by new mass production embroidery machines. The opening up of China also heralded a new availability of decorative goods such as beaded and embroidered purses at affordable prices. The pretty beaded and ethnic purse style bags were similar to Victorian reticules and were used as a finishing touch to a special outfit, particularly at weddings.