A dive into the exquisite 90s Fashion
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admin
- February 9, 2020

The Immortal Fashion Wave
The 90s Fashion style is evergreen. As we keep moving with time, we get a sneak peek of someone sporting that ultimately belongs to the 90s Fashion. For a Fashion novice, it might not all be very clear. After all, what is “90s Fashion”? This blog is all about Fashion trends in the 80s and 90s and who was considered a Fashion nova during those times.
A tale of its Fashion!
The 90s were a time of change in the Fashion industry. Designers were exploring new ideas, and trends were emerging. One of the most popular trends was the rise of vogue. Vogue is a type of modelling characterized by its use of exaggerated and often outrageous images.
It gained popularity in the 90s to express creativity and individuality. Vogueing is often seen as a form of self-expression and as a way to celebrate diversity. It is also seen as a way to challenge traditional ideas about beauty. The rise of vogue in the 90s was a response to the growing popularity of Fashion magazines. These magazines often featured models that were very thin and had perfect bodies.
The slaying Fashion rule
In the 80s, the Fashion world was ruled by capitalistic world leaders like Ronald Reagen and Margaret Thatcher. Under the rules of Margaret Thatcher, the UK experienced one of the biggest unemployment crises ever. The saying “Greed is Good” was infamous, and people believed in it in bulk. Even if they did not have the financial backing for themselves, they loved dreaming about and spending their time reading about and watching rich people live their lives.
Excess was needed to let the world know of your financial standing. People used to wear bright-colored clothes and bright makeup, and their clothes used to have oversized silhouettes. The more you wear, the better. There was no such thing as more. The more you had of anything, the better. Rich, dense eyelashes with super furry headgears were more than welcome. You popularly needed an Amazonian body type to sport the trends of the 80s Fashion era.

The Popular 80s Fashion Novas
Some of the most known famous Fashion novas of the 80s Fashion era were Madonna and Joan Collins. It is no surprise that Madonna’s “Material Girl” did so well during those times. It was an era where excessive Fashion trends drew a firm line between the rich and the poor. Another major popular concept of the 80s Fashion was undoing the harsh clothing practices like corsets, and so “power dressing” gained popularity amongst the working girls.
Jonna Karan was one of the most known and liked designers when it came to power dressing. Like a lot of people say, she understood the assignment. Power dressing was a concept where women wore comfortable and statement-making pants suits to work. However, they were ridiculous with shoulder pads and massive in size.
Jonna introduced femininity to her designs of power dresses. She made them more comfortable to wear, soft, and easy to work in for women. However, this style did not make it to be one of the styles of a Fashion nova because most people were not working. It was simply not a popular choice because of a mass unemployment crisis.
The image above lacks a lot of flashy colours and quite nicely represents the early 80s Fashion trends.
Its trendsetting approach
Fast forward to the 90s Fashion century, and a lot has changed. Contrary to where greed played the Centre stage for most of their lives in the 80s, the 90s was a lot more about caring and optimism. This is because Bill Clinton replaced Ronald Reagen, and Tony Blair took over Margaret Thatcher’s place. Very contrary to the previous leaders, they were very leftist in their thoughts, very young to lead nations. It was a decade of shame and regret over how much waste had been done in the previous decade.
It was all about saving the planet, saving trees, and saving animals. In the 90s Fashion, there was a lot more focus on real-life problems and real people. People still sported bright colours but overdoing it was not so in style anymore. Oversized silhouettes were only for weddings.
The 90s Fashion were a lot more about comfort, convenience, and solving real-life issues. People took a lot more pride in being real and down to earth. The Fashion nova for the 90s Fashion was most definitely Kurt Cobain from the band Nirvana.
Isn’t it obvious how repulsive the 90s Fashion generation was that they placed a person who is as simple as Kurt in place of Madonna? The flannel shirt was trendy during those times. Kurt made a simple thing as a flannel shirt a style statement by growing out his hair and pairing it up with ripped jeans. It was super simple, easy to recreate, and realistic.

The 90s Fashion
As mentioned before, Kurt Cobain’s flannel shirt style then became a Fashion statement. It went as far as to take over the runway Fashion shows. Models took to the runway wearing these and walking out—designers as successful and known as Marc Jacobs had an entire collection of the 1993 grunge collection.
The grunge collection was all about flannel shirts paired with ripped jeans and high knee-length boots; perhaps even a sunglass may qualify. The ideal body required to sport this look was skinny, with bony shoulders and a clavicle ( a shallow chest), hip bones, and rib cage.
Another very popular Fashion trend during the 90s Fashion that drew inspiration from Kurt Cobain’s grunge look was the “Heroin Chic”; it was a highly Fashionable look. The models were made to look like they were up all-night injecting heroin. Even though heroin was never cool, heroin chic seemed like a cool concept.
The Fashion that went into War
Before we go ahead and look at how Fashion went ahead and had a transition in the 1970s, I am sure everyone is invested in knowing what happened to Fashion when the world underwent War. The answer is quite simple; Fashion went to War too. By War, we indeed mean the timeline between 1939-and 1945. Many people also popularly call it the 1940s. So, let’s take a look at what Fashion went through in the 1940s.
For starters, every living being was a part of this War, perhaps in their own capacity, but you cannot say otherwise. Under such circumstances, even Fashion was at War, and it was winning throughout! Men went on to fight these Wars, and women got behind War-related works; many even enlisted to join the military, and even more, had to put their education on hold for the time of the War.

The Ideal look makeup-wise in the 1940s
The 1940s Vogue
The 1940s Ideal body type would be substantial, with broad shoulders, taut waistline, molded hips and curvaceous legs. This was the perfect body type for adorning uniforms and strong attires. The Fashion nova for this would be Esther Williams, sporting the exact ideal body type during those times. Yet that was not the only Ideal Body type for the 1940s. There was one more, which was petite, cute and curvy, famously possessed by the actress Betty Grable.
The Ideal look makeup-wise would-be pencil-thin eyebrows, with long fake eyelashes but only the top lid eyelashes, with a pinkish blush and red lipsticks; the hair would usually be tied up on the head.
The 40s typically had three styles; you see, those were War times, so moderations on clothing were closely monitored. Everything was taken into consideration, how much cloth you can use, how many buttons can be designated to one piece of clothing and much more. So the three typical types were
- Utility Clothing, this was to explain to people how much material they can utilize in their clothes
- Uniforms, of course, there were uniforms, those were War times, and uniforms were the most popularly worn clothing type. It was for people who enlisted in War-related work or duties or joined the military.
- War Work Clothing, since everyone was indebted to play their parts during the War, War work clothing was also very much a need. These included overalls and head scarfs. This was primarily worn by women who showed up to factories to work, which men earlier handled.
The 1940s were all about feeling strong and being in control in the circumstances like those where everything was uncertain. As a result of these, the clothes mentioned above were trending during those times.
Another iconic look was called the rave look, which was very contrasting to the “cocaine chic,” which required a lot of black smudged makeup and a black outfit. The Rave look had a lot of colours like yellow and pink to add to it. By the end of the 1970s, all of these things had calmed down, and people had moved back to the 70s in terms of Fashion.
The Fashioning Conclusion
We believe there is nothing much to cover about 90s Fashion and the 80s Fashions, which owns bewildering and voguish energy and won’t lose their charm and adroitness no matter what. With astounding emerging styles and aesthetics in the 1990s, this time is referred to as the golden era in Fashion.
The Wondrous Fashion Concept:
Fashion is nothing but a form of art, and no state of art truly ever expires. We see all forms of trends and clothing return from time to time, even in Fashion. It only becomes easier to break these trends down based on time so that we can increase relatability and connect it with a timeline. It also makes it convenient for us to pick which clothing era we would like to carry most of the time.
Thus, we hope our exquisite take on the 90s Fashion and 80s Fashion will help you achieve your desired Fashion statement from that era and transform yourself into a bold belle. Also, we are hoping that this blog will resolve all your queries about Fashion from the 80s and 90s Fashion .