I was a teenager throughout the entire 90s. I turned 13 in 1993, and 19 in 1999.
If there’s two things I know, it’s that your teen years and the 90s are basically the worst eras for fashion, so in my defence, I had little chance of ever making it.
Tbh I still suck at fashion, I’m lost in those Winona years up there in my mom uniform of jeans, band shirt and black jacket, but it works for me and I rarely have to set foot in a clothing store. Wins all round.
All of these bad hair jelly shoe memories were thrust full force back into my mind this week when Carly and I recorded a Sweet Teen Club podcast episode on 90s fashion, and I fell down a flanno rabbit hole and into a world of grunge and bad eyebrows.
Exhibit A: bad eyebrows, Swatch watch, white face, horrific dye job, pigtails, toddler-sized glow in the dark Bananas in Pyjamas t shirt.
Location: Fremantle, WA
Year: 1996
Podcast talk turned quite quickly to cargo pants, theft, chunky fucking platform sandals, and bike pants.
Exhibit B: Bike pants, blunt fringe, cheap white sneakers
Location: Frankston, Vic
Year: 1990
Frankston, huh.
We briefly discussed Blossom hats and crochet vests, worn with denim shorts and black bodysuits. Thankfully my Blossom hat period was very short-lived.
Exhibit C: Bad hair, scrunchie, cutoff Hot Buttered top, die hard denim shorts, my first Swatch watch ever.
Location: Rushworth, Vic
Year: 1992
Again with the fringe! Digging on the brand name surfwear (my one and only item), I thought I was finally cool… it was a matching set with shorts, and I wore it as such.
Unfortunately we never delved into teen perms on the podcast, but allow me to debut mine… I told my ma I wanted hair like Madonna in the Like a Prayer video. Mum said maybe when I was 13. This is what happened:
Exhibit D: senior school uniform
Location: Longreach, QLD
Year: 1992
Yeah nah no Madonna there.
Exhibit E: Superunknown shirt, super-unknown pants, they could be anything.
Location: Fremantle, WA
Year: 1995
By 1994 I’d hit the grunge scene pretty hard (clothing did not reflect this, too poor, too outback), but I did a lot of babysitting and once the mums decided to pool together some cash to swing me a gift and I chose to spend it on a Soundgarden shirt. I had considered a Smashing Pumpkins CD but ultimately decided against it.
Now this is the most 90s picture I basically have ever seen (AND EXCUSE ME WHILE I LOSE MY MIND THAT I AM NOW OLDER THAN MY DAD WAS IN THAT PICTURE I AM HYPERVENTILATING RN), and it’s funny because it reminds me of this:
I had no idea I would be retrospectively so cool.
It may help remove this image from your short-term memory:
Exhibit F: Bad dye job, my dad’s green knit jumper, sunflower happy pants, glow in the dark Bananas in Pyjamas wall stickers.
Location: Fremantle, WA
Year: 1996
Inches away from quitting school and moving to Murwillumbah, where these pants would be de rigeur. Those years are 100% to blame for my interest in velvet jackets, tie-dyed maxi skirts, silver jewellery and wearable bells. there are possibly photos of these somewhere that I haven’t managed to burn yet.
Exhibit G: floral sundress (I think from Supre?) minus it’s normal white shirt underneath, cat-eye sunglasses and puffy fucking hat.
Location: Fremantle, WA
Year: 1996
So in the spirit of confessions (I make one to my parents on the podcast), here’s another. Yes I did take your pink fluffy hat and lose it on the train. Amen.
I’m going to leave you with this, me topping off the decade in pure style. Midriff shirt, cheap ass white skirt, leftover hippie days silver locket with an amethyst in the centre, dyed black hair, fuck me bands. I was either wearing boots or platform sandals. I still had never touched my eyebrows.
We dive pretty deep into Cross Colours jeans, facial piercings, tencel jeans, Stussy shirts, the Rachel, face glitter, hypercolour and much more.
You can listen to the 90s fashion podcast here, or on iTunes
What 90s fashion crimes are you guilty of?!!
Nikki Parkinson says
Oh HUN … I LOVE all of the above. I do. Now picture this … late 20s woman, preggers for first time in the ’90s … wearing over-sized tee, bike pants, deck shoes and scrunchie! At least you could blame it on your youth!
Stacey says
DECK SHOES! how could I have forgotten the deck shoes?! Having said all that I bet bike pants were actually amazing maternity wear!
Miss Chardy says
Oh Deckies…. the who’s who had real “Colorado” boat shoes (as we used to call them) – Mum wouldn’t buy me a pair so I had to save up and buy my own. As for scrunchies… can we please erase those from our minds forever. I used to make my own.
Stacey says
I hope they were floral
Miss Chardy says
I think we may be thinking of different shoes… my boat shoes were the brown leather ones with the leather laces and then leather through the sides… does that even make sense? ha ha ha.
Stacey says
I meant I hope your homemade scrunchies were floral!
Miss Chardy says
Ha ha ha ha ha, mine were tartan – so cool, ha ha ha ha. Perhaps the odd Liberty print.
Kez @Awesomely Unprepared says
Epic. I love all these nostalgic moments. So many things I’d forgotten about! Like the grungy hippie phase! Hilarious. I thought I hated all of my 90s photos, but now I want to go back and see the time capsule that they really are!
Stacey says
I did hate them until this very day! So funny looking back, seeing me be an absolute fashion tragic. soo good.
Reannon says
I’m in HEAVEN!!!
Early 90’s I was all about my Stussy pants, floral dresses & jeans with holes in them. God I loved those. By 94 I was hitting the grunge/alternative style with a bang!!! Grandma dresses, slip nighties tie dyed, dresses over pants, ANYTHING from the 70’s! All worn with Doc Martens, feet bikinis, bindis on my forehead & butterfly clips in my hair. I bloody loved myself sick!!!!
Veggie Mama says
Jaysus, I forgot the dresses over pants thing! I must have burned it from my mind. Too poor for real docs, I had cheap shitty boots that broke when I stepped on a stick
Reannon says
I bought mine with my first tax return. They were teal blue. I had them for about 10 years….almost wore them to my formal but borrowed a friends witches boots instead- heeled black lace up boots. Man, what a time to be alive!!
Stacey says
Haha there was one period in the very late 90s where I bought a pair of purple suede docs on layby. Actual most expensive thing I’d ever bought… and they were TOO SMALL FOR ME
Renee Wilson says
I was SO PROUD of my Stussy shirt. I thought I was the coolest thing ever. I was a nineties teen too and have sported nearly everything that you’ve mentioned above. Blossom hat. OMG. So wrong lol.
Stacey says
Ha yes I blame my sister for the hat. I think she had a denim one. My stussy shirt was purple and I got it for my birthday and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Erin says
Fucking tencel jeans and those bike shorts haunt me.
Stacey says
Ha they should all be burned BURNED
Miss Chardy says
Too funny!!!! My sister and I had the absolute hots for BROS – remember them and don’t even get me started on Dieter Brummer. ha ha ha ha. My sister got a Big Audio Dynamite and Salt & Pepper cd for your 16th birthday… I thought she was sooooo cool.
Stacey says
Oh man, remember Girlfriend? I think they wore every 90s no-no ever.
Stacey says
Oh man, remember Girlfriend? I think they wore every 90s no-no ever.
Naomi Bulger says
And then today, right now in 2016 (right here in River City), I was looking on ASOS for some pants and I came across these: http://www.asos.com/missguided/missguided-sexy-lace-skinny-flare-trousers/prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=5295277&clr=White&SearchQuery=Missguided+Sexy+Lace+Skinny+Flare+Trousers&SearchRedirect=true Suddenly I really want to re-watch Clueless.
Stacey says
Rewatching Clueless is mandatory! Carly and I realised how much of a great movie it is and how well it’s stood the test of time when we did it for the podcast. It’s SO good. And Josh is ADORABLE!
I just cannot with those lace trousers. Looks like something I wore to the Big Day Out once…
Brielle says
Oh these pictures have me reminiscing about my fashion stages in the 90’s, pretty much allthe same as yours except in 1999… I had a 1year old as my fashion accessory, and probably in 1998 when maternity clothes were far from fashionable for an 18 year old.
we were too poor forrel Doc’s too so I got cheap black boots that fell apart after 6 months max.
Stacey says
Seriously, I was walking and a stick got lodged in it! just straight through the fake leather. sigh.
I can’t imagine you could get any maternity clothes in 1998 that weren’t for middle-aged ladies – that must have been awful :-/ although Millers would have been laughing all the way to the bank
Brielle says
Oops, I really should proof read before I press send!
Kristine says
ah the memories – I turned 17 in 1990 so it was end high school/Uni/starting work but I remember big docs boots with floral dresses, denim shirts over denim jeans, think I had a polka dot shirt that I wore with coloured jeans that had a differnt colours per section of jean – that was possibly leftover late 80s?? And shit you had me at Soundgardern vs Smashing Pumpkins though I bought that CD and got front row at that concert yee har!!
Stacey says
oh no way, that would have been so rad! I’d just have stared at Billy’s teeth, I love them so much.
I definitely had a huge shirt like that too, and those jeans I talk about in the podcast – were yours cross colours? I wore a red and yellow pair.. and I think a purple pair. AWFUL.
Kristine says
Yeah I think they were purple, green and red in darker shades. Bleurgh!
Stacey says
haha oh my god, what were we thinking?!!!