1990-1999 The End of a Millenium

As far as decades go the 90s was a pretty bad one for fashion. An excellent one for music though. It continued the sportswear/ street wear blend from the 80s but added a whole bunch of other stuff.

As an example there was MC Hammer who brought in massively baggy trousers and wore them often.
Cheesy pop was going strong in the 90s like

 B*witched who were well known for river dancing in double denim.

Brit pop was going crazy.The country was divided  as a brit pop battle begun with Blur and Oasis. Blur was headed by Damon Albarn and were an alternative rock band with hits like Parklife and Country House.

 Oasis was another alternative rock band who sang songs like Wonderwall and Don't look back in anger. Both bands were grungey and casual. Which was reflected in their music.In the end Blur won the Brit best single with Country house.

There was also STEPS a Pete Waterman creation, the same guy that was behind Kylie Minougue and Jason Donavan back in the late 80s.


Over in America there was a massive uprising in boybands like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC who wore curtained hair and flannel in all of their videos check these out.

There was also a 16 year old Britney Spears who in her Debut wore pompommed bunches and a tied up school shirt.










The street hip hop style was still going espcially in America they wore baseball caps with oversized t shirts and baggy trousers.( this clip is from popular show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air which showed both the street style and the chic side of american living.)


If America wasn't hip hoppy they were preppy. This meant blazers and suits but with a girl or boy next door edge.
 In fact you could say that Rachel from Friends was quite preppy. Jennifer Aniston who played her also brought in a new hairstyle "the  Rachel" a hairstyle copied by almost every woman.

In 1995 the world was introduced to Clueless.
This fashion orientated film based upon Jane Austen's Emma showcased  tweed suits with knee high socks and creeper trainers and heels. The ultimate high school fashion.

In 1997 the world lost an icon and a friend when Princess Diana died in a car crash with her companion Dodi Al Fayed the world mourned and millions lined the streets to pay tribute to the people's princess.




Black dresses increased in popularity and were especially made famous when the then unknown Liz Hurley wore a risque safety pin Versace dress.

 She stole all the attention from her then partner Hugh Grant at the premiere of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral to his obvious annoyance.
Another reason black dresses rose in popularity was because of Posh Spice. The nineties was the era of Girl Power in the shape of the Spice girls.

Sporty, Scary, Posh, Ginger and Baby each had their own individual style and they were all fashion icon in their own right.

 Mel B (Scary) with her leopard print catsuits, Mel C (Sporty) with her tracksuits and cropped tops, Emma Bunton (Baby) with sweet dresses, Victoria Beckham (Posh) with the stilettos and little black dresses and of course "Ginger" Geri Halliwell with that union jack dress at the Brits.

Technology was advanced as well with dvds and the gameboy with games like Pokemon coming out the couch potato had begun.

Brit pop also continued with Take That these Manchester boys were the ultimate british pin up with their casual pop style.

When Robbie Williams quit the band he went on to have a teriffic solo career with hits like Angels, Let Me Entertain You and of course Millenium in 1998.

The 90s was great for films. There was Pretty Women with Julia Roberts in a tiny safety pin dress and thigh high boots. There was Toy Story the first computer animated feature film,an animated breakthrough.

Ghost was released in 1990 starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. It made the song unchained Melody (originally from the 60s) popular again.

There was also a big tv show that started... SpongeBob Squarepants which helped launch Nickelodean and many childrens tv shows like PowerPuff Girls and others. Didn't help fashion but it kept the kids quiet.

Women's dresses changed when a new fashion campaign introduced underwear as outerwear. This meant that slip- type dresses were worn often these were often skimpy and had spagetti straps. The slip dresses have evolved into what we now know as body con dresses.

1980-1989 Society welcomes the Brat Pack

Thanks to Maggie Thatcher's election in 1979 power dressing for both men and women zoomed.  The average power dresser wore massive shoulder pads on jackets and coats and pencil skirts (that was just the women).

 Power Fashion is especially demonstrated in the TV drama Dynasty. Power dressing was made for impact and it definitly made one.

 Because of the introduction of MTV the 80s now had music videos which were the inspiration of many. 

Music introduced New Wave which incorporated  bands like Duran Duran (Hungry like the wolf), Adam Ant(Prince Charming) and Human League (Don't you want me). New wave fashion meant shirts and jackets with skinny ties and tailored trousers.

Music was a big deal in the 80s. Everyone wanted to be either Madonna or Michael Jackson with their groundbreaking music and fashion they were the icons of the time.

Madonna with her lacey punk image and MJ from his red leather jackets to his sharp suits and of course the single silver glove.

His legacy continues into today.

In 1985 Bob Geldof and Midge Ure created what is still one of the most influencial musics event ever LIVE AID.

This was a massive concert in order to help those in poverty. The concert included many of the big names of the decade like Bananarama, Boy George, George Michael and Phil Collins. 

Other big people in music included newcomer Kylie Minogue.

In her debut video Kylie has about a dozen costume changes and all are 80s trends from short dress and big perms to floral tops and skirts.

Another way music changed was the introduction of hip hop music. This was a fast street music style. Hip Hop singers Salt N Pepa influenced fashion as they were the first women rappers.

Their style was a mixture of street and sportswear which was also a major fashion obsession in the 80s.

Aside from worrying whether their perms were big enough the 80s had alot going on in the real world like the final fall of the

Berlin Wall bringing together long separated families and the death of peaceful warrior John Lennon.

There was also a royal wedding in 1982 Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in Westminster Abbey.

Princess Diana was a major fashion icon  her wedding dress was designed by the Emmanuels and included a 50 foot long train.
There was also a minors strike up north in which the minors wanted better pay and the government refused. The film Billy Elliot pays tribute to the minors in this troubled time.

 As well as perms there was also a big statement..MULLETS! The mullet was big at the front and straight at the back a statement that thankfully never returned to society.

Technology blossomed in this particular decade.

Brainboxes everywhere were thinking overtime. There was the computer, the internet.

Which led to video games like pacman. There was also the VHS video, the digital watch, the brick like mobile phones (which no business man or woman would be seen without) and the boombox.

The boombox meant that the street urchins of society could listen to their music on the go and look good doing it. Well at least they thought they looked good.

These people wore shell suits, rayban sunglasses (a new innovation) or leggings with sportswear or acid wash jeans.All of these fads were totally 80s and totally bad.

If you weren't a b-boy or girl then there was always grunge.

Grunge was baggy jeans, untied shirts and doc martens amongst other baggy street wear. It appeared in the late 80s and grew into the 1990s.Grunge bands included Nivanna with the infamous lead singer Kurt Cobain, never heard of Nivanna? you would have heard of Smells Like Teen Spirit the song that made their career.

Speaking of teens they happily took over the big screen. Most were known as the Brat pack an obvious play on the Rat pack.

The Brat pack included many young stars that are still well known like Demi Moore, (star of 90's classic tearjerker Ghost but more on that later).

The most prominent are stars like Emilio Estivez (brother of Charlie Sheen), Molly Ringwald stars of the teen flick The Breakfast Club along with Antony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson.

Each member of the Breakfast Club either the jock,the criminal, the princess, the brain or even the "basket case" had their own style of clothing.

There was also Michael J Fox star of the Back to the future trilogy where he wears fashion typical of the decade jeans,denim shirt, plaid shirt and of course the orange gilet mistakenly called a life preserver by the people in the fifties.

Along with the typical teen high school flicks there was also other teenage films like Footloose starring Kevin Bacon, Bill and Ted's excellent adventure a bodacious film starring a young Keanu Reeves 

 There was also active films like Fame and Flashdance these classics led to legwarmers and trainers being worn everywhere which of course endorsed the sportswear obsession.

 Although set in the early 1960s one of the best film moments was the final dance of Dirty Dancing the film was one of the highest grossing of the decade starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze

From the preppy happiness of these teen movies there came a darkly comic turn.

Tim Burton the legendary film director had arrived and with him he brought Beetlejuice (don't say his name too often!) as well as The first Batman film and many others that run into today.

 A few of his well known projects include Edward Scissorhands and the more modern Alice in Wonderland and Nightmare before Christmas. His cult following have a grungy gothic-y feel typical of the 80s.

The rock stars of the eighties also brought in poodle haircuts bands like Bon Jovi and Brian May from Queen recognised the fad and became known as poodle rockers.

The 80s are summed up in this 90s song by EuroPop band Aqua.

1970-1979 Dancing Queens and Saturday Night Fever