So What Are You Saving From the 90s?

vintageclothesline

vintageclothesline

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I think I pretty well have the 80s in hand but I was thinking the other day, what will be collectible for the 90s when it hits vintage? I know the designer stuff will do well, but what about the regular stuff. You know, like the 80s had the puff sleeves, 80s does 40s, neon colors, etc.

Just wondering cause I really need to get rid of some stuff I have been saving back.

This article written in 1998 says...

<b>We're so busy waxing rhapsodic over the past that there's no defining '90s look except in how we redefine past fads.</b>
 
LOL, never mind saving 90's stuff, I'm still wearing it!:BAGUSE:
The only thing that I'm "saving" from the 90's is the dress I wore to my best friends university graduation in June 1999. It's a spagetti strap wiggle dress with a royal blue nylon lining showing through an see thru floral organza top layer.
I gained too much weight when I was pregnant to be able to wear it again but with all the weight I've lost since January, it may fit me again. Hmmm, have to drag it down from the loft to have a try on!

Lei
 
Now that's a hard one Linda. When I think about it I've only really saved stuff for daft sentimental reasons, worn out jeans, favourite tops, that sort of thing. And the designer stuff I've had like Vivienne Westwood etc. I foolishly gave away in moments of generosity (I'm always doing that with things I don't wear, or if someone says 'Ooh I like that'!)

I think funky stuff like Red or Dead over here would be a good thing to hang onto (my best friend rang to say she'd just been to a village charity/thrift shop and picked up some red patent Red Or Dead Mary Jane 90s heels.. and funnily enough I thought to myself then "I'll see if she wants to let me have them when she's bored of them", her being a non-vintage, non-hoarding girl!)

Style wise it's hard, there was a lot of mock 60s stuff about but I too am finding it hard to define a very 90s style.

I have to admit I spent a lot of time either being an indie kid or dressing like a new age traveller and hanging around boys in camper vans :BAGUSE: , the latter involved a lot of vintage dresses with para-boots (So not 90s either, mostly 50s and 60s!) - or in indian print hippy clothes which have followed the same patterns and cuts from the 70s to now!

The only other thing I can think of is casual 'streetwear' brands like Stussy which already you have to pay a premium for secondhand, and is classed as 'vintage 90s' if you look for it on ebay. Also some older Mambo stuff does well.

But then you're moving into a whole other market, of 'old school' (sorry, skool!) stuff. Which I don't really see myself as a dealer of as I have a hard time thinking of it as properly vintage.. a bit like all the Ralph Lauren stuff but from slightly longer ago, if that makes sense?

That was a ramble, but I hope you know what I mean. A really tough one!
 
I would say Doc Martens during their heydey, for sure.
The revival of the platform shoe in many, many forms.


Formals where the assymetry in the hemline was very dramatically front to back in a flamenco/can can style - front hem at or just below the knee, back hem ankle or floor. Some people tend to want to lump them in with 80s dresses to be able to list them in 80s but the 80s devotees wouldn't be as interested in them yet.

The 80s peach, seafoam, and teal dresses gave way to black, black, black, and jewel tones.

For business, 3/4 length jackets were big with nipped in waists paired with miniskirts, even if your skrit was only a couple of inches longer than your jacket.

what am i saving? My prom dress. and platforms (but i still wear all those platforms so does that count)
 
Okay, I remember the longer jackets..still with shoulder pads, I think. I hated those longer shift dresses..the ones that should hit you about mid calf but always went to the shoes on me since I am shorter.

I still like some of the shoes cause lots of them are still in my closet.

Harriet, you hung around vans with para boots on? Sounds a little hippie to me. Yes, 90s seemed to be very casual to me or at least what I wore at the time.

I just did a search for vintage 90s on Ebay and there are some things there! Mostly tee shirts. One was a Bart Simpson. I thought that show started in the 80s but maybe it really got famous in the early 90s.
 
I have to say I am saving the platforms too. I was young enough in the 90's to be into the Spice Girls, especially Baby Spice (It might have had something to do with the shared name and the blonde hair, but I also liked all the pastel coloured clothes), and as such accumulated quite a few platforms most of which I still have. My personal favourites are my purple suede platform boots similar to the ones she wore in the 'Two Become One' video and a pair of open toed white platforms like (you guessed it!) she wore in the video for their world cup song in 1998, I think. I am also desperately sentimental and have kept the first pair of high heels I ever bought, a lovely pair of very chunky (the ones with the big square heels) orange patent ones! I wore them to see Romeo & Juliet in the cinema paired with my mum's skintight black 70's trousers and an orange satin shirt (when satin shirts were all the rage). I got some funny looks that night.

I have also insisted on keeping all my patterned jeans, Miss Selfrige ones with huge butterflies on them, a pair made out of patchwork denim and a pair covered in chinese symbols I got in Florida. Oh yes and my A-line mini skirts.

Other than that I am still wearing A LOT of it, mini skirts, cardigans, jackets, loads of Part Two and Inwear.


Emma.
 
Okay, I remember the longer jackets..still with shoulder pads, I think.

Yep. shoulder pads. Some were very boxey still, but i had a lot that were loned, very fitted in the waist and with a shawl collar.
 
I was talking to my friends yesterday about the 90's stuff we are seeing in the stores here already coming back in style. The ankle leggings under the short skirt. I saw some in the Kohl's ad and today at Wal-Mart. That was a big fashion thing in my day. Guess products were hugely popular then too. Also I have noticed that people are buying jeans with holes all in them and we did that on purpose back in high school in the 90's. I think cub style outfits will be very popluar. I wore alot of that too.

And yes, we did wear alot of black. Sad part is that half my closet is still in black.

My friends and I called the 90's style - mixed-up grunge age. Where everything and anything was up for grabs in fashion and we loved to mix things up our clothes with things that you wouldn't think or need to be together.

I am not wearing my 90's fashion's but I still have all of it at my grandmother's. :BAGUSE:

Just my thoughts......:D:USING:
 
I know you said 'other than designer stuff' but I think one of the most important things about the 90s was designer clothing, moreso than other periods. The power of the label was HUGE and it was logo'd on almost everything. Its an interesting question because as I expand my collection I am trying to think what was quintessential about the 90s. There was a lot of emphasis on purses and shoes, the way in other periods like the 40s for examples, you would put a lot of emphasis on the hat. People were wearing jeans and T-shirts but with expensive shoes and purses...

Other than that, black black, and more black has already been mentioned. I am also collecting examples of slip dresses, mini skirts, fetishism, Goth, underwear as outwear, the thong, platform shoes, graffiti style Hippie prints, untucked shirt looks and the beginning of the baring of the belly button, Belgian designer deconstructed looks, Kinderwhore (Baby Spice) looks.

About the only thing I can't collect are tattoos and piercings!
 
Oh yes, piercings - I had my nose pierced a few times and my mother didn't speak to me when I first did it. We had almighty rows over my barbarianism and at the time I couldn't understand it - now of course I get it completely and would act the same way to any child of mine (and probably will)!

Definitely the goth thing Jonathan, and heading into cyber stuff (think Lin covered it in her 'Daarkness' posts a while back). I had quite a bit of that in the mid 90s, lots of reflective strips and teflon coatings for clubbing in... Infact I still have some somewhere, so I'll try and pull out the best bits. I'll see if I have any pictures of me in the 90s!

I was laying in bed last night thinking about this and the only other things I can think of are great big puffa jackets - Didn't you sell one lately Linda?

And yes, satin shirts! And ski pants at the beginning of the 90s, ugh. I had a black pair briefly which I wore with a 3/4 length tartan waistcoat over a turtleneck and platforms. Luckily NO pictures of that remain! :D
 
Lei, you keep looking. If you are like me, you tucked them in a book or something.

Yes, I did sell a big pouf jacket and I think they are in this Fall. I guess you can say there were a lot of vests worn, too, and they will be popular this season, as well.

Thanks, Jonathan. I am glad to know your hoard list for the 90s. Gives me an idea of what to keep and what to pitch. I am certainly not discounting designer labels. We just don't get many newer designer labels around my neck of the woods. :)
 
Oh yes puffa jackets! There used to be a particular brand too that I always saw people wearing, I think it was Naf Naf perhaps? I, sadly, had a big red pvc one (I think I took being different a bit far that time) I looked like I was wearing a boiler jacket in it! I have a photo too, if I can find it. Mind you it might be a bit embarrassing...



Emma.
 
Oh yes... VESTS... forgot about those. Oversized shirts and vests with mini skirts... that was THE corporate look in the early 90s. Also, I seem to recall that for most of the early 90s, if it wasn't black it was jewel tones, and then later in the 90s it was all food colours -- celery, apricot, watermelon...
 
Novelty prints a la Nicole Miller. I have a ton of her ties and a few shirts stashed away. Also a no-name mini with vodka labels on it...waiting for a good party to wear that one to someday!

I also have some "vintage" 90s Custo Barcelona shirts. Unfortunately there are so many knock-offs for the current styles, so buy only when I know they are older.
 
Just ran across an article in August Vogue talking about how this girl dressed herself from the thrift store in 1992. She was talking about Grunge, slip dresses over tee shirts (you were right, Jonathan) and long dangly necklaces.

What was I doing in 1992? Starting a new business that took all my time. I mostly wore jeans and tee shirts. :BAGUSE:
 
In 1992 I was 8! I was also squeezed into cycling shorts (when they were the big thing) and T-shirts from Marks & Spencer that changed colour with the heat.
 
Originally posted by Aphrodite_Nymphia
In 1992 I was 8! I was also squeezed into cycling shorts (when they were the big thing)
Click to expand...

Sorry for that.
The company I worked for in the late 80's were reasonable for promoting that fashion a lot,
It started out in top shop (Oxford road London) the first shop in the UK to sell cycling shorts for ladies about 1988.
 
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