Fashion 101, Lesson 4: Let’s Do the Timewarp Again!

" Fashion 101, Lesson 4: Let’s Do the Timewarp Again!"

"By Zoe"

It’s time once more for my monthly fashion lesson. I thought this month I would do the first in a series of fashion retrospectives on the past 60 years of fashion trends, featuring two decades per issue. Sometimes it’s fun to dress up in vintage clothes and pretend we’re from another era. Some decades had trends that are easily recognizable, such as the hippie look of the 1960s and the loud colors and big hair of the 1980s. Others are less obvious, like the casual look of the 1990s that still continues even today. I’ll start with the 1990s and work my way backwards by decade. I’m not doing the most recent decade of the 2000s because they’re so recent we’re pretty much still under their influence today.

The 1990s

The ‘90s are characterized by an overall “casual chic” dynamic of jeans, tshirts, and sneakers. Fashion during this decade was mostly minimalist, although in the late ‘90s it was not uncommon to see short skirts with thigh high stockings, shoes with large and chunky heels, overalls, baby doll dresses, and crop top shirts that bared the midriff. Early 1990s fashion was very similar to 1980s trends, as fashion is more fluid than the calendar. Trends don’t tend to change until midway into a decade. In the case of the 1990s, the middle part was characterized by a hippie revival featuring flowery dresses, conch shell necklaces, straw hats, and the like. The late 1990s started seeing sexier, more revealing clothes like the aforementioned midriff baring tops, short skirts, and thong underwear.

Early 1990s fashion: This is the cast of Beverly Hills: 90210, a TV show about rich and privileged teenagers living in Beverly Hills in the 1990s. Even though they were wealthy they all frequently dressed extremely casually (though of course the fashion did change over the course of the show’s run and the female clothing in particular got tighter, shorter, and generally more revealing).

Late 1990s fashion: The Spice Girls epitomized late 1990s fashion, with the big chunky shoes, short skirts, midriff baring tops, and babydoll dresses.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer began in the late 1990s and embraced the fashion trends, though it too changed over the course of its run to stay as current as possible.

The 1980s

Fashion in the 1980s was heavily influenced by television and movies, and many people began copying the trends seen on their favorite shows or music videos. Madonna in particular had a huge influence on young women’s fashion, almost single-handedly creating the look of skirts worn over leggings, bras as outerwear, crucifix jewelry, ratty hair, and any number of other items. For the older, more conservative set, shows like “Dynasty” and “Dallas” promoted the ideal of large shoulder pads, conservative dresses, and big curly hair.

1980s fashion is very easy to recreate. Just use lots of bright colors, both in clothing and in makeup, and layering. Layering was very popular in the ‘80s, with women wearing skirts over leggings, tank tops under button down shirts or off-the-shoulder sweatshirts, and/or several pairs of socks.

Unlike other decades, the 1980s are also characterized by unique hairstyles that were popular for a brief time and then faded away. Some examples include permed or crimped hair (the frizzy look was popular), headbands and banana clips, side ponytails, and big bangs. :D

--Zoë