A Fashion Guide to the Actual '90s

This past week during New York Fashion Week, you couldn’t scan your Instagram or Twitter feed without someone exclaiming that: “The ‘90s were back at this show or that show.” Thanks to Urban Outfitters and the teens on Tumblr, the ‘90s have now come to mean exclusively one thing: grunge. But the ’90s style scene was a lot more complex than a few flannels and Doc Martens. Most women were certainly not heading into their day jobs in babydoll dresses and ripped stockings. Rather, the ’90s working girl donned all black ensembles and lots of cashmere—this was the height of pashmina mania. Now that the ‘90s are back in style again, we’re gonna break it down for you. Here are the decade’s most important fashion movements from Helmut Lang minimalism to Nine Inch Nail’s industrial goth

Photo: Getty Images

Ok, you know grunge. But just in case you need a refresher, it had its origins in Seattle and Portland, where it’s always cold and dreary and came into the mainstream on the backs of the bands playing the Lollapalooza festival. For guys, this meant ripped jeans with long underwear showing underneath, plaid flannel t-shirts worn over old band tees. Depending on the “hardcore” level, shoes could be a pair of heavy Dr Martens, or maybe Converse. For the ladies, there was the so-called “kinderwhore” look, which originated with Babes in Toyland frontwoman Kat Bjelland, but was popularized by Hole singer – and Kurt Cobain’s wife – Courtney Love . At the heart of “kinderwhore” were vintage baby doll or lingerie slip dresses, which could also be worn over long sleeve tees, and of course, the requisite fishnets and Doc Martens or Mary Jane-style shoes. While Marc Jacobs made headlines when he did a grunge collection for Perry Ellis in 1992, these days straight-up interpretations of grunge have become a dime a dozen on the runway. Still, some designers are truly getting creative with their inspiration. At Rag & Bone this season, the designers took elements from the trend, like lingerie slip dresses and Mary Janes, but made them modern through their use of contemporary materials and different textures.

Photo: Getty Images (2); Everett Collection

While the Northwest gave us grunge with bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, other acts like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson offered up something even darker both both with their music and their fashion. Before he won Academy Awards for The Social Network, Trent Reznor was a man wearing ripped fishnets, black spandex shorts, and of course combat boots. He was also exploring bondage way before Fifty Shades of Grey was even a hint of anything out in the world. The uniform du jour for industrial music fans was black everything – leather, patent leather, mesh. They were all fair game. Marilyn Manson may have had more flare for the drama and theatrics, but before he started donning prosthetic boobs, he too worshipped at the altar of corsets, boots, and ripped-up stuff.

Alexander Wang  has always been the cooler-than-cool downtown designer, and with the rise of ‘Health Goth,’ also known as “Jock Goth." it was only a matter of time before he catered to the music that the ‘health goth” kids were listening to when they were growing up. The most iconic piece in this collection was certainly the 4 inch platform boots decked out with buckles and metallic details, but even up top, the look was pure “Head like a Hole,” black layers, mesh, although done in heavy metallic thread – the Alexander Wang way – and black corsets. It was very tasteful of course, but the pounding soundtrack at the show made no mistake of where his inspirations started.

Photo: Getty Images

At the other end of the spectrum, on the grown up side, there was Calvin Klein, king of ‘90s minimalism, with his strictly tailored suits and exquisitely rendered dresses. No woman was more emblematic of this look, of this lifestyle, than one Carolyn Besette Kennedy. CBK married John F. Kennedy Jr, positively the decade’s most-wanted bachelor, in a custom Calvin Klein gown. A simple white slip with a v-neck that immediately became the most emulated gown, even beyond the wedding aisle. The late CBK embodied an ease and a sense of carefree luxury, whether she was in her wedding gown or just in a weekday look of a camel skirt and cashmere sweater. The words “effortless” are thrown around a lot, but with her, you actually believed it.

At The Row, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have taken CBK’s style and made an empire out of it. It is entirely possible that they have a poster in their office with the words “What Would Carolyn Besette Kennedy Wear?” This is not an insult to The Row. Honestly, if everyone asked themselves that question every morning, there would be a lot less fashion disasters around the world. The Olsens have made a luxury out of disappearing: a pair of wide leg trousers worn with a long white jacket are unassuming, but somehow they are so unassuming that they become a statement in themselves. Like CBK, the woman who wears The Row knows that minimalism— the perfect t-shirt, the most supple sweater— is true luxury. And The Row aren’t the only designers who got the discreet luxury memo—just look to Victoria Beckham and Tome.

Photo: Corbis; Getty Images; Helmut Lang 

In the ‘90s, when Helmut Lang was actually the man designing Helmut Lang https://booknoise.net/johnseabrook/stories/design/lang/index.html, the cult around the brand reached stratospheric levels. His clothes oozed that downtown New York cool vibe, when downtown New York was still cool and not run amok with froyo stands. Lang experimented with cuts and textures, and his clothes were futuristic without looking like they were from planet Mars. Anything he touched, he made instantly cool, whether it was a simple tank top or the perfect cut of trousers. He was not interested in being a celebrity, in being the next Karl Lagerfeld, but his low key approach to clothes often made fashion headlines.

Kanye West has been called many things, but “low key” has never been one of them. Still, West often cites Helmut Lang as one of his inspirations, and this was most evident in his recent collaboration with Adidas. The presentation, which took place at a gallery and featured a performance by artist Vanessa Beecroft – who was a big part of the fashion scene herself in the ‘90s – showed a similar vibe to Lang’s clothes. There was an interest in stripping away the trends, the artifice that West so indulged in in the two seasons he designed a line that showed in Paris. The color palette was subdued, shades of brown and green recalled nature but also the military— one of the Lang’s signatures. The Lang influence was also seen in the more industrial materials West used.

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