History teaches us that being against the tide is always cool.

 

I was inspired by a documentary on rai 5 entitled “fashion in the 1990's”, Victorie De castellane, Tim Blanks, Gaultier, Anne Boulay, were speaking, accompanying the documentary with opinions on the fashion of those years; I decided to report everything because a lot is part of our background and can therefore be a starting point for your personal styles.

 

We are in the years of the Gulf War, years in which in Palermo there are the attacks that cause the death of Falcone and Borsellino, the years of the Clean Hands scandal, Nelson Mandela wins the elections in South Africa, the first Sony PlayStation is on the market, the years of the "mad cow" and the terror of AIDS.

The 90s are anything but boring, they are charged, eccentric years, years of rejection and subversion. Various styles define the decade. The models become real icons like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Laetitia Casta.

 

  

These are the years of Grunge, of sexy, minimal and bling, but also of that style defined as heroine chic, so much criticized by the then president of the United States Bill Clinton.

The 90s fashion promised to oppose the excesses of the 80s but in reality it would have been more transgressive and excessive. Kurt Cobain becomes the image of the era and style grunge which arrives in New York in 1993 on the Perry Ellis catwalks with the line designed by Marc Jacobs.

The craze for converse, birkenstock, of dresses overlaid with trousers, of the much criticized boots, of flared trousers, a rock and roll fashion and apparently neglected. With Grunge the bourgeoisie meets the slums.

The expansion of AIDS invades the catwalks, Walter Van Beirendonck shows condom men, with enormous physicality, you can see spikes on the underwear, to raise awareness of protection, he also brings on the catwalk models with their faces covered by political slogans and for a intentional mistake the catwalk is shorter and the models fall on the public: the metaphor of the epidemic. Benetton, on the other hand, is sponsoring a giant pink condom at the Place de la Concorde.

 

 

The breasts, navel, and back necklines are exaggerated.

Underwear is back in fashion, everyone goes crazy for Wonderbra.

 

Vivienne Westwood proposes microkinis. We arrive at the ethereal woman, detached, dressed in blue, in latex and like a nun, touching the margins of transgression with Givenchy.

Everything must shock, you get to the pleasure of bad taste, square boots, pointy heels, techno-inspired sweaters, smooth velvet, flowers and pleats make their entrance, all for an unbridled exaltation of kitsch. You can also see models on heels of different heights from each other for Jeremy Scott; while Yves Saint Laurent plays with seduction through diamond anklets applied to shoes.

Everything changes when Prada preys on a print considered in bad taste and sublimates it,

from here there is a return to the origins to the simple and to the refusal of frills, we enter the period of Minimalism.

This current is divided into two conceptions: the brain one of Helmut Lang inspired by rave a alla

Electric Berlin, made of simple but difficult to wear clothes e

 

 

that of masters like Yves Saint Laurent, made up of timeless rituals and endless fashion shows, a perfect minimalism. With minimal, the white shirt takes over and the cardigan becomes a fundamental garment.

 

 

But the 90s are also the fashion years street, made up of brands such as Nike, Adidas, Ellesse, Reebook and many others, the years in which Margielà shows her models on the street, everything takes energy from the street. Graffiti become the sets of the fashion shows, we are approaching comfort fashion also thanks to skateboard brands such as Supreme.

A step forward with Van Beirendonck and his fashion show that depicts avatars and new identities and that anticipates phones and social networks.

With the evolution of Zara and Gap, industrial fashion was born, that of production.

The whole decade of the 90s can be defined bling, the years of the diamond fringes, of the much loved one

baguette Fendi of huge Dior jewels and fake and real fur.

All this exaggeration and sobriety, from the excess to the footwear, from the transparencies to the colors from the overlapping of dresses, to the wide suits and the strange patterns or the street style, is also fashion today, don't you think ?! Take a cue, you never know, maybe even heels with different heights are back, just as exaggerated and pompous clothes are back, just take a tour on sites like Asos to notice it.