Women's Fashion in the 1990s

There are certain pieces of clothing that see immense change in their look over the years, but when it actually comes down to it, you'll never see them go "out of fashion". Blue jeans, running shoes or tennis shoes, colorful tights, platform shoes, denim jackets... Sounds familiar, doesn't it? They were a rage in the 90s.

What's funny is, their look has gone through a major makeover, but these one time fashion "must haves" haven't disappeared completely. The 1990s' fashion trends were interesting for sure... It was an edgy look that was to die for (back then).

But looking back at it now, it seems like some of those trends were almost insane! We'll take a closer look at the 90s' fashion trends shortly, but before that let's take a look at the evolution of fashion over the years...

We already know that women's fashion in the '90s was interesting, and how! But if you take a closer look at it, and if you go through the 'women's fashion in the 1900s timeline', you'll see how there has been some major change in trends.

From unimaginable layers and amounts of clothing with hemlines that touched the ground to lesser clothing with rising hemlines, it is the 1900s that saw a major change in fashion.

Common features of the look of the 1900s were corsets that ladies could barely breathe in, skirts that could get tripped over, unending long sleeves, and more clothes than one could imagine. It may have been a fine look for back in the day, but truth remains, it just wasn't practical.

In fact, there was so much clothing, it could put the word 'conservative' to shame! From the beginning of the century to the end of it, there were so many changes in the look adopted by women, fashion got a makeover in the true sense of the word.

The initial years of the 90s saw a continuance of fashion trends from the 1980s. Any teen or even kid of the 90s will remember the influence of MTV. The pop culture also acted as a major influence on the fashion scene in this decade. Remember movies like Clueless, or television series like Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek?

They were almost inspirational to most! From there came jeans that were commonly known as hipster jeans, for they rested on the hips, tapered jeans (a massive fashion disaster), denim jackets, were all common sightings back in the day. Not to forget, they were real "must haves" for most.

Neon leg warmers or tights as they were often called, belly button piercings, midriff bearing short shirts, this isn't even the half of what the 90s offered. Shoulder pads on jackets, shirts, blazers... It was all too common.

The early 90s was definitely all about leather jackets (mostly black), denims in the form of shirts, jackets, tapered or drainpipe jeans, bright neon, colorful bike shorts, oversized sweatshirts, and sneakers referred to as keds.

Moving on to the mid 90s... This is when casual started taking a bit of a backseat and a more feminine look started coming in. Dresses, skirts, blouses... This is what women's fashion was turning into. Overalls and shortalls (a variant of the overalls) were big around this time.

Floral dresses, lace shirts or blouses, the babydoll dress, silk button-up shirts in jewel tones, they were all popular items of women's clothing in the mid 90s. When it came to shoes, sneakers were not so much a thing as platform shoes, clogs, chunky heels and wedges were. It was around this time that brands also started becoming a big deal.

Designer names such as Chanel, Lacoste, YSL, DKNY were an indication of wealth and status. Coming to the end of the 90s, trends from the end of the 90s' that also sort of moved on into the early years of 2000 were, low waist jeans (a trend that has been going strong till date), midriff exposing tank tops, mini skirts and dresses, and pastels or light colors.

The look of the 90s was an inspired look on the whole. Lots of flannel, earth colors like browns and greens, Disney characters on tees and sweats, bright colored tights, which seemed so cute when we went to school (or at least we thought so)... The 90s was an interesting decade. Is it missed? Probably so... After all, those were the good old days ;)