Now, the world’s problems aren’t just dark, they’re pitch black. Now, we’d long for those worries and sorrows. We fretted over the Gulf War we mourned the death of Princess Diana we feared the arrival of Y2K. The problems that seemed so big and burdensome then, now seem modest. There was something pessimistic but still naive about the Nineties. Had things become exponentially worse? Or had these young designers just come to the realisation that the benefits did not outweigh the pressures? Both, I suspect. Raf Simons left Dior and Alexander Wang departed Balenciaga in fewer than three years. Those designers who followed in the wake of these Nineties stars didn’t last as long. These departures and tragedies occurred after the designers had been on the payroll of a large conglomerate for a decade or more. McQueen, God bless him, committed suicide.Īnd then, Alber Elbaz was fired from Lanvin, the house that he stamped with his personal imprimatur. Galliano was fired from Dior and went to rehab after a vitriolic, public flameout fuelled by addiction. Ford left Gucci in a dispute over control of the brand and later struggled with alcoholism. We watched designers struggle with their workload – and their personal demons. It was having to oversee the store design, and the advertising, and the social media. It was having to produce a new collection every six to 12 weeks. It was endless travel for store openings, VIP events and interviews. Well, actually, it was all that but it was a lot more. It’s not the bountiful playground of stupendous fabrics, marvellous flights of fancy and a payday to make the parents proud. We now understand that corporate fashion isn’t all that designers thought it would be. It was a bit like claiming the brass ring. He was courted by LVMH, too, where he launched ready-to-wear for Louis Vuitton.īack then, joining a big corporation was exciting and wonderful. Opinions of his grunge collection had been revised and, in hindsight, it was declared a revelation. The big corporations wanted to be touched by their magic. Oh, it was a great time to be a young, talented designer. He replaced another dynamic young designer, John Galliano, who had been tapped for the even grander Christian Dior. Alexander McQueen was fashion’s favourite hooligan and was wooed by luxury goods giant LVMH to take over the creative direction at Givenchy. A lot of struggling designers got a taste of the sweet life back then. Fashion’s traditional pop brands got serious, got their house in order and became publicly traded companies or hooked their wagon on to a big corporation. On the business side, the Nineties were filled with possibility. Maybe it’s because we are just exhausted from trying so hard to stand out because we can’t all be street-style stars. Why are we still going back there? Perhaps because we’ve exhausted ourselves with a tech bubble and real estate lust. And then we pulled on comfy clothes – unpretentious, vaguely juvenile – and we got on with things. They began with a nod to something called monastic chic, when we briefly dressed like nuns. The Nineties in the early part of the decade had a certain calm and purity. They were a profound relief from the extreme ostentation of the Eighties with its big-shouldered glamour, its social x-rays, masters of the universe and the culture’s obsession with designer everything. Waifs were about reality.Įventually, it all took a turn. Waifs represented the welcome freedom to not be a glamazon – a supermodel with big hair, legs up to your chin and perfectly pert boobs. When the waifs arrived in the Nineties, they weren’t related to the ghoulishness of heroin chic. Those Saint Laurent baby doll dresses retailed for between £1,000-£3,000. And make no mistake, the clothes are expensive. Courtney Love has voiced her amusement at the notion of fancy ladies paying thousands of dollars to wear the sort of wrecked clothes that she’d piece together from a few trips to the second-hand store. Bumbags have returned and so have chokers, pastel silky slip dresses and destroyed jeans. 90s Fashion Now - Babyish But With Attitude It also speaks to all those young tech billionaires who grew up on jeans and hoodies, and have no interest in suddenly suiting up just because they’re now the boss. Right? They were over-indulged by their helicopter parents, after all. What do they want? What do they need? How are they transforming our world? We are told that millennials want authenticity and they don’t want to own lots of stuff – or at least the kind of stuff that’s flashy and showy. It returns to us at a time when we are obsessed with the lives of the young, except today we call them ‘millennials’.
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The clothes felt of the moment and free of all the assumptions that had always been attached to luxury fashion. And that was what made it both unnerving and wonderful. The simple Henleys were made of fine cashmere, after all. It looked worn and beaten, but it felt luxurious.