A 1990s fashion history lesson: supermodels, grunge, and the dawn of the digital age

Never before had fashion been so un-fussy. Designers like Calvin Klein, Helmut Lang, and Prada jumped on the momentum of a pendulum swinging away from the extreme opulence and exaggeration of 1980s fashion.

For those minimalists in the 1990s, fashion in its purest form was prized. Slip dresses without seams, button-ups with a utilitarian straight-forwardness, a color palette of blacks, whites, navy, and, if feeling peppy, pastels in the shades of Jordan almonds. Rarely a pattern; never an embellishment. The look was almost virginal, as though untouched by fashion.

Fashion Fantasy: Designers Go Gaga For Nostalgia and Wanderlust

As the decade inched closer to Y2K, ’90s fashion got nostalgic. Designers were referencing sleeves from the 1880s, with bias cuts from the 1930s, and the couture craftsmanship of the 1950s. On top of this medley of eras, various sartorial inspirations from throughout the globe were sprinkled in. Native dress and folkloric fashions from everywhere and anywhere were pulled from.

A champion of this look was John Galliano, who launched his own label in 1986. By 1995, he was designing for Givenchy but it wasn’t until he landed at Dior in 1997 that Galliano’s fashion fantasy really took flight.

Alexander McQueen, meanwhile, who had launched his label in 1992, fused fashion history with natural history with a cabinet of curiosities-approach to dressing women. Rifat Ozbek, whose much-lauded all-white collection in 1990 references Western headdresses, epitomized the fantasy look. So did Vivienne Westwood, who continued to celebrate all things Victoriana in her Anglomania lines, Dries Van Noten, who skillfully assembles prints and patterns, and Jean Paul Gaultier, with his spring/summer 1994 ‘Les Tatouages’ tattoo collection.

Digital Age: Fashion Goes Cyber

The arrival of the internet and digital photography influenced fashion in a playful way. While technology in fashion did play out with advancements in fiber technology, with the introduction of micro-modal fabrics and silicon-coated fibers in athletic wear, fashion had fun with the concept of the World Wide Web. “With the coming millennium in mind, designers put their own spin on cyberstyle with visionary high-tech- meets-primitive mixes,” wrote Vogue in the March 1994 issue.